blooper time!

[DA-WOODY]

 

[RATM]

Scooter, I had a Santa Cruz 27 for a decade -- from 1975 (new from the factory) until I moved to Europe in 1985. Since my brother is a sail maker, I had every sail anyone could imagine, including bloopers. The first few years, most other SC27s also had bloopers, and we often had several well sailed SC27s in any given race.

After about a year or two of Wet Wednesdays and other high-frequency events, it was very, very clear that bloopers were slower. Whichever boats used bloopers were down positions or at least distance by the leeward mark, no matter which boats used or did not use bloopers. And we all sometimes used them, and sometimes did not. All these boats had good sail programs and good sailors. All the boats were new. Racing was very tight.

SC27 and SC33 have essentially identical hull forms, SA/D, SA/WS, D/L ratios, so I would be astonished if this lesson did not apply to your SC33.

So I would CERTAINLY fly a blooper, just because its fun and keeps the entire crew involved, and is appropriate for the era the boat was built. Like playing tunes by the Beach Boys in a '63 Corvette convertible, or Highway Star in a '71 Plymouth Cuda Hemi with a 4 speed.

But I no longer care about winning trophies: I threw away a dumpster full of them in 1985. If you want trophies (nothing wrong with that!!) then don't fly the blooper.

I'm turbo-ing the shit out of my Olson 40!  I could not care less what happens to my rating.

... I could care less what happens to my rating.

Best post ever.

 

[12 metre]

Scooter, I had a Santa Cruz 27 for a decade -- from 1975 (new from the factory) until I moved to Europe in 1985. Since my brother is a sail maker, I had every sail anyone could imagine, including bloopers. The first few years, most other SC27s also had bloopers, and we often had several well sailed SC27s in any given race.

After about a year or two of Wet Wednesdays and other high-frequency events, it was very, very clear that bloopers were slower. Whichever boats used bloopers were down positions or at least distance by the leeward mark, no matter which boats used or did not use bloopers. And we all sometimes used them, and sometimes did not. All these boats had good sail programs and good sailors. All the boats were new. Racing was very tight.

SC27 and SC33 have essentially identical hull forms, SA/D, SA/WS, D/L ratios, so I would be astonished if this lesson did not apply to your SC33.

So I would CERTAINLY fly a blooper, just because its fun and keeps the entire crew involved, and is appropriate for the era the boat was built. Like playing tunes by the Beach Boys in a '63 Corvette convertible, or Highway Star in a '71 Plymouth Cuda Hemi with a 4 speed.

But I no longer care about winning trophies: I threw away a dumpster full of them in 1985. If you want trophies (nothing wrong with that!!) then don't fly the blooper.

I'm turbo-ing the shit out of my Olson 40!  I could not care less what happens to my rating.

Using a blooper in Wed night RTB racing, or any RTB racing would have been a complete waste of time - especially since in the 70s and 80s all RTB was triangles, so one downwind leg out 6.  There was a decent local fleet of IOR 1T and 2T at the time, and I don't recall any of them flying bloopers in RTB races.

We carried a borrowed blooper for a couple Swiftsures- and it proved it's worth the one time we hoisted it - but it was perfect blooper conditions high teens WS, about 160 AWA

 

[shaggy]

+1 . Was always easier to break out the staysail or the light air genny and fly that wing on wing around the cans.  

 

[Editor]

What's the old saying?....."Put it up and gain half a knot; take it down and gain half a knot." Ours only comes out of the bag every few years, and you need good crew who knows how to trim it, but when it works, it works great. It's a great sail to buy used from Bacon's or one of the other resale lofts. No need to put good dollars towards a new one.

View attachment 246893

ain't that the truth! i was kidding about getting a new one. i'm fuckin nuts, but even i have my limits.

 

[poncho]

Skottt,

we could build one in my garage and put a blue label on it and call it the real name "streaker"

p

 

[Left Shift]

ain't that the truth! i was kidding about getting a new one. i'm fuckin nuts, but even i have my limits.

Plus, they don't make the proper Blooper colors anymore.  None of the required green, black, orange, pink combinations.  Sad.

 

[DRDNA]

what's the use?  Ya can't use digital numbers anymore- guess they were too easy to cut and apply.

 

[silent bob]

From the SoCal PHRF book:

 

[silent bob]

Iv'e been thinking today....perhaps the notion could be revisited in 2017 with today's materials and different shape

A Cuben Fiber Blooper?  

Sounds like a solution in search of a problem!

 

[poncho]

Iv'e been thinking today....perhaps the notion could be revisited in 2017 with today's materials and different shape

And that might work! No. wait! you might have to shorten your E to IOR type numbers.

 

[boswell]

Bloop it like you stole it!

 

[MoMP]

Ohhh, for fucks sake, please get this on video.  It'll be gold......

 

[Crew]

Hah.  I'll chime in as being on of the B dock bodies inChannel Islands (only the Ed and the Dawg would know what I am talking about ).  Gary was with Watts then.  SB-KH likely '77.  Crushed it in the PV race to come.  Miss those days and those peps.

 

[ovclampett]

Yes,Its worth it.Major Style points.Bloop Well Bloop Often.

 

[LB 15]

The thing that was counter intuitive about bloopers is when it was really windy (20+), the blooper helped stabilize the boat from doing death rolls due to the small mains and big mast head spinnakers. 

And yet further irony about IOR boats - a rolling boat was a fast boat. We used one on the halfy Silver Shamrock a fair bit. It was the first one built for a frac rig in Aus at the time.

 

[John A. McVeety]

Or is it? Here's a question that at first has the obvious answer of "NO", and that is once we start sailing the Santa Cruz 33 Anarchy III (first race is the CRA Halloween Regatta October 28), do you think we should fly the blooper that came with the boat? 

Pictured here is the Santa Cruz 33 Freight Train sailed by Gary Swenson in the (we think) 1977 Santa Barbara to King Harbor race. It is obviously working in the pic, but would it today? If it does, we'll have a new one built!

Jump in and let the insults fly!

Fly the friggin' blooper ! Back in the olden days I flew this beast off the halyard standing on the foredeck. Surrounded by all that sail and the sound of the bow wake echoing off the sails was just a great experience. Do it !!! That was with Timmy Woodhouse BTW. 

 

[SloopJonB]

View attachment 246940 Yes,Its worth it.Major Style points.Bloop Well Bloop Often.

Yep.

 

[Tanton Y_M]

Say Blooper.

Sandy brown picture. Became a Poster for Perry Topsider.

 

[LB 15]

In my experience...the key to a white knuckle IOR offshore rolly polly was not to try and counter the coming round up by fighting the boat by horsing the helm down...but to steer the course and endure the rail to rail~~~worked best for me

Agree completely. The end of the boom and the end of the pole should spend equal time pointing at the sun.