What thread to use for JDS

[Orchidius]

Hi there,

I'm making good progress on making my own Jordan Series Drogue, just about ready to stitch the cones together. I was stopped dead in my tracks however when I realised that the thread I use to stitch normal clothes will probably not do very well submerged in seawater and dealing with the stress a drogue is subject to.

So, what would you use and why? Also, do I have to consider degradation by UV or time? Wouldn't want the cones to fall apart when I most need them after a couple of years in the storage lockers...

[mikereed100]

V-69 Polyester sail thread will do nicely.
\Thread V-69 White Polyester UV 1oz (350 Yds)
While you are at this stage of construction it would be a good idea to put some reinforcement on the leading and trailing edges of the cones. We put together a kit from Sailrite without doing this and the cones were badly frayed after 3 hours in force 9 conditions.

[Pete7]

Mike, slight thread drift, but would you like to write up your experience using a JSD?

Pete

[Orchidius]

The ripstop nylon I have is 175g/m, so that should be heavier then most, but I'll be sure to double both ends up when I get started .

Also interested in your experiences with your DIY JDS

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by mikereed100

V-69 Polyester sail thread will do nicely.
\Thread V-69 White Polyester UV 1oz (350 Yds)
While you are at this stage of construction it would be a good idea to put some reinforcement on the leading and trailing edges of the cones. We put together a kit from Sailrite without doing this and the cones were badly frayed after 3 hours in force 9 conditions.

Questions for you:

1) do you think that if you had zig-zagged the tops and bottoms of the cones, that would have stopped the fraying?

2) And wouldn't one have to cut the cones bigger to allow seam allowance if one were turning under those edges?

3) What effect would making the cones smaller have? Would you have to add cones to compensate so that the total area for slowing the boat would remain the same?

Thanks for taking the time to share your ideas. I, too would be interested to hear your experiences of having used it.

Ann

[Orchidius]

In my particular case I'm going to make the template for the cones a tad bigger so I have some extra fabric I can then double over and still get the same size in cones. I have of course no experience with this, but I would say just cross-stitching the top would not really help as the fabric itself is already a ripstop material (also in the sailrite kit). The effect of the ever so slightly smaller cones isn't going to be tremendous imo, but some numbercrunching would easily tell you more .

[mikereed100]

My gut feeling is that a zig-zag stitch would not have made much difference but it may be worth some experimentation. I feel that if you are using pre-cut cones it would be better to add reinforcement to the edges rather than hem them as that would reduce the cone size and require more cones to compensate. I think this could be done fairly easily by gluing on a strip of heavier sailcloth with 5200 if using the Sailrite kit. I believe Ace Sailmakers will supply heavier cones on request, but they too recommend reinforcement.
I'll try to post an account of our experience soon. There isn't much information out there and I have not been able to find any regarding multihulls, even in the DDDB.