[smackdaddy]

Genie - I see your point. And I honestly appreciate your walking me (and others) through this. I'm definitely just approaching this whole thing from a theoretical standpoint based on reading...and, of course, advanced degrees in mathematics, physics, and hydrodynamics (the last part is complete BS). The only thing I've deployed thus far while sailing is an anchor and my 8-year-old kid.

Anyway, I wholeheartedly agree with your assertions about the forces and redundancies of the JSD as compared to the chute. There is obviously more opportunity for failure in a single-point system like the chute. No doubt. And I see your point about the rode slack issue of a single chute compared to the progressive loading of the the JSD. Great points.

BUT let's go back a few steps. No one's yet addressed the fundamental issue; that is - which end of the boat is better suited structurally to dealing with the stresses of oncoming waves? This really is a pretty important starting point. And this was the part of Dog's comments that didn't make much sense to me (e.g. - that the boat would suffer more serious damage if it were bow-to-waves).

Let's pin our theoretical boat down at 1 knot of leeward drift - completely disregarding the means of anchoring at this point and the issues of cleat strength, etc. That stuff will come later. Now, we know that waves can travel stupid fast and vary in "speed" (celerity) due to wave type, depth, etc. But, for kicks, let's just say our waves are traveling at 20 knots and have breaking crests that are nasty, but not deadly.

Again, completely disregarding the device that's holding the boat in place, when that breaking water hits us at 19 apparent knots, which end of the boat is more structurally suited to safely bear the brunt? The bow or the stern?

Take it another step. Keeping with your rudder experiment above, is the rudder more likely to suffer the damage you describe if it is "facing into" this breaking water (bow to waves) or "facing away" from it (stern to waves)? Wouldn't the latter be what you described above?

To be clear - I don't know what the true answers are here. This is why I'm asking - and this is why Dog's comments about more serious damage happening to a bow-on boat didn't make sense.