Latest legal Laser tweaks????

I don't buy the line that one boat or another injure sailors, it's bad technique and unsound practice in general, rather than a boat design that's probably the cause. I say this as someone who sailed and owned L*sers during weight-jacket times.  That said, for me, any design which requires competitors to don uncomfortable protection gear to compete doesn't seem right.  But then, someone may well come along soon and say that modern tri suits are hideously uncomfortable or sprinting spikes now give you bad backs or ......

Edited by getafix - 24 Jun 14 at 10:13pm

There are boats I have had to sell because I've not been able to walk after sailing them, but it isn't the sitting out which has caused the problems (after all, I perch...), but the shallow cockpit depth in light winds. Sadly, one of my favorite boats, the Tonic, was the worst, with narrow sidedecks and a very high false floor. Laser, not so much, as it is quite a big boat, so for someone of 11 stone, it is possible to sit on the deck more, especially as the inside edge is fairly near the centreline.

I have come to the conclusion that my bad back is as much due to pulling boats around on the shore as it is to the bending and twisting involved in actual sailing, though the sailing appears to do bad things to the already damaged muscles.

Just as well I'm not a windsurfer - not sure I could get used to the name change.

I have to say, it is only logical that folk who have knee issues through sailing are statistically more likely to have damaged them via the Laser due to it's popularity. Pretty much everyone I talked to at that FOM meet had at one time or other sailed a Laser and many in their formative years.

Personally I've noticed knee pain since I've gotten into single handers, but it comes not from hiking, it's all the kneeling on the iffy wind down wind legs and if I forget my bike downhill knee pads and use those crap Musto things that are next to useless for the task, I certainly know about it the next day.

Originally posted by Chris 249 Originally posted by kneewrecker Originally posted by bustinben When I visited a knee surgeon he rolled his eyes at me when I explained it to him... Laser sailor with a knee problem.... it's just a myth, a myth I tell you.  Any idea that the Laser creates a disproportionate number of knee injuries IS a myth, according to people like those who wrote the International Olympic Committee's book "Epidemiology of injury in Olympic sports", the sports scientists they quote, and champions like Steve Cockerill.  There are quite a few formal scientific studies on hiking and sailing injuries these days; I went through a lot of them a week or two ago at our Institute of Sport library. NONE of them said that Lasers posed a higher injury risk than any other dinghy. When people like the IOC medical commission PhDs and world champs say that Laser-type straight leg hiking puts LESS strain on the knee than normal hiking, isn't it reasonable to give them credence?  I'm married to a scientist and I work with others - they are not stupid, they are not ill-educated, and when they do formal studies it seems odd to call them BSers. OK, you may know people who have sailed Lasers and have bad knees, but that doesn't mean that we should ignore the science that says that Laser sailing does not cause more injuries than other boats. Lots of people sail Lasers and lots of people have bad knees (one study said that 10% of all sportspeople have had knee injuries) and since Lasers are the most popular adult boat around it's only logical that there some Laser sailors with bad knees. Saying that the two are causally related is like saying that because I know a lot of windsurfers called Steve, getting into windsurfing causes your name to be changed. I must say, though, I haven't met these guys crippled by Laser sailing myself; in fact at my last Laser regatta I heard two guys saying that they found Lasers to be EASIER on the knees than Tasars, the other dinghy class the three of us sail! PS - that was a very good post of yours at the top of page 15!

Originally posted by alanms The Aero is not made of PVC Foam

No, and I don't know of any that are. Like the RS800 its made from PU (polyurethane) foam with a thin fibre skin each side... And yes, given suitably ham handed handling doubtless it will dent.

Edited by JimC - 25 Jun 14 at 10:20am