Heavy Weather Tactics Using Sea Anchors & Drogues

Few of us can or even want to relate to the drama of fact and fiction seen in THE PERFECT STORM, yet the coastal and offshore waters in which we do our recreational boating often serve up storms of a magnitude that can make a believer out of the hardiest skipper. Even an imperfect storm can be a demanding exercise best handled with practical survival seamanship skills combined with a modern drag device.

Boating literature is replete with incidents wherein sailors are unexpectedly put in a survival situation while pursuing their recreational adventures and many are found wanting in survival skills. Without those skills and not having a drag device on board when the chips are down, they find few survival options left other than prayer. When you go offshore be a little pessimistic and consider drag devices before you leave the dock--for afterwards may be too late. Avoid becoming a storm statistic like the ANDREA GAIL.

Earl Hinz has been sailing the Pacific Ocean waters since 1958 accumulating 40,000 sea miles in racing and cruising sail and power boats. After retiring from the aerospace industry as an engineer in 1975, he took to cruising and writing as his second career ending up living aboard his boat between voyages in Honolulu for 15 years. He has owned a variety of boats including a 41-foot ketch and a 36-foot trawler.

Besides being an experienced sailor, Hinz is a published author and is widely known for his extensive magazine article writing. His hundreds of periodical contributions on Pacific cruising and contemporary boating can be found in such magazines as cruising World, SEA,, Ocean Navigator, Multihulls, Latitutdes & Attitudes,, Passagemaker, Pacific, Glimpses of Micronesia and Pacifica. As SEA's Technical Editor for five years, he conducted quantitative sea trials on 104 power and sail boats and sponsored dozens of technical tests on boat hardware and electronics.

His published works are: Sail Before Sunset; Understanding Sea Anchors & Drogues; Pacific Wanderer; Pacific Island Battlegrounds of World War II - Then and Now; The Offshore Log; Landfalls of Paradise: The Cruising Guide to the Pacific Islands; The Complete Book of Anchoring & Mooring; and Heavy Weather Tactics Using Sea Anchors & Drogues.