Sea anchor / Drogue attachment

[Mouldy]

What's best - bow or stern? Does it depend on conditions - wind vs tide direction?

[Nick Hearne]

Attached to the bow so the boat faces in to any waves!

[codprawn]

All depends what you want to do. Normally the bow but can also act as a drogue when streamed astern. Good if you are being towed and need to keep straight or if you are coming into a beach through heavy surf.

I bought the biggest I could find - rolls up really small and you never know when it could come in handy.

[Limey Linda]

As Codders has already said " what are you trying to do?" Maintain position with no engine- use bow. prevent broaching in a following sea- use stern. Keep bow into waves/wind -use stern. In a pinch take your pants off , tie a knot in the legs and attach a makeshift bridle to the waist band, and let out on as much rope that you have. If you got a bucket that works good too.

Regards, T

[Jono Garton]

Originally Posted by Limey Linda

Keep bow into waves/wind -use stern.

If trying to keep the bow in to waves i would use off the bow!

[Limey Linda]

Originally Posted by Jono Garton

If trying to keep the bow in to waves i would use off the bow!

I agree if you are using it as a sea anchor, but not when using as a drogue.
Thereby lies the potential confusion. Sea anchor and drogue are different appications of the same piece of kit.

[Mouldy]

O-Kay - Some Scenarios:

1. No engine, close to shore, big sea, flooding tide and wind 5-6 pushing to rocky shore.
2. Same as one, but tide falling.
3. No engine, offshore, force 4 blowing, current in a different direction, waiting for a pan pan response to arrive. Oh and the GPS is out.
3. Wreck Fishing.
4. Beaching in surf

Any others?

[Pete7]

Can't visualise using a drogue on a rib, having the stern on to big waves that are going faster than the boat with a low transom and heavy outboard has to be asking for trouble. A double ended (canoe stern) yacht in big seas to stop pitch poling or a broach yes, but not a rib. For there size ribs are extremely sea worthy asuming everything is working or even drifting at rest. For the senarios above:
1 & 2 normal anchor from the bows IMHO.
No 3, rib will be effected more by drift (wind) than tide so sea anchor from bows if its too deep to anchor.
No 4 just drive it up the beach, likely to do far less damage than allowing it to pound in the surf.

In APs first book about crossing the Atlantic he mentions flooding the hull down, worth considering.

Pete

[wavelength]

If ya cant make the boat go then make it stop-with a proper anchor. A sea anchor will only slow your wind drift.
If beaching in surf holding your tail end with the already mentioned low transom/big engine and no transom well will just fill you with water let alone the risk of tangling prop with rope. Beaching you have to be going slower or faster than the waves to maintain control, at the same speed you will end up surfing and outa control. Slower is not an option without the drogue or similar and I wouldnt consider using one. Into the beach, pick a wave, come in so far on the back of it and then power on and thru it and those in front onto the beach. he who hesitates is lost-straight up onto the sand is the way. Our boat angling club launches and retrieves over a surf bach all winter with 15-18 ft boats. Winch them back onto the trailer from the sand-dont try and float one on in the surf.
We use a sea anchor/drogue mainly for drift fishing. Over the bow to slow the wind drift down when trying to catch a bass for my tea. Trying being the operative word this year!

[BogMonster]

Originally Posted by wavelength

Into the beach, pick a wave, come in so far on the back of it and then power on and thru it and those in front onto the beach. he who hesitates is lost-straight up onto the sand is the way. Our boat angling club launches and retrieves over a surf bach all winter with 15-18 ft boats. Winch them back onto the trailer from the sand-dont try and float one on in the surf.

I don't intend to try it on Surf Bay Dave, but just out of interest at what point do you whip the engine up to avoid trenching a furrow up the beach with it? I imagine my Humber behaves fairly normally - once you cut the power you lose speed almost instantly - and it takes several seconds for the power tilt to get the lowest point of engine above the line of the hull and that would leave you floundering around in probably the worst bit of the surf. What should you do?