I've had a little interest on how I built my drift chute and thought I would share the best I could on how to build your own. You can get the awning screen from any Home Depot in the outdoor/gardening section. I used old drill pipe which is a heavy sonofagun but you can use just about any metal pipe ( you want somewhat heavy pipe so that it keeps the chute down in the water, some guys add sand or some gravel in the pipe and cap the ends to add weight. You want to make sure you fill the pipe completely to prevent all the weight to shift to one side of the pipe). I would say the length of your chute should be a little over half of what your boat length is. Mine is 11' long x 6' deep which is short based on my 22' boat but the heavyness compensates for it but I plan on building another that is longer and doing away with this one.

To start off, get your awning screen about a foot longer then the pipe you get and lay the screen out on the ground and put your pipe at the bottom (notice I folded over the excess at the ends to have it a little "beefed up" on the ends)



What you can do on this next step is roll the screen over the pipe about half way and duct tape it if you want it to stay in place as you zip tie it or in my case use rope and attach the screen to the pipe for a permanent placement.



Here you can see me running my rope every 6 inches or so thru the screen and around the pipe.



Here you can see I got to the end where I would tie a knot and finalize the attachment process of the pipe to the screen.



Next thing you want to do is get some rope and tie a knot the same distance apart from each end of the pipe and leave some slack so you can attach a rope that slides in the middle of the rope you have tied to each end. The rope you tie in the middle needs to be long so you can run it under the boat to the other side. This rope is made for very windy days to keep the chute from flaring out and acting more like a sail. When you have the chute in the water you take this rope and run it underneath the boat and tie it on the other side to keep it from flaring away from the boat. (remember, you want the pipe to be hanging down and adding as much drag as you can).



After that is done you want to put some golf balls in each top corner and wrap the screen around them and tie a knot with rope and this will be what you tie the chute to the cleats of the boat. I have my rope about 8' long on each top corner so I can adjust how far down I want to put my chute in the water. The farther down you lower it in the water the slower you will drift. You can see on mine I used gromets to put the rope thru but it is probably easier to use golf balls ( I apologize I don't have a picture of what it would look like with golf balls)



Picture of rope tied in the corner for cleat attachment



Repeat the process for the other corner and you are done. Here's the picture of the final product





I apologize if this is confusing, I tried to explain the best I could in typing. If you are close to the Garland/Wylie area I would be more then happy to come out and help you build one. Let me know of any questions or feel free to pm me and I can help in any way possible if my directions seem confusing.

Here is a pic of what it looks like with golf balls on the corners to keep it from tearing.

Nice write up and directions Chase

Nice write up

Doesn't seem confusing at all

Thanks for sharing

Here's a picture of it rolled up for storing when not in use. (mine is the one on the right)

Thanks Eric for adding the picture of the golf ball!

I was about to try to explain the golf balls, but it is easier with a pic than it is to describe. I really need to make another one again soon this winter. I built mine originally for my bass boat I used to have and I think it doesn't slow me down enough at times with my boat I have now. That one you built is a really nice one there.

Thanks for taking the time to write that out and show us all how to make one.

nice work Chase, thanks.

Mine is the chute on the left. I built mine to fold over to make it easier and it takes up less room transporting. I use no weight in the pipe and just use fencing pipe. No real need to make it heavy and bulky. Remember you gotta pull this thing up out of the water. If you use the middle tie off rope as he described and tie off evertime instead of windy days it stays down.

Awesome post thanks for the info!!! So can I use use actual parachute material from the army surplus store?

What material are you talking about?

Well back in the day they held air well enough that I didn't die when using them (Army parachutes) so I would think that material would work fine.

That should work, I know some guys actually use tarps with no problems.

Looks like you did a good job man

Is there a specific reason you have the middle rope so it will slide? I've attached the middle rope so there's no slippage.

Just personal preference I guess. I think in a way it makes sure you pull up from the exact middle of the pipe when hauling back into the boat.....

Good stuff chase thanks for the info! It's funny how people can fabricate stuff for the things they love to do. I do it all the time I guess it comes with understanding what you want to achieve and know what needs to be done!

Bump for T-Mac to see.

Do you just let it over the side and hang down in the water ?

Yup, put it over the side and the farther you go into the water the slower you drift.

Looks a little big for my boat....

how do you make sure you stay broadside to the wind?

Thanks Chase. I will need to build one. How much is the screen.

What size would I need to make one for a 14' boat Any ideas

about 7 ft.