The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site

Jordan Series Drogue Retrieval System

In a previous chapter I wrote about our deployment system for our Don Jordan’s Series Drogue. In this chapter I’m going to look at how we are going to get the drogue back aboard after the storm.


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Carl

I believe I have the answer to your problem of trying to retrieve any drogue in heavy seas. Let’s say you put out a 300 foot Jordan Series Drogue, do so with a 350 x 1/2 inch line attached to the distal end of the drogue and cleated to your vessel. This will give you a line attached to the distal end of your drogue which has 50 feet of slack. When the storm has passed, just uncleat the 350 x 1/2 inch line, attach it to a winch, and reel it in very quickly and easily. This will work because the half inch line attached to the distal end of the drogue will turn the end of the drogue towards your boat, causing the parachutes to collapse as they turn towards you, greatly decreasing the resistance of pulling in the drogue. Plus it gives you a safety line on the drogue in case the rode holding it breaks during the storm, so you don’t lose the drogue.

Phyllis

Thanks for the suggestion and thought that you put into it. But Jordan himself cautions against using a trip line (what you are proposing) for retrieving the drogue due to the chance that it will wrap around the drogue during heavy weather and collapse the cones, thereby diminishing the drogue’s effectiveness. Our own and others’ experience in heavy weather indicates that the chances of the trip line staying clear of the drogue are slim to none.

Pat Kelly

I’ve also thought about having a trip line on a Jordan Drogue (140 cones). Then I read your post about the risk of that line tangling up and collapsing the cones. What would you think of using 1/2″ polypropylene (breaking strength 3900 lbs) as the trip line? Since polypropylene floats, there may be less chance of the trip line fouling the drogue that would be weighted down by 30 lbs of chain on the distal end.

ed culhane

I’ve been wanting to read and comment on the threads you have on the jordan’s and today just pulled the trigger and signed up for a new subscription.. My idea on the retrieval was not a trip line but in a way yes. 150′ of say 1/4″ dyneema attached to the distal end attached to a float with enough bouyancy to stay at the surface and handle the weight of the anchor and chain after the blow. retrieval would be without the water weight imo.. or am i missing something?

Hans

I deployed my series drogue in a storm SW of Cape Farewell and when the wind was down to 30 knots or so I steeled myself (I was singlehanded) for the retrieval; prepared food and drink in the cockpit and started hauling the thing in. But it wasn’t as bad or hard as I expected: after half an hour I had all 119 cones in. The method was simple: using a helper line to get the junction point of the bridle past the main winch, I just winched in the drogue, cones and all, without any jamming on the drum; the cones entered and left the drum with very little snagging. No trip line needed.
By the way, I used spectra line throughout, saves a lot of bulk and weight and doesn’t seem to have any disadvantages.

Victor Raymond

My plan is to deploy the JSD via my stern anchor roller and retrieve it with the stern windlass. It will be interesting to see how that works out. Obviously it will require tailing but I am hoping the heavy line and cones will pass effortlessly around the warping head and on to the deck.

One question remains: should the JSD be deployed tail first or the reverse? I suspect tail first would be a very fast deployment and less so by starting with the cones nearer the boat.

Phyllis

Deployment was tail first. One has to take care to not foul the windvane gear.

conor

I don’t understand why people don’t consider a line all the way to the end of the deployed drogue . If you release the stern connections the surely the load on the collapsed cones would make retrieval much easier? Is there a problem with this solution?