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Steve411 ![]() Really should get out more ![]() ![]() Joined: 09 Sep 08 Location: Cheddar, Somerset, England Online Status: Offline Posts: 701 |
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I sailed a Laser for the first time in 30 years yesterday. I also found 5p in the dinghy park so I was lucky on two fronts.
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jeffers ![]() Really should get out more ![]() ![]() Joined: 29 Mar 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 3024 |
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Definitely. For cheap thrills and good racing you cannot go far wrong. Until you reach a certain age and cannot live with the downside. Horses for courses, I would say a majority of the UK dinghy population has sailed a laser at least once.
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Paul
---------------------- D-Zero GBR 74 |
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RS400atC ![]() Really should get out more ![]() Joined: 04 Dec 08 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2957 |
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A laser gives you a simple boat, loads of people to race against so you can gauge your performance. It's not slow in a breeze either. And for a club level boat, excellent value. Buy a used one, sail it a few years and depreciation and other costs will be pretty low. Any of the alternatives can go out of fashon and cost you a bomb in depreciation. That matters to some people. |
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jeffers ![]() Really should get out more ![]() ![]() Joined: 29 Mar 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 3024 |
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I find it responds to brute force rather than finesse in most conditions. However some of the best racing I have had dinghy sailing has been in a Laser. I just decided I didn't like being in pain for days after due to the ergonomics so (eventually) moved on.
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Paul
---------------------- D-Zero GBR 74 |
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bustinben ![]() Far too distracted from work ![]() Joined: 15 Oct 06 Online Status: Offline Posts: 288 |
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It all depends on how you define rewarding after all. In some ways the fact that the laser is an utter pig to sail is its strength. It's very difficult to get it to sail well, and learning to do so is what can give you that sense of reward. There's nothing that your sailmaker can tell you, or a bunches of settings you can tweak to make the boat go. It's all about you and how you interact with it.
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Rupert ![]() Really should get out more ![]() Joined: 11 Aug 04 Location: Whitefriars sc Online Status: Offline Posts: 8764 |
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He was just poddling around, no fleet, no racing.
On the other hand, we had a couple of Aeros out racing yesterday, with a skilled sailor in the 9, and it was flying along. Looked like he was having fun, too! |
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Firefly 2324, Lightning 130, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446
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jeffers ![]() Really should get out more ![]() ![]() Joined: 29 Mar 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 3024 |
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A Laser can be very rewarding to sail especially in a good fleet. However there are lots of boats that give a better sailing experience but none of them have the worldwide critical mass of the Laser.
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Paul
---------------------- D-Zero GBR 74 |
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zippyRN ![]() Far too distracted from work ![]() Joined: 14 Sep 06 Online Status: Offline Posts: 437 |
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I think most people can put arguments that SMODs are unrefined in some nature
I wouldn't call the laser unrewarding by any stretch ofthe imagination, yes it;s hard work at times , it rewards good technique ( i.e. becasue of it's lack of rudder authority ) |
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Oinks ![]() Far too distracted from work ![]() Joined: 24 Oct 14 Location: Bandol Online Status: Offline Posts: 259 |
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Well, I did say it was my point of view, that implies others may have - and are perfectly entitled to - a different point of view. And my POV is the result of what I see and hear. Perfectly valid. I moved on from Lasers years ago and I consider the class I sail now is a more refined and more rewarding boat to sail. Others hold a similar view. Indeed, some years ago an ex-Laser European Champ said to me along the lines ... "don't understand why I didn't change classes years ago". The Laser remains one of the most active, popular, competitive classes on the planet - for perfectly good reasons - but in much the same way that a Ford Fiesta is one of the best selling cars. And compared to other cars I'd say it is less refined and less rewarding to drive. Again just my POV.
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Chris 249 ![]() Really should get out more ![]() ![]() Joined: 10 May 04 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2041 |
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The Laser has not been set in concrete for years - it got a new big sail very recently. To see the Laser as suffering from an "appalling lack of development" is a very one-eyed, UK-centric point of view. That is, of course, fine on a UK forum in some ways, but it's also reasonable to point out that it's a parochial viewpoint. In most places, most people don't really see any need for development in the way the UK does, because dinghy sailing has a different structure. To many of us, development in a one design boat is appalling because it destroys the very nature of a SMOD. Why on earth would I want a "better" Laser when the main reason I sail them is because there isn't really any such thing? Any international class has to come to terms with the basic issue that there is a different (and I do mean different, NOT better or worse) attitude to development in other countries. One may as well say that the Supernova is a joke. The old boats are now significantly heavier and yet the class is still ridiculously small and parochial, the new boats are still appallingly slow and still appallingly uncomfortable from some points of view. But what is the point of us sitting here and slinging c**p at other people who dare to have different needs, desires and tastes? It's all relative - to some of us the idea of rating this sort of boats according to their speed is like rating a bonsai tree according to its height. And what is wrong with merely allowing other people to like the boat they like? Sorry to continue the thread diversion, but it did start with someone choosing to have a got at Lasers in a topic about another boat. Edited by Chris 249 - 05 Jun 16 at 10:08am |
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