For those who bemoan the decline of dinghy racing in the Northwest (I know I do in my darker moments), take this from this past weekend’s Turkey Bowl Regatta in Seattle: There were seven classes, eight if you count the lone FJ on the water. Depending on the class, 5-10 races were sailed.
Most importantly, a lot of the faces on the water were young.
Here are some of Jan Anderson’s photos. The rest are here.
Optis downwind
Surveying
Opti Racer
Seattle Laser Fleet Captain Mark Ross
Sailing it flat and fast.
Laser Radial Start
505s
505s
Libby and Jonathan McKee
Tasars
Close Racing in RS Aeros
Scott Malone
It’s about intensity.
Kaitlyn van Nostrand, coach of the Mount Baker Rowing & Sailing Center, and who also coaches in New Zealand, was impressed. “It was the best run Turkey Bowl regatta I have been to! This was my 4th year coaching this event. The race committee did 3-minute starts and wow, the races went off fast with seven fleets.”
“It was a great showing by the 505s, RS Aeros and Lasers. Coaches did their best to stay out of the way of sailors racing. Big current on Saturday ebbing, so no general recalls. Great dinner on Saturday night too. A job very well done by CYC! Our parents felt welcomed, kids sailed and had a blast. “
Mt. Baker was represented with 9 boats, 10 sailors. SYC was there with their youth fleet and eight Opti kids managed the bigger breeze on Sunday. The Royal Van laser team showed up and said it was a great event.
Laser models: 4.7, Radial, Standard.
Perhaps the most significant turnout was 7-boat Laser 4.7 fleet. This class, which is extremely popular in Europe, features a smaller rig with a different mast bottom section and a much smaller sail. It gives kids and small adults (approx 110-130 lbs.) high performance and provides a good stepping stone to other Lasers and dinghies. With used Lasers widely available, it’s an affordable and accessible racing platform, and with coaches embracing it as well, it is becoming a great tool for growing youth sailing. Alex Zaputil won the 4.7 class this time around.
With a total of 21 boats on the water, the RS Aero class was the biggest and arguably most competitive. Dalton Bergan won by a large margin, chased by John Renehan and Andy Mack. Hanne Weaver trounced the 18-boat Laser Radial fleet, Ian Elliott got by Ali Fuat Yuvali in a hard-fought Laser contest, Jay Renehan won in the Tasars and Miles Johannessen won in the 505s and Dieter Creitz won in the Optimist class. Results.
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.
Bellingham
Bay saw 23 Laser standards and 41 Laser Radials from mostly BC, WA and OR plus
one brave soul from CA line up to race on a weekend that proved to have most
wind ranges to contend with.
Saturday morning started sunny with 10-12kts out of the south dying as the day went on to finish in about 3-5kts, the Standards got 4 races off and the Radials 3 as they had to re-start several times due to general recalls. Races were championship length running around 50-60 minutes which favored the fit when the wind was up.
Standard rig start.
Working the Bellingham breeze.
Sammy Farkas, working hard and loving it.
The Radial podium with Hanne Weaver, Maura Dewey and Al Clark.
The requesite 505 planing under spinnaker photo.
505 action.
Radials rule.
Sunday started with a weak easterly, never a good thing in Bellingham Bay but as competitors arrived the expected sporty southeasterly kicked in and we had 18-24kts with quite bumpy sea states for most of the day until the last Radial race where it eased to around 10kts. Standards raced another four for a total of eight races and Radials four for a total of seven.
In the standards the Canadians swept the podium with Ian Elliott from RVYC dominating the fleet with six bullets a 2nd and a 4th place throw out for eight points, Mathew Stranaghan, WVYC, 2nd (Also first youth) with 22 points and Tony Martin, JSCA, in 3rd with 29.
In the larger Radial fleet, which was also packed with the region’s strong youth contingent, Maura Dewey, RVYC, Al Clark, RVYC and Hanne Weaver, SYC/RVYC could be seen swapping leads and racing bow to bow around the marks both days. The final points showed how close the competition was as they finished with 12,14 and 15 points in total. Cameron Holland, RVYC came in 4th overall and also the first youth racer.
The BYC operated two full race courses over the weekend as we also had the annual Dale Jepson One Design regatta happening with a fleet of 15 505’s and 6 FJ’s. With over 30 volunteers and 10 support vessels on the water it was a large undertaking for our club, which was handled well. PROs Mick Corcoran (DJOD) and Blaine Pedlow (PCC’s) managed both race courses.
A
big thank you to our event sponsors; Samson Ropes, The Port of Bellingham,
Stones Throw Brewery, West Coast Sailing, West Marine and the host Bellingham
Yacht Club.
Every year Bellingham Yacht Club puts the great Dale Jepson One Design Regatta (DJOD), and this year it will be really special for Lasers. The 2019 Laser Pacific Coast Championships will be held as part of the event but on a separate course.
Laser Standard, Radial and 4.2 classes will be run on a championship trapezoidal course overseen by PRO Blaine Pedlow. A separate course will run on the bay for other dinghies racing in the annual DJOD which sees and large 505 fleet. The organizers would love to see the Aeros show up too!
With the ongoing interest in the Lasers as an Olympic class, and the burgeoning 4.7 class, this should be a great regatta. Bellingham can deliver some great September sailing, and BYC is a hugely welcoming club.
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.
This one’s personal. I want to see the Laser continue on its class-driven as opposed to manufacturer-driven course. It’s up to vote of the International Laser Class (ILCA) membership.
I’ve been sailing Lasers since 1978. I’ve watched the Laser almost die a handful of times. Each time the quality of the design and concept withstood the bad decisions or incompetence of the people behind the boat. Yes, there are flaws. Yes, there are “better” boats now.
But, as was clear from the latest vote to keep the Laser in the Olympics, there is life left for this class. Its challenging enough for the world’s best sailors yet simple enough for the rest of us including especially young sailors.
Yet, the class members are faced with an important vote. To my way of thinking, a Yes vote gives the International Laser Class Association control of future of the class. A No vote gives inordinate power by virtue of the trademark rights to the largest manufacturer LaserPerformance, a company that shows no respect for the history of the class or to the needs of its North American sailors.
As so many things do these days, this battle has played out electronically on social media. And like so many things, it’s hard to know what to believe. I do not believe LP. I’ll let Dan Self of Australia explain it much better than I can:
The almighty Laser logo and associated trademark are at issue.
Dear Fellow ILCA Members, As you may all be aware, the ILCA has recently sent out a vote to remove from the Class Rules the requirement that a builder must have the rights to use a Laser trademark. This rule change has arisen from World Sailing’s need for all Olympic Classes to allow any interested and qualified manufacturer to build Olympic equipment. If there are any licenses required, those need to be issued to new builders on a a Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) basis. Until recently, the Laser has been built and supplied by three major builders; Laser Performance (LP), Performance Sailcraft Australia (PSA), and Performance Sailcraft Japan (PSJ). Although simplified, these companies all own the rights to the “Laser” trademark and brand in the territories they supply – Japan and South Korea (PSJ), Oceania (PSA) and the rest of the world (LP). In order for the Laser to comply with the World Sailing FRAND policies, the three builders need to reach an agreement to allow other builders to sell boats called “Lasers” in their territories, for a licensing fee. They also need to reach this agreement by the 1st August. There are significant disagreements between the builders about the amount of the licensing fee. Put simply, PSA and LP are at loggerheads and have been fighting each other in and out of court for over a decade. The bottom line is, if the builders are not able to agree to a FRAND policy in the next three weeks, the Laser will be kicked out of the Olympics. There is, however, an alternative solution to the licensing fee conundrum. The Laser is a commercial brand, and the class rules require that a builder “has the rights to use the Laser trademark”. But what if we were to change that? This is what the most recent rule change is suggesting. If the rule change is passed, the following will be achieved; • New builders will be able to enter the market as they will not need to have a trademark agreement with the other builders. • Supply will be improved throughout the world as more builders enter the market. • Increased supply can encourage more people to sail the Laser, giving us more people to race against. • The Laser will be guaranteed to remain as an Olympic class, through compliance with World Sailing’s FRAND policies. So what’s the only downside to voting “yes”? The boats and equipment supplied by new builderswill not be sold under the brand name “Laser”. Will they still be able to race at all Laser events? Absolutely. Will they be 100% class legal? Absolutely. Will this mean that the name of the class and regattas will have to change from the “Laser”? Absolutely not. ILCA has recently signed an agreement with Laser Performance which will allow them to continue using the word “Laser” for all events, and matters relating to the class association into the foreseeable future. Now some of you might be asking, “why bother making all these changes just to keep the Laser in the Olympics?” Whilst I agree that the Laser would be a strong class without the Olympics, if the Laser were no longer in the Olympics, I can see at least 200+ Olympic campaigners ditching the Laser to pursue their Olympic dream in another class. Not only that, but the Olympic dream is one of the main drivers behind youth participation in the Laser. I’ll be the first one to admit that Olympic status was a big draw card for me taking up, and continuing in the Laser. I’m sure that many other youth and Olympic campaigners will say the same. If the Olympics were held in another class, eventually the WS Youth Worlds would adopt that class as their single-handed equipment, and the entire youth sailing landscape would shift slowly to that equipment. Further, the Laser is the only equipment which allows Olympic participation at a global scale. During the recent World Sailing Olympic Equipment decisions, a number of countries said that they would not be able to continue Olympic sailing without the Laser. In addition, Olympic status increases the amount of technique development and second hand equipment available around the world, leading to higher quality and more competitive racing for all. So my call to you, ILCA members, is to vote ‘yes’ to guarantee the Laser has a spot in the Olympics. If the rules are changed and the builders still reach an agreement, great, nothing changes, but a ‘yes’ vote is the only way to ensure our great class stays Olympic. Cheers, Dan Self Laser Sailor, Laser Dealer and Queensland Laser Association Vice Chairperson
Enjoying Thursday night Corinthian YC sailing off Shilshole in Seattle
There are things I’d like to change about the Laser, starting with the cost of new sails. But one thing I don’t want to change is to put its destiny into the hands of a corporation that has shown little regard for the history of the class or the welfare of all its sailors. Things change minute to minute in this debacle, and may in fact change before I hit the “post” button. But as of right now, “yes” is a vote in favor of the class having an option to move forward.
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.
The report on the Battle of Four put on by World Sailing to choose a singlehander for the 2024 Olympics is in. Read it here.
Lasers in Seattle
The decision apparently still hasn’t been made on which boat to choose for the Games, but the evaluation panel came up with the conclusion that the RS Aero and Laser are the ones to consider.
I’m going to sit down with a beer to read the report in full to see their procedures and specific conclusions. Good to know that our active fleets in the Northwest are the frontrunners.
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.
Update: LaserPerformance, or as I prefer to think of them, Lazy Performance, is not going quietly. Here’s their apparent response to the ILCA terminating the contract: “ILCA statements are falsehoods and defamatory. We will fully protect and enforce our intellectual rights property, including Laser intellectual property. ILCA offices, now located in Austin, Texas, USA, should be moved back to the UK or EU, where over 75% of active Laser class members and sailors reside, managed by a full-time professional team paid for by the builders through increased plaque fees. LaserPerformance is proud and determined to continue to support Laser sailors and community around the world.”
Their suggestion that the ILCA offices be financed by the builders is as transparent as Trump lies. They seem to want full product control and want to marginalize the sailors and the association. It appears they enjoy fighting with Laser sailors a lot more than buckling down and just building a good boat. I’ve said it before, the Laser has a habit of surviving even if it appears dead. I anticipate this will be no different.
Shhhh. Listen very carefully and you’ll hear the sound of carbon fiber tiller extensions tapping lightly on fiberglass decks, making that reassuringly hollow sound the Laser hull makes when used as a drum. It’s the sound of happy Laser sailors, kind of like clapping.
The International Laser Class Association (ILCA) just told Laser Performance Europe (LPE) that it can no longer build Lasers. This decision ostensibly came because LPE did not allow a factory inspection. In reality, this was a long time coming. In fact, LP has stymied inspections for several years.
(Full disclosure, I’m the ILCA District Secretary for D-22 (WA, MT, OR, ID) I also own an LP built Laser that literally came apart at the seams. It’s fixed now and sails just fine.)
I believe it when ILCA class president Tracy Usher tells me it was about the contractual inspection, but in the meantime here are some of the things leading up to the ILCA’s move.
First and foremost, parts were becoming scarce. Dealers were having a hard time keeping vital parts in stock, or finding them at all. There’s not much to break on a Laser, but everything is vital. Rumor has it suppliers weren’t getting paid.
There were quality issues. Serious competitors tended to go for the Aussie-built (non-LP) boats. It’s a bit like 1984 – some Lasers were “more equal” than others. To many of us who’ve sailed Lasers for decades, we didn’t give this too much thought; there always seemed to be ebbs and flows in quality, and the differences weren’t so great as to make a huge difference for the casual racer.
But the most public LP atrocity, and one that stabbed the heart of Laser sailors, was the feud with designer Bruce Kirby. LP decided it just wasn’t going to pay Kirby for the design any more. The resultant court battle legally allowed them to do this. But the entire sport will always owe a debt of gratitude to Bruce Kirby, Ian Bruce and Hans Fogh for coming up with the boat that has put so many people on (and in!) the water. Most of us associate the Laser with racing, but I’d venture they’ve been sailed as much just for fun.
Anyway – going after Kirby the way they did was going after something sacred. It showed zero respect for the sailors, the class and its history.
More recently, Julian Bethwaite and the class were developing, with LP’s knowledge, a new rig called the C5. Other rigs were in the works. The development wasn’t fast enough for LP, so they came up with the ARC rigs in the last few months and leapfrogged the ILCA’s 4-year development. They put out a video and social media blitz that basically screamed out to the world – “Hey, look at what WE did. Don’t look at what the class is doing.” It muddied the waters for the future of the class, and it happened right before the singlehanded Olympic Boat trials so anybody paying attention could see some other really fine boats without that kind of class/builder confusion.
LP was the tail trying to wag the dog. They also undermined the Sunfish class, trying to replace the existing International Sunfish Class Association with its own International Sunfish Class Organization. The ILCA had to be aware of this apparently calculated plan to marginalize an existing class structure.
Lasers are found everywhere from big ocean swells to mountain lakes.
It comes down to this. The sailors are taking back control of the Laser, wresting it from the grip of a company that probably shouldn’t even be building strollers. They never appreciated what they had, namely a strong class and a history. They saw it simply as a product to squeeze as much short-term profit from as it could. LP did just enough to keep the Laser in the World Sailing, Olympic and national authority good graces.
That’s not to say the ILCA can’t learn from all this. If a manufacturer isn’t doing the job, don’t wait – find one that can. You’re the dog and they’re the tail. Secondly – this debacle has changed the seascape entirely. The Laser is a great boat, but it’s certainly no longer the one and only any more. It’s not as fast as the RS Aero, Devoti or Melges, but there’s a lot going for it already.
All the changes over the years – new hardware, new sail cloth and design, new boards, new top section have made the boat better. The sailors accepted them, and the boat is better than ever. We can promote the boat with renewed energy. And if there are changes forthcoming, we can move forward with confidence.
The Laser may or may not be the Olympic class for 2024 and beyond. But with the class back in control, I have confidence there will be great Laser racing for the foreseeable future.
This also screams loudly to builders of one design boats. You may make the money off this game, but it’s in your interest to work with the dog, not try to wag it.
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.
World Sailing just finished evaluating the Laser, Devoti Zero, Melges 14 and RS Aero in Valencia, Spain as part of the decision which one will be the singlehanded class used in the 2024 Olympics. Don’t know which was chosen yet.
RS Aeros and Devotis
I’ll just say up front I don’t have a lot of faith in World
Sailing or the Olympic Committee. Both bodies have seen their images tarnished
by dubious decisions in recent years. I can’t help but wonder if all this
testing is window dressing for a decision which has already been made. I don’t
have any evidence, just a hunch.
I’ll add that being chosen as an Olympic class is not the end-all. The future of any class lies more with its class association and builders than it does with World Sailing or the Olympic designation. The Laser became the go-to singlehanded boat long before Olympic designation. The Olympics didn’t make the Laser a success.
Melges 14s
And there are plenty of examples of Olympic designations that never vaulted a class’s numbers. The Tempest, Flying Dutchman, Yngling, Soling, 470, Euro, 5.5 Meter and Dragon are all fine boats with active fleets. But did the Olympics create active fleets throughout the world? The Star seems to shrug off Olympic designation as it might a nice jacket. OK to wear, OK to put on a hanger. I see more interest in the Finn class outside the Olympics than inside it, so I doubt its ouster will have much effect.
Devoti
While my point isn’t exactly, “who cares?,” I must say that for those of us ordinary folk sailing any of the four singlehanders in the running, it’s not worth getting too excited about. Chances are good that all four of those classes will live on based on their own merits. Young sailors planning on Olympic campaigns will be going to where the competition is, regardless of which boat it is. This isn’t going to affect local fleets that much.
That said, I’m following World Sailing’s sea trials with interest. From a non-sailor’s standpoint, none of these boats are going to seem remarkably different from the others. Sail a mixed fleet of Lasers and Aeros, the Lasers are going to get their asses handed to them. Watch a fleet of Aeros go at it, then a fleet of Lasers, and it’s not going to seem all that much different.
So I guess the testing was to see which boat best tests a sailor’s skill. There are lots of considerations here revolving around the size of the sailor. The Laser Radial has been immensely unpopular with many women because of the size it requires to be competitive (~150 lbs). The newer boats with squaretop sails and bendier carbon rigs naturally depower a lot easier. I still wonder how, on a breezy day, a 125 lb woman depowering is going to fare against a 150 lb. woman totally powered up. On the men’s side of things, that combination will theoretically allow a wider range of sailor sizes. Dinghies have been, are and will be weight sensitive.
For me, the most important issues are worldwide availability, durability and builder support. The Olympics have the potential to popularize sailing. Laser would be the obvious choice with these criteria, except for the builder support. The primary builder, Laser Performance, has done an atrocious job of supporting sailors with parts. Its feuds with designer Bruce Kirby and the International Laser Class Association are epic. So the Laser’s main drawback doesn’t have much to do with its speed.
The upshot is, I’m watching this all with interest, but I’m not going to get too upset no matter the result. It’s just the Olympics. The more important question is: who’s bringing the sandwiches after Sunday’s frostbite racing.
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.
The Laser in its smaller sail configurations remains the class of choice around the world for youth sailors aging (or sizing) out of Optis. In Europe the big regattas draw hundreds of boats.
This year the Youth World Championships for both classes are going to be at Kingston, Ontario sailing in the challenging fresh waters of Lake Ontario. The Radials will sail the last week in July and and the 4.7s will go August 16-23rd.
There’s a limit on competitors (240 in each class), and a qualification and application process, so if you’re planning on going it’s a good idea to get started early. Registrations are open now. Here are the links: Radials, 4.7s.
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.
Once upon a time when there were 50 Lasers lining up for the Seattle Laser Fleet‘s Frigid Digit regatta, there wasn’t much thought of adding other classes. Over the decades the event has moved to various spots around Lake Washington, but now appears to have found a home with Cortinthian YC-Seattle doing the race management as a multi-class event on Puget Sound.
The history of Frigid Digit dictates that coverage starts with the Laser class. As was seen during the Turkey Bowl/Laser Districts last fall, the Laser class is definitely seeing a youth movement in the region. And, as if right from the brochure, it was growing young men making the move up from the smaller Radial rig to the Standard rig. Owen Timms, Max Doane and Kit Stoll all made the switch and were sailing at the front of the fleet all weekend. It was David Brink, a bit older but not that far removed from the Radial, who won the weekend and had his name written on the back of the trophy (for the second time!). His boat name, TCB, stands for Taking Care of Business. That he did.
Photos courtest of Brad Greene. Thanks, Brad!
Aeros
Aeros off the start
Bob Ennenberg of Jericho
Tasar jockeying
Optis rule
Jim Santroch
Radials rounding
There weren’t many capsizes, but a few.
Lasers
The Tasar fleet had “arranged” among themselves for it to be a one day regatta. While both days were good sailing days, they definitely picked the better of two. Bright sunshine and 8-14 knots ruled the day. On top of the frighteningly talented six boat fleet was Jay Renehan who won all four races entered.
Renehan and fellow Tasar skipper Jonathan McKee returned Sunday to have some fun in the biggest class, the 21-boat RS Aero fleet. It was Dalton Bergan who won the last three races to dominate that fleet in Sunday’s lighter air, with Dad-in-law Carl Buchan second. Third was Mike Johnson, one of the more recent Laser-to-Aero transplants, who is clearly getting the hang of the lightweight Aero.
In the Laser Radial class, Seattle’s young Erik Anderson class came up with a convincing victory over Bob Ennenberg of the Jericho Sailing Association of Vancouver, BC. Ennenberg had a smile on his face the entire time, and proved that the Radial is a great place for smaller adults or those that don’t want to risk the wrath of the standard rig if conditions deteriorate. Three Radial sailors made the trip from Bellingham.
There were three brave Opti sailors on the course as well, and without a doubt they had the biggest smiles all weekend. Sam Bush won all the races except one.
This regatta showed that singlehanded sailing, and dinghy sailing in general, is alive and well in Seattle. The RS Aero continues to attract a large group of top-flight competitors and the Lasers are the premiere venue for young people moving up the sailing ranks and honing their skills.
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.
Call it Night of the Living Laser. The boat’s been killed and come back from supposed death so many times it puts The Walking Dead and mummies to shame. It was due for another cycle, and wouldn’t you know it,it’s right on schedule. Nobody’s exactly saying death to the Laser, but it’s implied.
The villains previously were dubious management and financial downturns. This time it’s the evil RS Aero, Melges 14 and D-Zero supposedly driving a tiller extension through its heart. Surely it can’t withstand the onslaught of newer, faster and dare we say better boats. Especially if and when one of those others is chosen for the 2024 Olympics. We’ll see the Laser crushed and dumped on the heap of dated and discarded singlehanders like the Opti, Sunfish, OK Dinghy and Finn.
Wait. Those classes aren’t dead. In fact, far from it.
Ah, but this time after the sexy new boats drive that extension through its heart, the Laser will be starved to death by a lack of resources and attention from a primary builder, LaserPerformance. Seems LP has allowed supply chains to whither over the past few years, and now blame it on Bruce Kirby, the ILCA, Brexit and Trump (in the form of his trade war with China – bet you didn’t know he had it in for Laser too.) When my 7-year-old blames everyone else, I know it’s probably his fault. Lazy performance indeed.
OK, here we have the Laser, with a stake through its heart and starved so badly its silly little plastic traveler eyes have turned to dust. Dead. Finally. But one can ever be too sure, so let’s confuse those addled Laser sailors by coming up with new rigs so nobody knows what the hell is going on. (LP is also developing two of their own, the ARC rigs.) Should the Laser crawl up from the grave again, it won’t know where to turn.
So the end is near. Maybe we’ll see the occasional 1970s lime green Lasers with four-digit sail numbers getting dragged up on a beach somewhere. But that’ll be about it, right?
Wrong. Laser has been dead before. She knows her way back to
the living.
Something about her won’t let her die. She’s a harsh taskmaster, one of the harshest. Even the best sailors sometimes come off the water after a frustrating day of Laser sailing muttering about how they can’t sail worth a s%*t. Compared to modern boats, the Laser is made of lead. The improvements over the years to the control lines and now sail and top section have made the boat much more user-friendly than the original, but even with a fancy new squaretop sail nobody really expects it to be as fast as one of the new boats.
But the Laser has that thing – a certain feel, a certain
look – that’s kind of like magic. Few sailing experiences are as visceral as
“getting it right” on a Laser. But that alone won’t keep it out of the grave.
Sailors will keep it out of the grave. And here’s how we’ll do it. We’ll embrace the new classes. What? More people sailing singlehanded dinghies is better. In Seattle we’ve seen the core of the Laser fleet move, en masse, to the RS Aero. That nearly, but didn’t (at least not yet), kill the Laser fleet here. But then some interesting things started happening. World class sailors like Carl Buchan, Jonathan and Libby McKee and Andy Mack reentered the singlehanded scene in RS Aeros. All of a sudden, singlehanding was in again. A few new Laser sailors have started to come out as well, and the better Aero sailors don’t denigrate the old Laser, they respect it for what it is. So, instead of an uninspired Laser class we now have a very active high-end RS Aero class and a Laser fleet that seems less threatening competitively and more appealing financially to newcomers. We share planning and resources with our friends who’ve moved on to Aeros and work together on regattas. We all sail under the Seattle Laser Fleet banner.
At this point it’s worth mentioning that West Coast Sailing, while fully embracing and pushing the sexy RS Aero, didn’t leave the Laser jilted in the rain on a corner. WCS continued to turn over every rock for every silly traveler eye out there so that we could continue racing.
But wait, there’s more. Don’t look now, but in our region (the Pacific Northwest) there are a lot of kids out there who are coming out of high school sailing programs. By working with the local high school, college and yacht club coaches and community sailing programs, the Seattle Laser Fleet has already seen growing participation. Kids, perhaps more than adults, can appreciate the simplicity, ruggedness and cheapness of the Lasers. Hey, it’s a chance to sail against your buddies, right, and anybody can find a Laser to sail.
And as far as us old guys go, there is simply nothing out there comparable to Lasers Masters sailing, especially for the Masters Worlds. You have more in common with that Ukranian on your weather hip that you do with 99 percent of the people in your home harbor – guaranteed.
I agree with Jean-Pierre Kiekens’ proposal published in Sailing Anarchy for us all to take a deep breath, but I don’t think it revolves around the Olympic status. The Laser will be around with or without the Olympics. As Kiekens pointed out, the sailors need to reconnect with ILCA and really determine where we want to go with rigs. And Lazy Performance has to get their act together with regards to parts. Wait, make that get their act together with regards to everything or get out of the way.
But in the meantime, they’re still great boats and there is still lots of good sailing left in them. I don’t agree with Kiekens that it’s time to unrig. Keep rigging, keep sailing and get those kids out there. It’s still a kick-ass boat.
Lasers seldom have names. But I might name mine Walking Dead. For the season at least.
–Kurt Hoehne, Laser sailor since 1978 and District 22 Secretary.
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.
