Bloopers

[voodoochile]

You mean one of these? Winever.
BTW, this is the North Carolina Yacht Racing Association 2006 Offshore Championships' and I think this maybe Cash Flow.

Definately Cash Flow. Race against her in Hampton all year. She won CBYRA region 4S high point, second at Screwpile etc. Oh, by the way, home built boat by owner Lloyd Grffin at his boatyard in Eliz. City, NC. Rates 48 and walks away downwind with their booper. Congrats Lloyd! Leroi

 

[engnrmerc]

I once saw an interesting match race on TV a few years back.

As interesting as Gary Jobson could make it, there was and American and a Brit in J105's at the final leeward leg the Brit was trailing by a couple of boat lengths , the American took to gybing down wind while the Brit, put his boat wing on wing and dead down wind, the boat was rocking and rolling as much as any old IOR flat top I've ever been on but it ended up beating the American boat by a couple of boat lengths.

As I recall the only reason for the blooper was to help stabilize an inherently unstable boat such as the old rules benefited.

I really can't see much use for a Blooper unless the new measurement rules are taking the same turn as the old rules did.

 

[Kack]

Long live Cash Flow USA 83015 8knot shit box that still wins races!with a blooper.

Go the Flow. I love that Blooper.

 

[Phoenix]

Bloop till it droops.

 

[WillieCrear]

I promise not to poke fun at your light ass soon to destroy itself go fast rocket with no accomodations that you paid an inordinate sum of money to purchase. Further, I won't give you any crap about your efforts that are going nowhere to extablish a one design class. I won't even tease you for having to race handicap because there isn't any other place to race your failed ultra flight feather self destructo whatever.
In return, don't give me shit when i can sell my boat for what i paid for it. don't give me shit because I can go for a weekend with a sweet lovely and have enough of the comforts make sex on the boat possible without getting her stupid drunk first. At the end of a point to point race, I'll have enough water in the tank for a shower. I'll even have enough for a pot of coffee in the morning. If there isn't any breeze on the way back, I'll fire up my reliable inboard and motor at more than 6 knots until there is enough breeze to sail.

Different strokes at different times in life.

Times have changed for you, Chuck. In the Olden Days, the girls had to get you stupid drunk in order to make you stand still long enough to get your clothes off.

Throwbacks unite.

A bit of history here...Chuck flew the first blooper on Lake Minnetonka, he was racing his San Juan 24 (San Jose 24) in MORC Station 40. He knew about them from his early years in CCA. It was about 1972, Chuck can drill down on the timing better. They chose not to outlaw them, and a lot of us followed suit. I had one on my fixed keel/tall rig Chrysler 22. I always liked the profile of the SJ 24 better than the C 22.

everything new is old - now, who knows how to splice wire to rope?

Rope to wire splices are old? Just did a few more last summer. Where's my rocking chair?

 

[Phoenix]

Old age is creeping up on us Willie. The good news is that we are still managing to stay ahead of it. We are a dying breed. Far too many of us who haven't raced in 20 years have reached their dotage and are populating the race committees and protest committees. Age doesn't make one wise, but it sure can make some people hard headed.

 

[mrgnstrn]

mrgnstrn, I may have a blooper for you! We can't race with it here in the PNW as PHRF outlaws them for some unknown reason, and we don't have IRC here....yet. It's from a Peterson 37, so would be close.

that is likely too big. That luff would be at least 4 ft too long.

but that's OK, because I'm not sure if I really want a blooper, or I just like the idea of having a blooper. I doubt I would use the damn thing more than once just for show. Then it will live out the rest of its life as a very expensive pillow while cruising.

Oh, and one more thing,
SHOW ME YOUR WIFES TITS!

no.

-m

 

[Le Renard Subtil]

To VMG is human, but to bloop is divine. I've used them on a C&C Crusader (Chuck probably did too, on the same boat, a decade or so earlier) a Holland half-tonner, and a Heritage one-ton, the mighty Goldfish. On the latter, I was able to introduce the manifold joys of blooping to the St. Mary's College offshore team, as late as the darkling year 1993, when the blooper had become as rare as the aurochs or the jackalope.

 

[Phoenix]

Bloopers didn't come out until after we had sold the Crusader. Great boat, but it really needed blooping. George once told me that it was an attempt to maximize sail area to wetted surface. With the board all the way up it was totally uncontrollable in anything over 20. After a couple of really scary pinned broaches we started lowering the board a ways and the boat settled in some. It was always a true handfull downwind in a breeze though.

 

[Le Renard Subtil]

Bloopers didn't come out until after we had sold the Crusader. Great boat, but it really needed blooping. George once told me that it was an attempt to maximize sail area to wetted surface. With the board all the way up it was totally uncontrollable in anything over 20. After a couple of really scary pinned broaches we started lowering the board a ways and the boat settled in some. It was always a true handfull downwind in a breeze though.

I still have the original plans from Cuthbertson and Cassian (as they called themselves then) and I think that sometime after you guys sold her and before we got her that the rudder was enlarged considerably. I saw the changes drawn into the plans- the spade was enlarged by at least 20 percent. That helped, but the board and the bloop were still the only things that made the boat even remotely manageable downwind in big breeze. You had to get the bloop waaay out there to get out from behind that long boom.

 

[Phoenix]

It was a great boat.

 

[Pesky's Pole]

We named our dog "Blooper" when we wer kids... '

The dog was the single dumbest dog in the history of dogs...

Similar to his namesake.

For all you blooper fans....

What is the most important trimming line for a blooper?

 

[Phoenix]

halyard

 

[Pesky's Pole]

correct

 

[Phoenix]

Therefore, always bloop on a wing, never a jib halyard.

 

[EKE]

Blooper, Shooter, Streaker.

We flew a blooper all the way to Oahu on Transpac in '77, '79. It definitely stabilized the boat tremendously when the wind was up. In typical TP conditions, say 18-25 knots of breeze, the blooper was super fast, allowing you to sail deeper with confidence. I DO think it added to our speed through the water as well.

Bloopers are very easy to set, and fly, as long as the helmsman is sailing deep enough. Taking them down is really easy, even in a big breeze, because as soon as you let the sheet off and begin to gather the foot, the sail is blanketed behind the main and you can reel it right in, no problem. A foredeck crew experienced in their use will not find it any more complicated or difficult to fly than a spin staysail.

-EKE, old fart

 

[lakepirate]

Blooper, Shooter, Streaker.
We flew a blooper all the way to Oahu on Transpac in '77, '79. It definitely stabilized the boat tremendously when the wind was up. In typical TP conditions, say 18-25 knots of breeze, the blooper was super fast, allowing you to sail deeper with confidence. I DO think it added to our speed through the water as well.

Bloopers are very easy to set, and fly, as long as the helmsman is sailing deep enough. Taking them down is really easy, even in a big breeze, because as soon as you let the sheet off and begin to gather the foot, the sail is blanketed behind the main and you can reel it right in, no problem. A foredeck crew experienced in their use will not find it any more complicated or difficult to fly than a spin staysail.

-EKE, old fart

LISTEN TO YOUR ELDERS!!!

Seriously, someone has to have one laying under a pile of dacron sails in their basement somewhere.

Needs to fit within this:

Luff = 37'

Foot = 18.5'

Leech = 35.5'

It WILL get put to good use, well at least use...

Let me know what you want for it!

 

[j120 bowman]

In my experience the blooper doesn't add much boatspeed, but it does make a (symmetrical kite) boat much more controllable when trying to sail DDW in big breeze. I understand this is irrelevant to Asym boats, but if you look around the typical race course these are still the minority. If you sail in a big breeze venue (like my home port of San Francisco) then the ability to sail confidently 20 degrees either side of DDW in 25-30 knots without rounding up or down is, to put it mildly, pretty handy. For those who think bloopers are for amateurs please see photos of the 1986 One Ton worlds in SF. Every boat flew bloopers on every downwind leg; in fact there is a pretty cool photo of about 2/3 of the fleet upside down in 30 knots as they couldn't get the bloopers up fast enough after the weather mark.
Perhaps some would suggest we should all ditch our existing leadmines and run off to buy new sportboats, but in my experience faster boats do NOT equal better racing. In fact, quite the contrary. Slow boats (as long as they are all equally slow) make for much better competition. When you have super quick boats (multihulls, skiffs, etc) then a small % difference in boat speed rapidly translates to big differences in distance so there are few tactical interactions. When you have a big fleet of slow boats (like our local Knarrs) the boats all go pretty much the same speed so tactical interactions are frequent. I suppose different folks like different aspects of the sport, but I would rather have a sophisticated tactical battle in a 5 knot Etchells than a brainless one tack to the weather mark drag race in a 20 knot catamaran anytime.

I am a long time lurker short time poster so please flame me as much as you like.

Very good point here. Bloopers don't do much for speed, but they give you a lot of downwind vmg. One owner told me a blooper gave him another 10-15 degrees downwind and minimizes gybing. Need big winds for sure. Need to go DDW for sure. I've flown them on a couple of old "shitboxes" and had a great time doing it. 40 ft IOR boat with a tiny main. Small main really lets the blooper fill. Won the Mill's Race in Lake Erie with it. Everyone was gybing back and forth; we just kept going straight downhill. Other boat was a 32 ft 1986 Beneteau. Didn't do shit for us for speed, but we looked GOOOOOOOOD crossing the finish line at Mackinac Island with four sails up (stay sail wasn't helping much either)!

 

[low and slow]

I think Chris Bouzaid invented the blooper whan he was Hood NZ. Back then the mains were very high aspect, really short booms. The bloopers did seem to work well. You could stay close to the rhum line so never got badly burned on a shift, and it gave two crew members something to do

 

[BalticBandit]

In my experience the blooper doesn't add much boatspeed, but it does make a (symmetrical kite) boat much more controllable when trying to sail DDW in big breeze. I understand this is irrelevant to Asym boats, but if you look around the typical race course these are still the minority. If you sail in a big breeze venue (like my home port of San Francisco) then the ability to sail confidently 20 degrees either side of DDW in 25-30 knots without rounding up or down is, to put it mildly, pretty handy. For those who think bloopers are for amateurs please see photos of the 1986 One Ton worlds in SF. Every boat flew bloopers on every downwind leg; in fact there is a pretty cool photo of about 2/3 of the fleet upside down in 30 knots as they couldn't get the bloopers up fast enough after the weather mark.
Perhaps some would suggest we should all ditch our existing leadmines and run off to buy new sportboats, but in my experience faster boats do NOT equal better racing. In fact, quite the contrary. Slow boats (as long as they are all equally slow) make for much better competition. When you have super quick boats (multihulls, skiffs, etc) then a small % difference in boat speed rapidly translates to big differences in distance so there are few tactical interactions. When you have a big fleet of slow boats (like our local Knarrs) the boats all go pretty much the same speed so tactical interactions are frequent. I suppose different folks like different aspects of the sport, but I would rather have a sophisticated tactical battle in a 5 knot Etchells than a brainless one tack to the weather mark drag race in a 20 knot catamaran anytime.

I am a long time lurker short time poster so please flame me as much as you like.

Very good point here. Bloopers don't do much for speed, but they give you a lot of downwind vmg. One owner told me a blooper gave him another 10-15 degrees downwind and minimizes gybing. Need big winds for sure. Need to go DDW for sure. I've flown them on a couple of old "shitboxes" and had a great time doing it. 40 ft IOR boat with a tiny main. Small main really lets the blooper fill. Won the Mill's Race in Lake Erie with it. Everyone was gybing back and forth; we just kept going straight downhill. Other boat was a 32 ft 1986 Beneteau. Didn't do shit for us for speed, but we looked GOOOOOOOOD crossing the finish line at Mackinac Island with four sails up (stay sail wasn't helping much either)!

Tiny main is the key point here. Two things really drove the need for bloopers:

1. The narrow bustle, rounded hull designs of the Late IOR (jurrassic) era meant that in a following sea the hull would get massively corkscrewed in a rather violent manner.
   
2. The rig plan rules of IOR: high aspect kites, small mains - meant that you had a lot of sail area up high on the weather side of the mast, and very little balancing it on the leeward side of the mast (and all the stuff about the eddies).
   

By flying a blooper you addressed BOTH of these design "features" of IOR style hulls. As discussed before the vortex driven oscilations of the blooper offset those of the kite. It also widened the effective sail plan forward of the mast (dealing with the high aspect ratio of the kite and the small main) as well as moving the CE well forward of the max hull width, reducing the impact of following waves on the quarter.

IOW the blooper was a solution to design "features" of IOR style hulls. Why would anyone want to spend big $$$ to design a new breed of hulls that have the same "features" of "seakindliness" as the Late Jurrassic (I mean IOR) era??