Laser Hull Weight

Yes  it can. so if your buying a  new one make sure you know the weight.

I can remember carrying them around upright when we needed to get a Black magic out ( allways seemed to be at the back for some reason?) and you could tell a heavy  one very easily.

The guy that selected the decks and hulls used to like a pint on Thursday so it was not uncommon for a super light or very heavy one to come out on Thursdays which is why as a moth sailor then I used to giggle to myself that the weight varince was 25% of my total hull weight

I'm sure this sort of thing goes on in just about any factory. Anybody else out there have experience?

Originally posted by Inland sea Many years ago I used to work for performance sailicraft in Banbury. Hull weight used to vary hugely. There was a very famous tale that for the world championships a certain famous sailor had all the boats down (they used to be stored stood on there transom like dominos And yes they did fall down at times ) and he weighed them all ... then put masts in them all and basically chose the best hull and spars from a selection of 40. I'm not sure if the tolerances have been tightend up scince it became an Olympic boat but variences of 10kg was not uncommon. It definately wasn't the case that extra resin was poored in as a heavy deck tended to be matched to a light hull to give the closest weight possible. I can't remember for sure but 125lbs seems to stick in my mind as the minimum weight

Feckin hell, that's unreal.  I'd be peeved if there was a 1% variation on a one design hull, but 10kg is crazy (if it's true).

 

 

I know there was similar variance (i.e. 5-10kg) between the SMODs chucked out for Topper in the White Formula ISO, Blaze, Buzz, Spice, Boss etc... days and it wouldn't be overly suprising to find similar variance between RS boards, particularly from those produced in the very busy days of RS200/400 production some years back - GRP/FRP production by hand just can't be that tightly controlled....

.....what you've got to hope for is that some quality control is imposed in the factory to weed out the very heavy hull/deck combos before they exit the back doors = you certainly don't normally get a chance to weigh your new (SMOD) boat when taking delivery but I know a few who have and one who even returned the boat to the builder, only to find they just sold it to someone else!

production by hand just can't be that tightly controlled....

Lots of issues there.  In fact good control can be imposed.  It is common to weight deck and hull mouldings and 'match' them to reduce the end product variance.  And if things are well run to actually reject mouldings that fall outside of a controlled range in the first place.  We've done it in the last year when needed, it's not something we want to do obviously but if you need to do it  etc ...

The key is to have realistic minimum weight limits and have a build that allows you to actually get to it or slightly below without a struggle.  Then ALL boats can be bought up to the minimum plus say 0.5kg. 

We are switching to epoxy for Blaze production with Rondar as well as making some other engineering and deck tooling changes for 2008 - NOT to reduce typical weight but we are doing it to ensure we can follow the above approach reliably.  Our epoxy boats will be no lighter than our 2007 polyester ones - intentionally.  I should say the vast majority of the previous White Formula built Blazes were well constructed and the range in in terms of weight was low.  The Blaze was always foamed and vacuum bagged from day one and older boats  regularly prove their full competitiveness today.  A good old one well sorted and with a decent sail is the equal of any other Blaze - see how few used ones are ever available !  We simply want to build our boats to a tighter target weight and faster than is possible with polyester and to meet growing demand efficiently. 

Owners do want the assurance that they are getting a fully competitive boat, down to weight and as light as the next one.   It is daft that anyone should have to consider examining multiple hulls to get a 'good' one.  It is easier to build accurately to a target weight in epoxy but there is a price premium, otherwise all boats would, I think, be built in epoxy .  Many however hype epoxy too much - it's a great material for racing boats, very strong, easier to predict finished weight and is highly durable over the long term.  However foam sandwiched and vacuumed bagged polyester can be extremely good as well, racing competitiveness can still be very long (eg Tasar)  and many will argue that it is even better than epoxy in some uses.  However it is more difficult to be consistent with polyester as opposed to epoxy in relation to eventual weight, that is down to basic characteristics of the material and the chemical processes involved ... and yes the approach of the builder.

Blaze720 (aka Cirrus Raceboats)


            

Now I know why I don;t do very well in Laser Races, I have a heavy boat!!! Right time to get the weigh scales out!