Para-Tech Delta Drogue

[robert dros]

I have just bought a Para-Tech Drogue and would like to know installation set up near the Transom of the Rode on board a Hunter 376, from sailors who have bought a similar 72" Drogue.

Can I use the mooring cleats near the Stern, or are they fragile?
I would love to hear any suggestion for a proper set-uo
Cheers, Rob

 

[waternwaves]

what do you think would be safer to attach to?


IF something else was stronger, wouldnt we tie our boats up that way?

 

[chuckwayne]

Your stern cleats should be strong enough, if it's really bad you could run the drogue lines around the arch as well. I use a line from each stern cleat with an eye splice shackled to an eye splice on my main drogue line (about 300' long) so I can adjust the drogue. To make this setup work for steering, I set the lines on my spinnaker winches instead.

 

[robert dros]

Thanks for the advise, I think I get the idea, setting up a bridle to the main drogue line and for steering straight to the winches on either side.



QUOTE=chuckwayne;1006336]Your stern cleats should be strong enough, if it's really bad you could run the drogue lines around the arch as well. I use a line from each stern cleat with an eye splice shackled to an eye splice on my main drogue line (about 300' long) so I can adjust the drogue. To make this setup work for steering, I set the lines on my spinnaker winches instead.[/QUOTE]

 

[Bill Roosa]

One thing to consider is how are you gong to recover the drogue? With upwards of 700 lb of pull it is not a simple "pull it aboard" operation. You may not want to stop the boat right after the conditions that required the deployment of the drogue. You will need some sort of mechanical advantage or lots of crew. Perhaps a recovery line attached downstream from the bridal that could be attached to a handy winch. it would be unloaded while the drogue is deployed and operating and only be used to recover the drogue.

 

[justsomeguy]

Tripline attached to the apex is the standard method of retrieval.

 

[anchorclanker]

I thought drogues had a second line to the head end that would pull their nose around and collapse them.

 

[Bill Roosa]

Is the para-drogue a parachute you deploy from the box or a real drogue that you trail from the stern? A real drogue has lots of small "parachutes" on a line. A line to the end of the drogue would work fine as long as it does not become entangled/twisted in the drogue and prevents it from working. Not likely. The same argument for bow deployed parachutes can be made BTW.

 

[Bill Roosa]

That would be "from the bow" not "from the box"

 

[chuckwayne]

Bill,
It's a drogue, shaped like a tri-cornered hat, that you trail from the stern (as opposed to a parachute anchor-which para-tech also makes). The three points are vents-the water flowing through the hat keeps it very stable. It's not like a Jordan series drogue