Laser Arms Race

I think it is exactly like that for national/international level sailors - I've not had to buy another top section for over a year now and I'd usually get through 2-3 in that time so we're nearly at the break even point.  And the carbon one still looks like it's got at least twice that life left in it.

The only bad things said about them are for the first batch/attempt which all cracked within a couple of weeks at the bottom plug, but that's all been resolved (eventually... like getting blood from a stone as you might expect from LPE).   

We now need the same thing to happen for the radial bottom section, because they typically last less than a single windy day before bending, and they're more expensive.

Anyone know any actual laser sailors whinging about these very conservative progressive improvements?  Sure, sounds like there's been some interesting analysis done by some of the top masters in the world (thanks for the post Chris), but I don't conclude any of that is whinging, quite to the contrary.  

The only person who seems to be whinging about how the Laser Class is managed is the OP.  The same bloke who openly admits his issues are specific to one club only, focused around replica sails (therefore not a laser manufacturer or class issue, but a local club one) and the local conditions favouring them over all over water craft.   (We sure recall they float higher, point higher, produce faster transom bubbles and plane earlier on that specific saline level off the Kent coast remember...) 

And pray don't forget, this is all measured anecdotally against the benchmark of his own performance - in a brand new Farr 3.7 when he has no real prior trapeze helm experience, nor any class specific training to fall back on.  And lest we finally forget, there's no data to even speculate over.... the club is one of the ones which doesn't submit handicap data to the RYA.   

As he says often, you couldn't make it up really....  I'm no great fan of the Laser, so if we're going to knock it on the internet, (in the vain attempt to dislodge it a bit and get some interest in other boats),  please let's focus on the bits it does wrong, rather than the bits the sailors control and are doing so, so well... which is providing cost effective, close as it needs to be, one design racing across the entire the world at various levels from club hacks to elite level regatta sailing.

The anecdote about Mark Bethwaite using the same sail for 3 world championships could be a little misleading...  It most likely means that he saved the sail exclusively for those events, so at the end it had 3 weeks use not 3 years.  If the first two events weren't solidly windy, that's about the competitive life of a sail for an elite laser sailor that everyone understands.

Until a sail is completely wrecked it won't be the limiting factor for your average club sailor however, that's far more likely to be the time on the water/training.

I can't speak for the standard rig (I sail the radial) when it comes to the new top section - but there is definitely a performance difference in the radial.  Your ability to engage a high mode with less kicker/deeper sail when sailing in 14kts+ is preserved, whereas with the aluminium one it's not as the mast takes on a permanent bend very quickly and doesn't straighten back up again.  Your high mode vs a boat with an ally section in these conditions is higher. (P.S Usual caveats about are you hiking hard enough, is your steering accurate etc etc, if these things aren't right of course it doesn't make a difference)

The weight is basically the same, and the bend characteristics are as well, the only difference is that it won't get bent and in *some* conditions, this is a useful thing.

Explains a lot of PY moaning too methinks... 

However, it underlines that perception is as important as the real world.

I remember when I had just got my new N12 years ago - one of our slower sailors who rarely even finished on the same leg (or even half-lap) wandered up after a couple of weekends and said 'we can't compete with you since you bought your new boat'.

I wonder if the Laser class has actually been overcautious - if anything perception (and a certain amount of reality) that it is clunkier and more dated has fuelled the rise of the various new singlehanders. Whether these sailors would balance out those lost to the class through changes I don;t know. 

The 'corners', a better rudder and a lighter carbon mast/top section could have been absorbed if the changes were spread out over a suitably large timescale for kit to trickle through. Managed improvement seems to work to a certian degree for the less strict OD and development classes so long as it keeps an eye on making the boats easier to use and maintain. Unmanaged focus on performance and you end up like the Cherubs... ;)

Yes, there's a strange culture within the class that treats the sails very badly and then complains about them having a short life. A well-kept one is a different story. It's not hard to have the sail almost completely rigged (vang, outhaul, boom all on) and then leave it lying on the grass until the boat is at the water's edge and you're fully kitted up, so the sail is only flapping while the rig is dropped in, the mainsheet run, and the boat wheeled into the water. You can then gently reach around between races instead of leaving the sail to flog. Other guys put the sail up then spend an hour talking, getting dressed and rigging, then sit around with the sail flapping between races, and then wonder why the sail ages.

Mark Bethwaite, who is an extremely technical sailor (4th in the FDs at the Olympics IIRC, world champ in J/24s and Solings when they were at their peak, and one of Julian's main influences) is also very wealthy - yet he used the same Laser sail to win three world Masters titles. Other world champs have had similar experiences. 

On the Improper Course blogspot there's pieces from several Masters world champs with notes about the new sail and/or mast, including two Olympic coaches and one ex-Olympian. Only one of them seems to feel that the new sail and mast is quicker, and he won without it.

It's odd that world class sailors prove that you can win at world level with an "old" sail and that the differences in performance are minute (or non existent) and yet the guy who finishes mid pack at the club is convinced he's losing because of having a sail that may have done fewer races, or because the other guy has a new mast.

One wonders how much of the reason people are mired in mid pack is because they blame the gear rather than the way they use it.

PS - while google for info on the new mast I came across several old references about the "super fast Aussie foils" from a while back. The amusing thing is that several US guys who used charter boats in the Masters Worlds out here a while back, including one world champ, actually complained about the "poor quality" of the same foils that some people were calling "super fast".