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Oh yes, in many ways the Laser is a poster child for ballsing up change. The CA should have made rule changes to stamp on the stupid low profile tillers and the loops and knots in the control lines as soon as they appeared. If they'd done that there'd surely be nothing like the level of rig...

Going through the WS International Classes I can think of 49er, 505, Byte, GP14, Moth, Star and Tasar as having had significant rig changes at some time.

Yep. Larger jibs/genoas are a common mod on one design classes. Larger kites too. One thing I have observed is that there have been windy decades and quieter decades, and in the quieter decades classes tended to increase sail area.

This is a conversation that's been had many times before. What should not be denied is that the Laser system worked very effectively to build the biggest class in the world. The builder's monopolies enabled them to take out more from the class than other builders, and in return they put far more...

It seems Kirby was right though, and in the end the CA had to ditch the Laser branding just as he proposed. I wonder whether Heini Wellmann still thinks it was right to side with the contract breaker or whether he now agrees with his successors.

One has to be amused by the concept of ignoring a thread by regularly bumping it to the top of the list.

Sailing should be exciting and sailing politics should be dull. If its the other way round you have problems.

But according to everything I've read the contracts didn't give them that right. When I read what was made public the mesh of overlapping contracts gave each builder and trademark holder full control and protection in their area. The only way things could change were if a builder voluntarily...

Gouv ignores this thread like bears ignore honey...

The reason I posted an update before we all started wibbling on is that the war isn't really won. The fighting continues.

Recursive acronyms are kinda, well fashionable is the wrong word, kinda a thing in certain nerd circles. However I bet the real reason is that they are hoping the trademarks end up in more co-operative hands some day, and all builders can market their boats as Lasers.

The world has no shortage of folk who claim other folk are not in their right mind... https://earwigoagin.blogspot.com/2010/07/frankenboat-laser-to-maser.html

That's the point, it wasn't. Look, let's say it's before this mess started and there's a spectrum between fully compliant Laser and a frankenboat like the Lasers chopped up, shortened, rerigged, and converted to US Moth rules. Where on that spectrum, from a rules/sailing admin point of view...

From the POV of organised racing then no, it wouldn't be, at least according to an opinion I got from RYA rules service a few years ago. Equally, then, if you alter your legal ILCA/Laser so it stops being a legitimate ILCA, the same alteration would have stopped it being a legitimate Laser...

I submit you're being too cute. Because in class/out of class is a binary status boats can very easily stop being members of the class and then come back again. There's nothing special about the ILCA in that respect, just as true of the Aero or even the loosest of development classes. Heck, in...

Its seems rather silly doesn't it! Especially when all you have to do is temporarily tie a bit of string or something to the boat somewhere which technically puts it out of class, and then its no longer subject to ILCA authority. It would be interesting to know the reason for that phrase. I...

Here is the text of the Laser/ILCA Constitution change. http://www.laserinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ILCA-Constitution-Final-revision-for-voting-WITH-MARKUP.pdf Its a very considerable, even radical change. Much greater than I would have anticipated, which perhaps partially...

With hindsight that whole dubious fundamental rule change affair looks to have been a big error. Interesting of course that a leading architect of that affair went on to play a big role in the early days of 'theLaserClass'. Regulatory capture I suppose.

Its hard to see any logic in LPs actions. Even if they manage to evade all the damages it must have cost them at best hundreds of thousands in legal fees, all to avoid paying royalties which were chicken feed by comparison. It would be fascinating to hear what the thinking was behind their wars...

https://www.laserinternational.org/blog/2020/08/25/overview-of-ilca-finances-part-2/