Laser Replica Sails

Originally posted by Jamie600 Originally posted by Peaky Or, why doesn't someone start secondhandlasersails.com to trade cheap season old legal sails? There must be plenty of supply and demand for such a service.   Many years ago Mark Littlejohn did a trade-in service, it was very useful when I was rolling through Laser sails as I could in effect get a new one for half price by trading in the old one with around 6-12 months use.   Maybe that service died out with the introduction of ebay?

I bought a couple of nice sails from Mark back in the day, and was very pleased with them. Mark was very honest about how he described his sails though, which isn't something I'd say about the second hand Laser sails I've seen on Ebay !   

Originally posted by Peaky Why don't those who want to race Laser hulls with non Laser sails start their own class association? ....

I don't think anyone wants that to happen.
It could easily get bigger than the official Laser CA.

From the people I talk to, I think the rep sail using club sailors are generally quite happy with their relationship with the ILCA event attending superstars and yoof squaddies etc.

The only real world friction I've seen is at a certain big multi-class club regatta week, where club sailors turned up with rep sails, including some kids and people with old boats. They'd have never have gone to a Laser Open, but this was a local summer thing that all the local clubs worked their calendar around.

Originally posted by iGRF I think one useful thing that could be required of replica sails, that could result from such an organisation (none class sail users assoc)could be a measurement certificate. I bet if you collated a group of 'replica' sails there would be an uncomfortable divergence in sizes.

I don't think so, they fit on the same metal sticks and don't have long battens or headboards.
If people were putting serious effort into rep-sail development, shape and fullness would be what we should be looking at.
And maybe different cloths that make the cunningham work better...

Luckily people just want to club race with an affordable sail that will work reasonably well for more than half a season.

Well 'they' replica sail makers are doing very nicely with replica new look radial sails that have produced an entire beat lead in what I'd say was a tad on the unprecedented side for a lead in our close knit mackerel feet, smelt like something dodgy going on from where I was watching.

Originally posted by jeffers Originally posted by iGRF I think one useful thing that could be required of replica sails, that could result from such an organisation (none class sail users assoc)could be a measurement certificate. I bet if you collated a group of 'replica' sails there would be an uncomfortable divergence in sizes. Having seen the variation of the class legal item I am confident that a replica would be no worse and in fact might even be better.....

My experience of various replica sails is that they are pretty basic, and aren't exactly the last word in quality or design. Which for £120 or so is fair enough. I don't get where this feeling comes from that replica sails might be "better" than a class legal sail?    At my club its the guys and kids with old boats who tend to sail with replicas, not the guys at the front of the fleet. Or am I missing something?