Alton Water Sports Centre pimp their Lasers
by Susie Nation-Grainger, RYA 4 Jun 2010 09:10 BST
29 May 2010
Discussing repair techniquies at the Alton Water Activate Laser ‘Pimp N Sail’ workshop © AWSC
Laser sailors from Alton Water Sailing Club attended a special Laser ‘Pimp N Sail’ workshop last Saturday (29 May) to learn some repair skills which will enable their neglected Lasers to be returned to the water and sailed more often, as part of the ‘Activate Your Laser Fleet’ initiative.
Nigel Best, member of Alton Water SC who hosted the session along with the club’s chief instructor Ben Sharman, said “Having got involved in the ‘Activate Your Laser’ initiative’ we thought it was time we organised an event that could address the needs of our own club’s Laser sailors.
“We’ve got 40 Lasers in our boat park, some look very neglected and like many clubs, very few are seen in our racing club fleet. We came up with the Pimp ‘N’ Sail day as a way to involve all our Laser sailors and to demonstrate some beneficial basic repairs to the hull and foils of a Laser which will hopefully result in more boats out on the water.”
The workshop kicked off by running through the types of materials and construction used to make repairs on laser dinghies. This was followed by discussions on the type of damage that members of the group had personally encountered on their boats and comparisons of different types of repair techniques.
Nigel commented: “Repairs were demonstrated on two lasers, an immaculate XD equipped boat and a 1970’s vintage ‘old school’ boat. In an effort to dispel people’s fear of tackling their first repair, Ben set to work on a repair to the edge of the mast pot, an area of gel coat had broken away exposing the fibres beneath”.
After discussing foil repairs over coffee and cake, and a quick look at the differences between older and modern rig controls, the weather began to deteriorate so it was into the class room for the final stage of the workshop.
Nigel sums up: “This has been the first event of its type held at Alton Water and we feel it was very well received and that there is a demand for a second event, perhaps concentrating on control lines and sail settings.
“If the weather gods are kind, we hope to get out on the water for some basic training exercises led by some of the clubs own race coaches.”
The workshop was part of the ‘Activate Your Laser Fleet’, a joint initiative by LaserPerformance, the International Laser United Kingdom Class Association (UKLA ) and the RYA, supported by Sport England which aims to support clubs to develop new ideas on how to encourage Laser owners to get out on the water more often.
For more information about the Activate Your Laser Fleet scheme visit
www.laser.org.uk . If you feel that your club would benefit from taking part in a series of 2011 workshops contact 
