I came accross this "in route" Albin Vega on a German site:
Solo Around the Americas Under Sail | An audacious attempt at sailing the Northwest Passage and circumnavigating entirety of both continents, to benefit Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating | Page 4"The good thing about riding a storm out on a sea anchor is if you do it right you'll make it through the storm with no damage. The down side is, its incredibly uncomfortable. The motion is very different then when your sailing, its more sharp and violent. Strange enough its easier to cook a meal but harder to make water without flying all over the place. Flying all over the place sums it up nicely. Many times myself and my sleeping bag where launched across the cabin. When I deploy my parachute sea anchor I use 450 feet of 1/2 inch rode and 30 feet of 3/8ths chain on the side that connects to the boat. That alone is not enough. If you tried to deploy a para-anchor on a normal boat by attaching the rode to your cleat you would rip that cleat right out of your boat. Before I left I added a sampson post with the worlds largest backing plate which is firmly anchored threw the stem of my boat via a large turnbuckle. In other words, a wave would have to rip the entire front of my boat off before I would lose my para-anchor. The nice thing about the chain is it cant chafe through, but it can cut its way through your fiberglass. Every 6 hours I went up to the front of my boat and added or moved around my chafe gear. Twice the wind was so strong I had to crawl on my hands and knees to get up there. I'm not sure how hard it blew, I didn't look because I didn't want to know."
-Matt Rutherford- Solo Around the Americas 2011
Solo Around the Americas Under Sail | An audacious attempt at sailing the Northwest Passage and circumnavigating entirety of both continents, to benefit Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating | Page 4"The good thing about riding a storm out on a sea anchor is if you do it right you'll make it through the storm with no damage. The down side is, its incredibly uncomfortable. The motion is very different then when your sailing, its more sharp and violent. Strange enough its easier to cook a meal but harder to make water without flying all over the place. Flying all over the place sums it up nicely. Many times myself and my sleeping bag where launched across the cabin. When I deploy my parachute sea anchor I use 450 feet of 1/2 inch rode and 30 feet of 3/8ths chain on the side that connects to the boat. That alone is not enough. If you tried to deploy a para-anchor on a normal boat by attaching the rode to your cleat you would rip that cleat right out of your boat. Before I left I added a sampson post with the worlds largest backing plate which is firmly anchored threw the stem of my boat via a large turnbuckle. In other words, a wave would have to rip the entire front of my boat off before I would lose my para-anchor. The nice thing about the chain is it cant chafe through, but it can cut its way through your fiberglass. Every 6 hours I went up to the front of my boat and added or moved around my chafe gear. Twice the wind was so strong I had to crawl on my hands and knees to get up there. I'm not sure how hard it blew, I didn't look because I didn't want to know."
-Matt Rutherford- Solo Around the Americas 2011