Jordan Series Drogue Attachment

Has anyone fit their Morgan with chainplates for a Jordan Series Drogue? I'm in Antigua prepping for a hop across the pond, and I'm looking for ideas.

Thanks!

Ken
John at Attainable Adventure recently wrote a column on the Jordan Series Drogue and the need for installing chainplates. He gave the load figures for attaching a drogue to cleats and/or winches. The numbers were very disturbing. If you don't already subscribe to his site, you should Google it. He has a lot of very good info for blue water cruising. The only other thing I know about the Jordan Drogue is that friends of ours who spent 12 years cruising Europe and recently crossed back across the pond via Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland, said that they wouldn't be without a Jordan Drogue. Their only complaint about it was that theirs was stored on deck and when it got wet, it was very heavy to handle and deploy. Have a very safe trip across. Keep us here on the Board informed as to where you are on your journey.

Jim

jimcleary said:

Ken
John at Attainable Adventure recently wrote a column on the Jordan Series Drogue and the need for installing chainplates. He gave the load figures for attaching a drogue to cleats and/or winches. The numbers were very disturbing. If you don't already subscribe to his site, you should Google it. He has a lot of very good info for blue water cruising. The only other thing I know about the Jordan Drogue is that friends of ours who spent 12 years cruising Europe and recently crossed back across the pond via Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland, said that they wouldn't be without a Jordan Drogue. Their only complaint about it was that theirs was stored on deck and when it got wet, it was very heavy to handle and deploy. Have a very safe trip across. Keep us here on the Board informed as to where you are on your journey.

Jim

Click to expand...

Thanks, Jim. Yes; I've been a member of AAC for several years now. His article is why I'm going through the hassle of fabricating chainplates.

As for our cruise, we've been in the eastern Caribbean for the past two seasons. After two "shakedown" cruises through the Bahamas, we followed the thorny path south last spring. Hurricane season in Grenada. Life is pretty great! And the Morgan 38, even at her age, has been exceptional!

Ken

I have a jordan drogue. I will try to post a picture (pretty bad) of my chain plate. 1/4 inch stainless with 6 3/8 stainless bolts. On the outside ear, the hole is raised and champered and accepts a massive Crosby Shackle with, I think, 24,000 lb swl. Ace Sailmakers has the details on how to calculate drogue size. I gave him an estimated displacement in cruising trim of 21,500. As I understand the estimates, that equates to design loads of maybe 14,000 lbs in worst case breaking wave conditions. You can see the top of the chain plate. It is bolted through the hull deck joint. Underneath is a backing plate system, that spans the width of the flat toe rail and also comes in under the deck some. It is also longer by few inches on each end than the chainplate. It is made of 1/2 inch marine plywood, followed by 1/2 inch of fiberglass reinforced plastic and 1/8 inch aluminum sheet. Now, according to AAC, even this may not be enough, because although the hull deck joint is solid glass, the deck area is cored. And the two pieces of the hull deck joint are only about what, 1/4 to 5/16" each? Could I hang a 14,000 boat from these chain plates? I don't know. I understand bolts are stronger longitudinally than in sheer. But it was the best I could do and my trip around the Eastern Pacific was so mild, we never even considered using the drogue. It is for survival conditions, or nearly so. 50-60 knots with breaking waves, I would have deployed it., If you are going to buy a new one, I would strongly recommend getting the bulk of it made out of dyneema. Using 3/4 and 5/8 nylon braid is fairly heavy, although I was able lift it and drag it around and with my son and me together it was easy. I kept it in a deck bag that kept it dry though, Dyneema wont add too much to the price, I think. If you want to buy a never used one that is partly dyneema and partly nylon, you can save yourself money by buying mine for $600 plus freight. adavida38@hotmail.com.

I may take you up on that offer! I'm currently considering an all dyneema version from Ocean Brake in the UK. But, I like your price. What are the dimensions and weight of yours?

Thanks for the photo. So I'm clear, are the chainplates mounted on the aft rail? Or, the sides of the boat? Are those ears on the forward edge of the chainplates? I'm leaning towards using the caprail as well.

Ken

if you send me an email address, I will send you specific details on my drogue. I dont know how much it weighs. I know I had added 20 lbs of chain at the end, so that adds to the total you have to deal with. But if you keep it tied down on the aft deck off shore and move it out of the way when at anchor, you only have to move it twice for each passage. The chain plates are mounted on the side of the boat, forward of where the pushpit comes down. the ears for the shackles stick out from the teak cap rail and hull. In the picture, the dark blue fabric in the left foreground is the cover for my secondary sheet winches. my bridle is dyneema, but the rest of the drogue is nylon braid. Dave Pellisier at Ace Sailmakers made my drogue. He can make it all dyneema or a combination of rope type. He is a little abrupt in manner, but a good and cooperative guy and a great marlinspike seaman. Our conversation provoked me to go back and look at the invoice. The total cost was over $1750 plus freight. I thought it was less.