Emergency steering with a drogue

If the rudder falls off, or is turned into a corkscrew by a whale, we need some way to cope.

Separate emergency rudders are seldom tested, not so easy to rig from scratch, and in action probably require much tuning and figuring out.

But drag can steer a boat. We did it successfully with a dragged jib once, for hundreds of miles.

But this video, using the Galerider drogue, adds somethingnew, at least to me:

Lead the control lines to the center of the boat, so the drag makes it turn on its keel.

We may not have a separate emergency rudder on board all the time.

But we always have drag.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vupIl68mCYg

Great idea!

Steering

I have to say you learn something about sailing everyday, even though I've been sailing for over 40 yrs now. Gotta love it, that's the cool thing about sailing, never stop learning! Looks like I'll be carrying one onboard!
Thanks for sharing that Christian.
John
E35-2
#413
Dijan

Thanks for posting this very interesting and well done video. Solid advice for anyone going off shore, and possibly useful for those of us who do coastal cruising. As most of us coastal guys don't normally carry a drogue (they are expensive!), I wonder if there is something that one could "jury rig" --a strong canvas bag? a strong plastic pail?

If anyone has any ideas on this, or even better, does some tests on one of our Ericsons, please post your findings. Although we have restricted ourselves to coastal versus off shore cruising, we do cruise in some pretty remote areas where assistance is not available. So any good tips on managing without a rudder/steering would be very helpful.

Thanks!
Frank

There were several extensive threads on this last month over at Sailing Anarchy and Cruiser's Forum. Prompted by the family that tried and failed, then abandoned, then asked for help to find and try again to save their rudderless boat in the Atlantic near (Bermuda ?).

Seems like a good thing to practice some time before it becomes an emergency. Could be fun.

I have sometimes thought that a drogue might be a nice piece of kit in the event that one has to cross a Pacific Coast bar sometime, when one had rather not. But they are not cheap. From the literature, lots of stuff on-board might be lashed-up into an emergency warp. But that doesn't seem like the sort of thing one would try for fun on a dull Sunday.

Edit: Yet another reason to rectify the lack of mid-ship cleats on some of our Ericsons.

Hi Frank,

Regarding your "jury rig" question, my mind keeps coming back to Christian's comment about dragging a jib.

This video is fantastic. Thank you!

Depending on conditions, various stuff can be dragged. A spare anchor works in medium to light air. A small jib in heavier air. A sail actually makes also an effective sea anchor, too, since the surface area provides a lot of drag.

Under strong conditions, however, every improvised drogue I've tried just skips over the surface. That includes a large mahogany companionway ladder, which in a 50-knot gale bounced and flew like an acrobat back there and had no effect at all. Warps had no effect at all.

But in strong weather, it is probably necessary to heave to or sea anchor anyhow, and resume jury steering when conditions ease.

The maker of Fiorentino sea anchors and drogues has a series of YouTube videos with somewhat objective tests of different brands, towed behind yachts or tug boats. Skipping over the surface, with loss of effect, seems to be a common failing of many commercial drogues. Adding a length of chain or a small anchor (iirc) cured this most but not all of the time. Of course, none of this was done in rough weather, either.