Friday, August 13, 2010

Attack of the drogues!

Help! Help! The drogues have taken over our living room!



Hahaha just kidding... so this piece of safety equipment, which was made by my Dad, pretty impressive eh? Consists of 107 little parachute type things, 48 of which are attached to 1/2" diameter rope, and 59 of which are attached to 5/8" diameter rope, with a 70' leader attached to a bridal consisting of 2 50' 5/8 diameter bits that attach to the aft end of the boat that you toss off in the event of a severe storm... okay well not quite:

1) Take the two ends of the bridal around the outside of the radar arch, through the fairlead, and cleat at the 10 foot mark (indicated by wrapping)

2) Get small anchor or any other 20 lb weight available and attach to end of drogue

3) Ensure that the area is clear (similar to using an AED "You're clear, I'm clear everybody's clear")

4) Toss small anchor overboard, cross your fingers and pray that nothing gets stuck

In the event that everything works correctly, the mini-drogue-chutes should provide enough drag to slow you down so you can steer even when tired, and not hit a wave broadside... that's really bad, you have a huge potential to be rolled when that happens. That would suck even more than being rick rolled ;o)

Currently we haven't determined how to secure the carrying bag, I pointed out that I'm sure as hell not hanging onto it when there is the force of any number of parachutey things trying to pull it into the sea, so for now the carrying bag will serve as an offering to King Neptune... although it's broken, that might not be a very good sacrifice.

*wrinkles nose*

We'll have to think on this...

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