Is LaserPerformance planning a new dinghy???

Xeon

Xeon

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tillerman said:
As a European you are incapable of understanding such brilliant American inventions as college sports, root beer, ranch dressing, and right turn on red. So I am not surprised that you don't get why the Sunfish is so popular in America, either. Your loss.
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I will give you , right turn on red and maybe college sports . :D

As for the others , your right I just don’t understand them (A bit like your country’s  love of guns) .

But I also don’t feel I am missing out on anything of any value either. 
I am not trying to pick a fight with anyone but  I stand by my option of Sunfish . But it’s only my option of the boat , NOT the people that sail them or the countries where they are sailed. 
 

That is definitely my last post about Sunfish for now.  :D

So it’s back to dissing/discussing the Pornstar  and I am off sailing . Happy sailing to everyone doing the same . 

 
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D

Der_Dude

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546
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Berlin, Germany
Wouldn‘t trade a Piccarooner for anything if I had one. Beautiful boat.

Technical aspects and style aside, LP is rather late to the party. Throwing this boat on the market 7 years after the Devoti Zero and the Aero Mixed up the market and at a time when many Laser sailors are buying new IlCA boats seems like a daring business plan.

 
D

Daniel Holman

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maxstaylock said:
That looks like it was designed by someone who has never sailed a dinghy, but once looked at a D One from a great distance.  There must be something nice about it, but just not seeing it yet.  Wide, but single toe strap.  Ergonomics looks like a version 1 prototype.  Half finished mainsheet system, what's the funny bridle for the ratchet block for?  That bit of orange cover round the front of the mast can't be a final version?  Not sure what the separate moulding around the mast step is for, except to look cool, and add complexity and expense, can they not design and build a hull stiff enough without it?  It's got a flat screen thing behind the mast, so it must be very tech.  I'm out.
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Ha ha very good.

Anyone know price point, actual rather than claimed weight?
I like the use of cork in some stuff but I wouldn't anticipate that looking very nice after a season.

Rig look OK?

 
Bill5

Bill5

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maxstaylock said:
That looks like it was designed by someone who has never sailed a dinghy, but once looked at a D One from a great distance.  There must be something nice about it, but just not seeing it yet.  Wide, but single toe strap.  Ergonomics looks like a version 1 prototype.  Half finished mainsheet system, what's the funny bridle for the ratchet block for?  That bit of orange cover round the front of the mast can't be a final version?  Not sure what the separate moulding around the mast step is for, except to look cool, and add complexity and expense, can they not design and build a hull stiff enough without it?  It's got a flat screen thing behind the mast, so it must be very tech.  I'm out.
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Unless it is ridiculously fast, and I can’t imagine how, this boat is going to be a tough sell. What gap does it fill? What does it do better than the other numerous boats in this sector? Is it really cheap? And I hope the wings are available in another colour. Any other colour.

 
B

Bored Stiff

Member
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Copenhagen
Surely anyone launching an international product into this space needs to worry about distribution, spares, brand etc.  All things LP have demonstrably struggled with.

And it needs green/sustainability credentials.  

 
Xeon

Xeon

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Dave Clark said:
Spoken as if you've never sailed one

DRC
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I said I wouldn’t comment again but as you’ve made this assumption.

Its very true I’ve never raced a racing version BUT

1) I have sailed them  at holiday centres and they are just about ok just to reach one way then the other with the hot sun on your back.

2) I am old enough to have messed about in the uks versions of a board boats , the minisail and the topper. 
The minisail was a boat that sold by the thousands until the Laser came along and it killed it stone dead.

I totally understand why Sunfish still has its place in the American market but that doesn’t  change my opinion of it as a sailboat .

Hell I hate the Solo too and that’s the largest singlehanded class in the uk.  :D

His is definitely my last post on this subject.

 
JimC

JimC

Not actually an anarchist.
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maxstaylock said:
  Wide, but single toe strap.  
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I've long thought that the sport needs a boat/method where destroying your knees with extreme hiking is not possible. Have you noticed that quite a number of sports are having to treat long term health problems caused by participation a lot more seriously than they used to? I suspect this is a theme that will grow, and many sports will need a rethink on rules/equipment. I don't think that's the solution, and indeed I've never managed to think of a practical fix for the issue, but given enough motivation who knows.

 
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martin 'hoff

martin 'hoff

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JimC said:
the sport needs a boat/method where destroying your knees with extreme hiking is not possible
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We have 2 actually – trapezing and the funny looking sliding seat on canoes... you do have to switch to the trapeze boat before your knees are busted from hikind as it does benefit from flexing the knees to get in and out (but it's not required).

 
M

maxstaylock

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Am always surprised how so many uk sailors think trapeezing is too difficult or dangerous, so they buy hiking from rack boats (Blaze, B14) or super wide hiking boats (RS300, RS100, Hadron, N12, Merlin), thinking them to be easier.  When a trapeze boats hit a hole, it's quite easy to just bend your legs, or swing yourself in, where the rack boats are busy teabagging, as they have to first get their bum back on board, then scramble inboard.  Then they get a gust, and if the trap sailor is a little slow extending, the boat heels a little with no drama, followed by a good pump, where the rack boats and the wide boats start dragging crap in the water to leeward, loosing the gust and sometimes loosing control.  It's almost like the 84 year old proven safe and comfortable technology that is trapeezing is still a secret weapon.  I was a Laser sailor as a youth, sometimes crewing on trapeeze boats with mates, I got my first helm from the wire boat (Contender) at 18.  In the Laser, regardless of skill, the gym bunnies with a high pain threshold would always get to the windward mark first in any breeze.  But the Contender was a revelation,  coming off the start line bow to bow with the whole fleet, with differences between how you responded to gusts and waves making the difference between fast and last.  Have tried many times to introduce my hiking buddies to trapeze boats, as they walk sorely about the dinghy park, but just get a blank look back, muttering 'too difficult'.  Every so often, one of them gets a bit brave and gets a high performance hiking boat, but it just takes one gusty offshore wind day of getting dunked before the covers go on it, never to come off again.  For non hiking non trap dinghies, see Foxer.  Surprisingly good boats and racing, perfect boats for growing old disgracefully, wish it were a bigger class.

 
JimC

JimC

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maxstaylock said:
Am always surprised how so many uk sailors think trapeezing is too difficult or dangerous,
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I think you are missing out that for many its simply not what they want to do. I have plenty of sea miles on both trapeze and sliding seat boats. Too difficult as in not competent is generally not the issue. The high performance boats are intrinsically very demanding. There's not much recovery time for the not so fit, there isn't much relaxation about them, they require a lot of committment, all that sort of thing. Also in light conditions, sub trapezing, or worse still gusty half in/half out, most trapeze singlehanders are frankly horriible to sail. And they are invariably very wet to sail. These things don't appeal to everyone. Its very striking that the market for high performance boats has shrunk spectacularly in recent years. When the 29er came out and became a highly popular youth class I thought we were in for a new golden age of high performance sailing with all those highly skilled and trained youngsters wanting to move into high perfoprmance adult classes. Hasn't happened. As far as I can see they mostly sail RS200s and the like!

 
Jethrow

Jethrow

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Metoxi said:
Often wondered if it would be possible to design a dinghy using a less extreme form of sliding seat that would provide a solution for those of us with failing knees and a dislike of shallow cockpits you have to kneel in.
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Like these... ;)

d-class-canoe-jpg.54339
        
E-Canoe.jpg


 
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JimC

JimC

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Metoxi said:
...a dislike of shallow cockpits you have to kneel in.
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I've never really sussed out the subtleties of the ergonomics. You never here of a Laser being described as a kneeling boat, and yet that's as shallow a cockpit as they come. I built my last Cherub. which was a design with a fair it of freeboard (rather more than a Fireball for instance) with as low a false floor as possible and substantial sidetanks,  but that was always a boat I wore out wetsuit knees in, but its predecessor wasn't. I sail ICs standing up or sitting on the plank, but plenty of other sailors kneel in them. Maybe its not so much the depth of the cockpit as whether there's something to sit on that's not covered in cleats. Dunno, never worked it out.

 
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