Rooster 8.1 rig on Laser

It's a great idea, wouldn't it be great if it became more popular than the standard laser .  It won't make it plane upwind but will help it get to max hull speed upwind a bit sooner, and should should get planing downwind that bit earlier.

What i don't like about sailing a laser is the hassle of rigging.  I hate having to drag a fragile sail thru' the mud, getting on the mast, then having to thread up outhaul & cunningham etc..  I think a good developement would be a one piece alloy mast with a track & halyard, that dropped into the existing hole.  Then the boom could be left on, no more tying up stuff, you'd be on the water in 10mins!  It would probably sail better with a lighter one piece mast.

However you dress it up though, you are still sailing a boat that is very badly out of date and needing a redesign.  The bigger sail means that you will be needing that bigger rudder that you don't have earlier, you will still have the same lousy control lines, and you will still be sitting in a sink!!

£350 for the sail and top section though, now that is decent value

Laser have quite a vibrant market at the moment, reckon carbon top sections etc would really push prices up and the money won't be in it for Laser to push for. If they did, it wouldn't be long before the MPS would be getting proposed to fill it's spot in my opinion. Why keep an old boat which is getting more expensive trying to mimic newer, better designs, when you can cut out all the hassle and fill an Olympic place with a new boat? Start modifying the Laser substantially and you lose all it stands for. Reckon Rooster could possibly make quite a bit of money out of developing the rig to be more responsive, but if Laser did it, they'd be risking a lot. The boat shouldn't need new foils with the 8:1 rig, as if the boat is sailed properly, the rudder should only be acting as a correction device. 49ers have really small foils in comparision to the Laser when you consider rig size, and the boats don't suffer for it.