'Fake/Training' Laser Sails

Good thread Rick, about time we opened this one up!

Carsington tacitly allows "fake" sails for club racing ... and no-one has ever complained about my rooster one.  Its previous owner even used it in an open!  

If a performance advantage resulted I'm sure there would soon be a change; but the age of the hull (and its occupant) preclude anything being won so the question has never arisen!

On performance:

a) certainly not faster than a laser sail.

b) more solidly made than laser's - so ought to last better and well worth owning if only for practice sessions and blasting.

b) it's stiffer, so the cunningham is harder to pull on which makes de-powering a little harder.

As ever with SMODs - everyone worries about tiny kit changes that make next to no difference but no-one's bothered about the guy who buys a new sail every 3 months and a new hull every year.  And that surely DOES make a difference.  Obviously it's to the SMs advantage if poeple buy new kit, but NOT if they buy someone elses!  . 

PS: my laser 2 training sail IS faster than a real (hyde) laser 2 sail - but it's measurably bigger too!

As long as the sails are not designed to be faster, let them in. At our club we see it as merely a way of keeping the price down to encourage the Laser fleet.

Mind you, the main real reason Laser sails don't last seems to be the way they get treated.....people sticking them up and letting them flog for 45 minutes while they rig, chat, get dressed, launch and sit around between races. I know guys who have used 2 year old sails to win champs against the world champ, because they cared for the good sail and used an old one for training and club racing. It's like old hulls, seems to be more of a mental difference than reality. There's not more than 10% of Laser (or other class) sailors who are limited by sail and hull quality anyway, are there?



Edited by Chris 249

ive heard mumblings of this at hill head but noone has a rooster sail anyway in the laser fleet. i think they should alow it and i think it will be allowed officialy soon. i will let you know as soon as i know.

ps i sail a feva so im not entirely sure what the lasers are doing.

Originally posted by mike ellis i think they should alow it and i think it will be allowed officialy soon.

As much as I joke about SMODS, the day laser allows unnoficial sails to be used legaly will be a sad day indeed

Originally posted by Stefan Lloyd They aren't "fake sails". They don't pretend to be what they are not. They are "training sails".

They are not genuine Laser sails so they must be fakes.

Oh well - I think you know what I am on about; perhaps "fake" was the wrong word - training sails if you must ...

Just to be clear for all Laser events such as opens and above of course official Laser sails are a must.

But Rooster and others sell cheaper sails for Lasers and some people are interested in using such sails for club racing only.

Club racing is generally fun racing and people are often more relaxed about it - now of course a non-Laser sail is not class legal and as such the club would need to be agreed that this breach of the class rules is acceptable for the club races.

Seems from the above that many allow this and it causes no problem; I was very interested to see the decisions of other clubs and how that had panned out.

Perhaps this will help our club with this issue.

Rick

Edited by Guest#260