The Squid

Folks who sail large boats, like kayakers, know how difficult it can be to control their craft when there is a large following sea and the wind is up. Thus driven, most displacement hulls have a tendency to broach. That is, they want to turn back toward the wind which first turns them sideways to the waves. Not a good scenario. For this reason, kayaks have skegs and/or rudders. Sailors have the option of reefing the main and hoping the jib on the forestay keeps the front of the boat headed down wind.

    When the waves and wind become even more forceful, the sailor can deploy a drouge/sea anchor off the stern to create a drag that will keep him headed down wind. Lacking such a gizmo, many a sailor has dragged one of his sails in the water to be towed in order to get the same effect.

   The Squid is a small, self contained device meant to anchor a fishing kayak to one location. Because it self stores in a small bag, I was wondering if it might work as a drogue and help keep a kayak stern to the wind. This, in turn, brought to mind the problems with having a drogue aboard and the difficulty of setting it out let alone retrieving it. It made me wonder, too, if any paddlers have used such a system to control their kayak in a following sea. And...what if the skeg fails to come down?

Would this make a good back up...or is it just an impractical concept for kayakers?

Paddle safe...
DS