Martin T

How about a gimballed glass holder for your G&T...lol

The main site here in the UK is www.apolloduck.uk, but I see the US site https://www.apolloduck.com/countries/usaonly has one dinghy for sale...lol

Sailing Chandlery here in the UK has sold a few going by the photo's they put up of new owners on their Tweeter page.

I see Lasers are still faster than ILCA's!

On my Laser I use Rooster Polilite 6mm for light airs & 7mm for heavy airs.

Maybe it's a manufacturing fault in the track. Could the machine that the track is extruded on leave a score mark? A bit like when cutting glass, score & then clean break at the mark. I think i'd check the rest of the track for similar size/style of marking. It seems strange that the photos you showed of your mast & someone else's mast, have almost identical size/shape pieces missing.

How about padding the bunks out with plenty of foam sheeting strips to maybe even the load along the bunks a bit.

Why do you think the Zim boats have a missing outhaul block, when there is no minimum number of blocks stipulated in the rules? My boat is fitted with the original design XD outhaul which only has 5 turning points & in my mind works perfectly. (f) Outhaul – also see Rules 3(a) & 3(b) i. The outhaul system shall consist of a maximum of two control lines, “Optional” blocks or loops for purchase and a maximum of 6 “Turning Points”.

Personally I don't think the upgrades make the boat any quicker, all they do is make adjusting things easier. When I started sailing Lasers 30 years ago, people used to set their outhaul & kicker before launching, never adjusting them on the water! Then they wondered why they couldn't bearaway at the windward mark, the boom hitting the water & then game over! Also lots of broken top sections & booms all because they couldn't manage to let the kicker off. Now with these new systems it makes it easier, encourages people to adjust the controls & learn what they do. Maki

What ever happened to the C-rigs that were being developed?

Sounds quite interesting? Team racing was or is very popular with universities here in the UK. You have a team of up to 4 boats in each team & you race against another team of boats. The results are based on the average score of all the boats in a team. It's very tactical racing, as members of the team try to help each other by blocking the other teams boats, so to get a good average score.

If you watch race 3, in the preamble they explain it. There is an exclusion zone of several hundred metres around all ships & ferries written into the 18's notice of race.

Bet that caused some traffic congestion & some pissed off drivers...lol

Very good...lol

Agree very jealous! My boat is locked in the clubs dinghy park, out of bounds due to lockdown over here :-(