Shortening the Boom

[gates_cliff]

I am not conversant with sail design or theory, but in the most recent edition of Good Old Boat there is an article about a boat kept in the same family for over 30 years. One detail that was in the article mentioned shortenting the boom. So I just googled it and found an interesting article http://www.bristol29.com/projects/spars ... n_the_Boom

Just wondering if this is anything others have considered, I'd have never given any thought to modifying Mr. Alberg's design (blasphemy)!

[Jim Walsh]

It's a moot point unless you are having some form of handling issue with your boat. In the article you referenced the Bristol was heavily modified, both a bowsprit added and the headstay moved forward, then the boom shortened, main sheet changed to a mid-boom traveller arrangement, and a new mainsail purchased.
It's difficult after all these modifications to determine what is subjective and what is objective evidence in the article. It's interesting to see the lengths some people have to go to cure perceived performance issues.
I'll bet he wishes he'd bought a Cape Dory

[bottomscraper]

I believe some people get more enjoyment out of modifying their boats than actually sailing them. I believe the same type of things happen with cars and motorcycles. Consider all of "reality" TV shows based on modifying bikes and cars.

[gates_cliff]

Jim Walsh - I bet you're right! He did reference CDs among other boats in that post.

[Maine_Buzzard]

I wonder how many whackadoodle calls a retired designer gets, from someone trying to improve on a boat created thirty plus years ago.

I'd want to keep an air horn near the phone and give five blasts after they get to "Why didn't you..."

[tjr818]

Frustrated NA's. We have all contemplated changes, but taking a hacksaw to a Cape Dory?
I'll stick to adding lee boards to my row boat

[sharkbait]

I once had a new to me sailboat (not a CD) that could not keep its head down unless I was flying at least a 125% up front. After going back and looking at the original drawings I determined that someone had added 2 feet to the main boom. After removing two feet of the boom and re-cutting the sails everything worked fine.

[John Stone]

I don't understand this conversation at all. Many people love to tinker and to modify . . . and for all kinds of reasons -- aesthetic, improved performance, more convenience, improved safety, etc. It started when we were kids and we installed butterfly handlebars on our bicycles because it was cool. Then we added four barrel carburetors, aluminum intake manifolds, and mag wheels to our cars. We grew up to add rooms to our homes; add vortex generators to the wings and horizontal stabilizers of our airplanes. And, I have heard that some people even install outboard chain plates on their Cape Dories, or convert them to a wheel (or from a wheel to a tiller for crying out loud), or add mid boom sheeting, or add a folding leaf to their galley countertops, or change their counter tops from Formica to corian. And don't leave out the NAs. Chuck Paine made all kind of changes for the Frances 26 II even thought the original is considered a "classic" . . . however one defines a classic.

IMO, if we were required to leave everything the way it was originally designed it would be a boring world.

[David van den Burgh]

I wondered when you'd chime in on this one, John.

And here's yet another perspective: Deviating from the naval architect's design is tantamount to sacrilege, it would seem, and yet that didn't stop some builders. The Alberg 30, for example, was designed to have a lead keel. Whitby wanted to save money and used cast iron instead. A lot of our "perfect" boats represent a number of compromises between the naval architect and the builder. And even a few NA's have later critiqued their own design or the construction process.

[Maine_Buzzard]

The B29 website seems to be rife with a certain oiliness, one that grates at me. The author has fulminated at length, and knows that all others, including the NA are tossers and his choices are clearly the best possible solution to the issue.

"I called Halsey Herreshoff and explained my calculations and what I was trying to accomplish. Halsey argued vehemently that I simply didn't know how to sail the boat, that I was keeping the leech too tight and not allowing enough twist in the main. He also assured me that if I moved the headstay forward I would ruin the boat. Well, it turned out I was right and Halsey was wrong, which I think only proves how rig designs are constrained by rating systems."

I'll admit that Dave also gives plenty of credit to suppliers and others that he agrees on, but there is something very smug in his ramblings... along with plenty of logical shortcuts like the one above.

I'm OK with tearing a boat apart and fitting it out to how you want it, but embracing your freedom while deriding other's choices seems to be a hypocritical pattern in many discussions these days...

I feel that we're collectively losing the ability to accept that other's choices are right for them, and they don't need to be right for us.

Is having more information at hand leading us to need to place greater value on the perceived accuracy of that knowledge? Pre-internet, you might speak with 10 or 20 people about CE vs. CLR over the course of five years. Now we get whole websites dedicated to boat trim and thousands of voices across a spectrum. If the marketplace is flooded, do we cling tighter to what we have in hand?

[Oswego John]

Oh oh, I suppose that I'm in real trouble now.

I guess that I committed the unpardonable sin. In 1990 I had the brash audacity to change the hull color of my Ty W/E from refrigerator white to a soft, pastel-like Sea Foam green.

...and I never looked back, never gave it a second thought.

Think Spring,
O J

[pjust]

There's no doubt that designers can feel a bit touchy about those who meddle with their creations. L. Francis Herreshoff once wrote that if his plan “is only slightly changed, the whole balance may be thrown out” and “… the birds will no longer carol over her, nor will the odors arising from the cabin make poetry, nor will your soul be fortified against a world of warlords, politicians, and fakers.”

[Neil Gordon]

>> A lot of our "perfect" boats represent a number of compromises between the naval architect and the builder. <<

And many represent compromises between the naval architect and the naval architect.

All boat design is a matter of compromise... speed, stability, comfort, capacity, cruising/day sailing/racing/whatever, prevailing winds, cost of construction, availability of materials, and many more. If a boat's been designed as "a generalist" and you want to optimize for more specific conditions, some modifications might make sense, even to the original designer.

[Jim Walsh]

There's a certain smugness that comes from knowing that Carl Alberg got everything right when he designed the CD31.

Now that I've fired the first volley I'll just sit back and watch the battle rage on.

[tjr818]

I've heard that those Bristol sailors might lock their props.