Sometimes it’s nice to be able to drift. But just drifting means your boat usually ends up broadside to the waves and slipping downwind. If you want to hold a position comfortably in deep water, that’s what a sea anchor is for. Paratech’s parachute-like sea anchor Boat Brakes is well made, with webbing and stainless hardware to take all the loads. It has provisions for a main towing line and a light control line to invert the ’chute and reduce the drag it creates. Billed by the manufacturer as “The Fisherman’s Sea Anchor,” it’s designed to keep a boat over a good fishing spot, or slow a boat with a motor whose trolling speed is too fast. It’s also for emergency use to keep a boat’s bow into the waves and reduce the risk of swamping. It can also be really useful for a small sailboat when reefing. Many small boats want to lie cross-wind or run off downwind, which makes sail handling in breeze challenging. Deploying Boat Brakes would make this much easier.I tried a 24″-diameter Boat Brakes and set it from my 16′ Swampscott dory. There is a float sewn into the perimeter at the top and a weight sewn in on the bottom. You can toss it in the water, and it will sort itself out. I didn’t use a control rope, just the main towline. I used about three boat lengths of line, which seemed to work fine.It was a snappy day on Maine’s St. George River with 10–20 knots of wind coming several miles straight upriver, an opposing knot or two of current, and whitecaps aplenty. There was enough wind so that the dory heeled in gusts hitting abeam. Just drifting, my GPS showed we were moving at half a knot to a knot downwind into the current with the dory riding uncomfortably beam-to-wind. I set the Boat Brakes over the stern (the dory’s transom is quite narrow), and immediately the stern pulled into the wind. Lobster trap buoys nearby showed I was stopped. Gradually the current took over and pulled me at about half a knot into the wind. I rowed a half mile upwind to a spot where the current ran harder, with whitecaps more numerous, and tried it again. Again a dead stop and then gradually progress into the wind.
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Love the idea of a “Boat Brake” for my 12′ Catspaw Dinghy. Toying with the idea of making one of my own out of one of those collapsible canvas water buckets readily available from military surplus outlets. ex:
http://www.ahagreat.com/collapsible-canvas-water-bucket-olive-drab-3780_p214.html
By adding another cross-strap to the bucket top for attaching the tow-line, and weighting the bottom, I wonder if it would work?
The bucket you’re considering has a diameter of 11″, less than half the diameter of the 24″ Boat Brakes and it’s frontal is then less than a quarter that of the Boat Brakes. It may provide enough drag to work as a sea anchor in some mild conditions. I had asked Ben to do some trials with another sea anchor, one with a 14″ diameter and a conical shape. It wasn’t able to bring the bow of his dory into the wind in the trials he wrote about. That sea anchor may be better suited to kayaks and I’ll be conducting more tests with it. The bucket’s diameter is smaller than that of this other sea anchor so I’d be inclined to use something larger for your Catspaw. It’s also worth noting that a canvas bucket is rather bulky. Nylon sea anchors like the Boat Brakes Ben reviewed and the old Paratech anchor I use are quite compact when not in use.
If you like shopping military surplus, you might look for a pilot chute. I found one at a surpuls store many years ago. I believe it was about 24″ in diameter. It was spring loaded so it would eject from the the parachute pack and then drag the main chute out. I removed the spring and used the pilot chute as a sea anchor. Whatever you decide to use, test it thoroughly before you have to rely upon it.
Christopher Cunningham, Editor
Good idea re: using a ‘chute. Something along these lines, perhaps:
http://aeroconsystems.com/cart/all-parachutes/60-inch-pilot-parachute-green/white/
60″ total diameter, but when drawn up into its proper shape with the shrouds, looks to have about the 24″ opening that would be desirable.
Thanks, Chris!