Laser Rainbow

This boat was bought by a friend at Whitefriars. It was a new one on me. When they lost the rights, Laser had 15 Tasar hulls left, so they put a less powerful sail on and called it the Laser Rainbow, apparently! Still had a Tasar insignia on, though.

Anyone know any more about it? This one is No 3.

The person to ask is webmuppet, though he doesn't come this way much anymore.  He has two modified laser runs.

The Tasar rainbow as it was known was produced by Matthew Wetz, quite a few years ago when he took over the UK agency for the Tasar. Matthew wanted to produce a much cheaper and simpler version of the Tasar with the hope of selling it to sailing schools. It was indeed as previously mentioned a fibre glass lay up so was not as stiff nor as light as a Tasar but cheaper to produce. The Tasar has a 2 piece winged shape, rotating mast, with adjustable diamonds and with fore and aft adjustable shroud plates, adjustable jib cleats, and a curved traveller. The Rainbow had an ordinary, non rotating alloy mast, simpler boom without the controls, fixed jib cleats and fixed shrouds and a straight thwart. The Rainbow never caught on and died a death. It can not even be converted to a Tasar spec as though the hull shape is the same the construction is different and the cost of obtaining and fitting all the necessary parts would be rather prohibitive.

One other thing Rupert. The Tasar at that time had Dacron sails and no forestay. The main was fully battened and the jib could be furled using the furling devices on the bow and mast. Looking at the picture it appears that the thwart is curved but whether the traveller rail could be fitted isn't clear.