Is This an Asymmetrical Spinnaker ?

[savoir]

Originally Posted by troppo

Can it be flown without a spinnaker for cruising? Just the main and blooper?

Sure it can. It won't set as well as a proper A sail but who cares if you are just cruising.

On a similar tack (sorry) my last boat came with a pile of old string sails. The #1 light only lasted 3 days but the #2 gave me 3000 miles.

[savoir]

Originally Posted by daddle

Perhaps in the hands of an amateur. A new properly-cut well-trimmed spinnaker is far more efficient than a simple 'wind bag'.

A blooper is likely smaller than a poled out genoa, and much harder to control. So it's pretty useless.

That's why you pole it out.

[Nicholson58]

Blooper looks like this. Faster when it goes up; faster when you take it down. It does stop the death roll of the IOR boats. The photo is of the Heritage One Ton I raced in the 70s. It was right in a very narrow zone. Once the boat could reach hull speed dead down or up to 160 degrees, jibing was of no advantage. Head dead down & use the blooper to stabilize the roll. If the wind increased, more speed could be realized. We once flew it in 35 apparent and made 12 to 18. The bow was submarining. It was great up to the broach.

Just noticed the date of the previous post - wow.