On November 10, 2008, Don Jordan passed away peacefully at the age of 92. He was inventing till the end and hoped that the series drogue will help sailors everywhere live to be the ancient mariner that he was. This site will be maintained indefinitely for the benefit of the sailing community. – His Family
WHAT
IS THE JORDAN SERIES DROGUE?
Jordan Series Drogue is a safety device designed to prevent
the capsize and damage of both monohull and multihull sailing
yachts and other vessels operating in the open ocean, in the
event of a "worst case" breaking wave strike, as well
as improving the motion of the boat in storm waves and to reduce
drift.
The Jordan Series Drogue has been at sea for over 15
years. At least 1000 are in use all over the world. The drogue
has been deployed through many storms including several hurricanes.
No boat has ever been damaged and no crew injured. A typical
comment from the skipper is " I did not feel threatened.".
The series
drogue has been developed using modern engineering technology,
including model tests in wave channels, computational dynamic
analysis, and full scale testing by the U.S. Coast Guard at
their motor life boat testing facility where boats are subjected
to breaking waves formed on the Columbia river bar.
The drogue
consists of a number of small cones woven into a tapered line
with a small weight at the end. The maximum design load and the
number of cones is determined by the displacement of the boat.
Some skippers
call it " THE SAILORS AIRBAG"
The drogue
is available in kit or complete form from Ace
Sailmakers.
The drogue
is designed to protect the boat in a "Worst Case"
breaking wave strike. Engineering data for the design was obtained
from the 1979 Fastnet Race disaster (See Fastnet Force Ten
by John Rousmaniere) in which 15 lives were lost and 24
boats sunk or abandoned, and further supported by data from
the 1998 Sydney - Hobart race in which 5 yachts were sunk, 6
sailors died and 55 crew were winched to safety by helicopters.
(See Fatal Storm by Rob Mundle) No boats carried the
drogue in these storms. There is now convincing evidence that
the drogue would have brought all the boats through safely.
