JordanSeriesDrogue.com
Jordan Series Drogue
USER ACCOUNTS:
From:
amelyachtowners@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:amelyachtowners@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of kimberlite
Sent: Thursday, January 01, 2009 12:33 AM
To:
amelyachtowners@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Amel] New Set of
Sails
Here is a video of the coast guard
rescue of some of the crew of Free fall.
We heard the helicopters and c130 asking to keep an eye out for
men in the
water. You can see 2 in he water and the life raft being blown all over.
One died. 4 boats abandoned.
It was the same
hurricane we were in except we were further to sea with MUCH larger seas and stronger winds.
We have adjustable loops added to the
bridle of the drogue to change the
angle of the stern of the boat to the seas. The
cleats held up to the pull
of the drogue. To retrieve the drogue you will need a block of
wood to keep
the
bridle out of the Chocks. We had to hand tail the drogue into the boat
using the primary winches. You have to stop once in a while to give the
winches time to cool off .our thermal cutouts on the winches tripped a few
times. You must also hand tail most of the drogue as the lines are much
heavier than the winches were designed for. You also have to go slowly;
otherwise you will tear up the cones in the chocks or in the
winch.
Life Floating By: Coast Guard Rescues 2 Mt. Pleasant Sailors
As far as I know we were the only boat that made it through the
Hurricane
force wins-36 hours-from the northeast. Branson in his 90 footer had so
much damage he pulled into
Bermuda. We passed him and flew past the last 2 storms. The only damage we suffered was that the tabs that hold the rear of the doghouse to the
cockpit sole tore.
Considering we had it up in over 80 knots directly into the
wind, it as
impressive that it held together.
I know we would have not made it with a sea anchor or any other drogue. To understand how it really works you must see it in action. Which I hope you never do. I also launched this in my 37 foot Tartan in another hurricane
years ago.
Unfortunately Mr Jordan Died a few weeks ago. He never patented the drogue or as far as I know ever made a cent from the sales of the drogue.
Rest in peace my savior.
Fair Winds,
Eric
Amel Super Maramu #376 Kimberlite
65' 18 ton
sloop,
center cockpit "Beyond" John Traylor
"...the series drogue kept the
hull very well aligned to the seas...
at most 10 degrees of occasional yaw...Once the
hull was held stern to the seas, the wild ride was much smoother.
Contest 40:
The feeling of being elastically attached to the sea itself is hard to imagine. The stern was pointed aggressively into the wind and sea. It was as if we had entered a calm harbor of refuge. With the reduction in the yacht's motion, our situation seemed not too bad.
USHUAIA TO
RESCUE
39’ Westerly Sealord, SD4 built in 1984
An
email from Mike C.
Hi chaps,
you may or may not remember the will it or wont it arrive on time saga of the jordan drogue i ordered whilst in ushuaia last november (it was sent to my home address in
england so's the wife could bring it out with her) , however it did arrive and boy oh boy am i glad.
There is no question about it but that jordan drogue works like a dream.
The attached is an unedited version of our story that was printed in the july 2008 issue of yachting monthly (uk).
I have been asked by a few people how i retrieved the drogue so i thought i may give you my method although i have no doubt that other people use the same.
I first tried pulling in one of the bridles by
winch etc etc but that didn't
work to great, i then tried using the anchor winch but that caused problems with the boat sailing from side to side and catching the droguettes, the next time i deployed the drogue i attached a polyprop line to the drogue line and then to retrieve just winched it all in over the stern. I found the centre polyprop line to be far easier to use than the bridle lines as it kept the stern central and i didnt need to release either bridle form the
cleats until all the pressure was off them.
(the first time i retreived the drogue took 1 1/2 hours, once i 'd got this method sorted it took 20 minutes).
I also used floats on the bridle lines to keep them from snagging my boarding ladder and
hydrovane steering sysytem.
All in all everything worked magnificently and i cannot sing the Jordan Drogues praises loud enough, many thanks Mr Jordan and many thanks Ace sailmakers, may all your wishes and dreams come true a thousand times over.
mike clelford
……………..I am now looking for another boat to continue the journey, most people think the forestay is the most likely to break and so fit an emegency forestay, as I had, (the westerly also has a baby stay), but after this experience i will make sure the next boat has at least 2 lowers each side.
I will never leave a port without a Jordan series drogue either.
Brilliance was a 39’ Westerly Sealord, SD4 built in 1984, I had owned her since 1995.
Hi Dave,
I can use something like this to cheer the old man up once in a while. Cheers, Don (Jordan)
----- Original Message
To:
donaldjordan@att.net
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2008 10:51 PM
Subject: The Jordan Drogue
Dear Mr. Jordan,
I'm a former pilot and still sail, and am writing to you to express both my amazement and thanks for the marvelous thinking which created the Jordan drogue. Year after this we will return to sea with a different boat, and definitely with a Jordan drogue. I would be mad to leave shore without a Jordan drogue. Far into the future sailors are going to be singing your praises.
Best Regards, John
2 hurricanes a few storms
been in hurricane georges and michelle in my tartan 37.
also in a VERY bad storm in about 2001 3 lows came together-weathermen said to stop and do not go further north in our tartan 37.
wound up with the jordan series drogue out (worked like a charm) about 500 miles south of
bermuda. when the srorm was over 7 boats were abandoned. after that 2 water spouts and 2 more gales before reaching bermuda.
this november we were heading to the carib from
newport just south of the stream. . we were sailing in 50+ knots on our Amel as was my friend
bill in a 64
Oyster. he was hit with a microburst , which he feels was over 100 knots. knocked down, main destroyed,
dodger and
bimini mia.
made it to bermuda and ordered new sail.
we dont count Gails anymore.as it is common to run into one in november or late april in the atlantic.
fair winds
eric
__________________
Kimberlite
Amel Super Maramu
charlie--jordan series drogue
Charlie,
on my tartan we fastened the drogue to the primary winches and it worked fine.
i know jordan suggests straps on the stern- but when it gets to drogue time i doubt you want to be hanging over the stern. i have the new drogue for my amel set up to attach to my stern cleats and use rolling hitches to adjust the bridle with the primary winches.
the ride on the tattan with the jordan series drogue was smooth and we were only pooped twice by a couple of humongous breaking waves.Nothing would have helped in those conditions.
I am suspicious of the worth of the gail rider and others as they rely on one device. if it pops out of the water you are screwed. watching the jordan working was amazing some of it was in the water some was out but always a constand pull on the bridle and no tugging or jerking of the boat. i doubt one device would behave the same way.
incidentally I had installed 2 inch scuppers in the tartan 37 and the cockpit drained quickly. once i was in the cockpit once i was below. quite an interesting experience to be rolled over by a wave.
fair winds,
eric
__________________
Kimberlite
Amel Super Maramu
retreival
i forgot to mention the retreival.
when the wind dropped to 40 knots the boat started rocking swiftly from beam to beam. Very uncomfortable. We were told by herb to stay where we were and not to
head further north (7 boats were abandoned to our North). when morning finally came i called ACE sailmakers and asked Dave about the rolling--he had no answer. he said to call mr jordan (on the sat phone) I discussed the problem with Mr Jordan--he sounded like a very old man. he finally said "i know what the proiblem is" i asked what is it . he said " not enough wind" we all got a chuckle out of that.
later we retreived the drogue. it was rather easy. as the boat rolled we pulled in the drogue when it was slack on a primary winch. when the boat rolled back it tightened up the drogue and when it rolled back we had more slack, i never had to winch it in the rolling and pulling made it simple. it took about 20-30 minutes to pull it all in.
DON"T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT>
fair winds,
SeaRunner Multihull:
I spent months making it, but I don't regret a minute of the work because it saved our
SeaRunner, and us on our maideN sea passage from
Florida to the
Virgin ISLANDS.
The Jordan Series Drogue deployed easily and smoothly and immediately slowed us from 8 knots to .6 knots under bare poles.
Our strongly built stern lifted easily and smoothly in the oncoming water.
An occasional breaking wave dumped several QUARTS of seawater
in around the window
gasket.
Although the rushing and pounding noises were terrific below, we were able to rest because the movement of the boat was quieter regular and predictable.
The pressure on the drogue line alternated rhymmically between the 2 arms of the bridle, the tension was surprisingly light and the winches could be adjusted easily.