Ovington Laser

And this is a marketing video so shows the process at its best. Imagine the glass content is pretty identical for all boats. Resin content must vary with a hand layup and bonding paste all looks a bit slap dash. This could be controlled but at a cost. Then it comes down to tooling / jigging to ensure mast tube, board case etc all spot on. 

Interesting to see what happens. 

Isn't one of the causes of all this that LPE weren't working to the manual/and-or would not allow an inspection so someone could verify if they were, having been put upon enquiry. 

Certainly one of the guys at our club bought a new one for his lad who sails the 4.7 circuit, and when boats there were compared they were all over the shop, in terms of rake and even (IIR) lower mast section pre-bend.

So as to JimC's better boat, is that better than the next one or better than the shoddy efforts Laser sailors have been saddled with historically? I can't imagine Devoti, Nautivela or Ovi (don't know the others on Jeffers' list but I suspect RS would counsel against a Thai builder given recent experience) compromising themselves and building down to past dodgy standards. 

IMO that's the problem with a 'build manual' or 'specification' versus one or two centrally controlled factories under one badge/organisation ... This kind of guide is exactly that, a guide, it's not an absolute and is only as good a measurement and tolerance guide as its enforcement. The reality of an open market with choices for buyers is to incentivise the builders to look for advantage; you get a reputation for making 'the best' of something and you get the lion's share of the orders, and that counts for development classes and ODs, for example (respectively) Ovi's successful i14's and FF's.

One of the off-putting aspects of the L*ser long term has been this inconsistency and boatpark myth stuff, it was marketed like a SMOD but built a lot like a restricted OD class.