Has Laser dropped the 4000?

If a new builder was appointed for the 4000 class, the best thing I could see is reducing build costs to bring the retail price of the class down. You can get very good 4000s for about £2000 to £3,500, if a builder was to sell the boats at about £4,500 to £5,500, I reckon the new boat sails would sky rocket a bit. The possibilty of opening the sail maker but keeping to the strict measurements of the sails would also be a positive step in the right direction

20-30 a year was the threshlold for the 3k, but the class was also dead at that stage, which might go in favour of the 4k

BTW, if you want to move to an independent builder, write to Y&Y ... I did in Oct 03 and got star letter "Horrorscope for the Laser 3000" ... two weeks later Laser announced at our AGM that they were stopping build (then , now )

I really like the 4000 because the equalisation system works and that's why you get such a close fleet racing-wise. The boat is a modern day classic and I reckon that the next few years are going to be crucial to the future of the class. When boats like the Iso and 4000 first appeared, many people said that classes like the 505 and Fireball would fade out of existance. They are still going strong and that's because the designs are good with dedicated class associations, as I feel with the 4000. The Laser 4000 may not be at its peak as it was in the Euro-cup days but the class is still strong. If Laser are using terms such as "headline sporty boat" about the 4000, it can only be a positive if they are going to fully promote the boat in such a way. I tend to disagree with the idea of the design being sold to other boat builders to improve upon because a faster and lighter boat would destroy a key element of the 4000 class, equalised racing. It would divide the class between new and old boats, cause fragmentation and you might aswell design a new boat and wipe the slate clean with the class. I have heard that before launching the 4000 on the market, they had to tone it down because it was faster than the 5000 and would have overshadowed its bigger brother, so that's a basic idea of what modifying the boat could lead to in a performance gap between the original 4000 and a next generation one (and no, I'm not getting mixed up between the RS800 prototype / 49er case) 

I just hope that the Laser 4000 class stays healthy and doesn't go the way of other classes.

Well, I reckon it's not good business to not include your "headline sporty boat" in the promotional material you distribute in the press, in fact I would be pushing the "headline" boat as much as possible. Looking back, the first steps for other classes being phased out by Laser such as the 5000 and 3000, was to cut funds for promotion, ie less adverts in y&y and other mags and not being included in brochures. What would be a good step for Laser for the class would be to encourage sailors in the 2000 class, ie family partnerships which have been in the class for a while to step up into the 4000, possibly offering good trade in prices for 2000 sailors trading up to a new 4000. In that way, Laser might gain a better hold on the 2nd hand 2000 market and might make a favourable profit, without too many 2000s flooding the market.