Cheers for that. It made interesting reading . 😀
Lasers - Applying a Blow Torch
- Thread starter Otterbox
- Start date
Dex Sawash
Demi Anarchrist
I'm developing a fresh new opinion for the blowtorch thread, I shall reveal it "soon"
Wess
Super Anarchist
Especially Canadian ones!
Lordy it’s easy to rile folks up here. But seriously a level playing field is just that. The new controls made builders and the class richer and sailors poorer as the boats (or at least the rigs) now break with some regularity. So buy the new upgraded rigs you say. And there we go again. More money for the builders and class and less money for sailors. And the racing ain’t no better. A level playing field is a level playing field. You added very few to none to the game and likely lost some as a result of ever increasing costs.
Lemmings! Good grief…
RobbieB
Super Anarchist
What kind of rigging did your fire sale Rasty "Laser" come with?
Wess
Super Anarchist
All of them came with the old ones. But I got 3 Lasers for the price of 1 ILCA. And those 3 LPEs have beaten quite a few ILCAs on the race course!! From Charleston to New England and now on to Pearl and then Guam. Well 2 of em anyway. An interesting experience and experiment!
Last edited:
tillerman
Super Anarchist
1. Handicap racing is more popular in the UK than it is in the US. This makes it much easier for the first person in each club who wants to buy a new design.
2. Population density in people per square mile is 94 in the US and 700 in the UK. This means that even if you do establish a fleet of a new design at your club in the US, you may well be a long distance away from other clubs, so it's harder to establish a local regatta circuit or to spread a new class from club to club.
Last edited:
Bill5
Right now
Well, I was 6’2”, 180 lbs and fit as hell when the old, shit controls were standard. It was a HUGE advantage when the wind piped up. I had all the tricks down for rounding up, jumping on the boom to hammer on the vang, hitting the outhaul then grabbing the c’ham as I threw my ass over the side. Meanwhile, shorter lighter folks were fucked. Even those that weren’t wimps. But in spite of my advantage, I couldn’t stand the Mickey Mouse rigging. Pathetic. A joke. So I quit Lasers and sailed an IC and crewed on a Fireball for a few years. When I did get back into the Laser, the new gear had been introduced. Amazing difference. Sailing was better. Closer competition. Women and kids having fun with smaller rigs without being scared shitless when the breeze came up. And it actually felt like I was sailing and controlling a boat rather than just trying to outmuscle people. Full value for the $500 or whatever it is for the upgrade. And, FFS Wess, ILCA get $7 on the vang. $7. That’s a latte for you. You remain, as always, dead wrong, misled, confused and dead wrong, Wess. Keep it up! PM me if you want some sound advice…
Wess
Super Anarchist
Who knew the racing sucked so bad before the changes?!
Oh wait… it didn’t. Just more revisionist history from lemming ILCA apologists!
Oh wait… it didn’t. Just more revisionist history from lemming ILCA apologists!
Last edited:
RobbieB
Super Anarchist
Which rig was being sailed in Charleston?
Wess
Super Anarchist
I do not recall.
Martin T
Anarchist
I started sailing Lasers in 1990 & nobody used a 3:1 kicker or the old ratio cuningham or outhaul. Every control line had loops tied in them with stainless steel thimbles fitted, increasing the ratios. You had to learn how to knit to rig up!
Also we found more people bent top mast sections, due to not letting off the kicker on the bearaway & capsizing at speed.
So to me the updated controls were a god send, getting people to actually adjust things out on the water, rather than just setting them on shore & leaving them. This made the racing better as the sailing experience & enjoyment improved.
What I also liked was you didn't have to upgrade everything in one go, therefore spreading the cost. You needed to replace the lines more often back then because the extra loops created wear points & you could only end for end the line once! Once you upgraded, the lines last years longer, so in the long run the new systems work out cheaper.
Also we found more people bent top mast sections, due to not letting off the kicker on the bearaway & capsizing at speed.
So to me the updated controls were a god send, getting people to actually adjust things out on the water, rather than just setting them on shore & leaving them. This made the racing better as the sailing experience & enjoyment improved.
What I also liked was you didn't have to upgrade everything in one go, therefore spreading the cost. You needed to replace the lines more often back then because the extra loops created wear points & you could only end for end the line once! Once you upgraded, the lines last years longer, so in the long run the new systems work out cheaper.
Gouvernail
Lottsa people don’t know I’m famous
I remember helping little kids to set up their boats before leaving shore.
We would pull on the vang until the boom wouid just clear the tiller. The outhaul line would have a stopper knot do try could simply uncleat it and let it go to the downwind setting.
We put a big handle on the cunningham so they could pull hard for upwind, and a stopper knot so they could simply uncleat it for downwind.
In anything under about 12, the best of the little brats would fly by us on the reaches and runs.
One Wednesday evening I remember a little kid having won the last race (largely because the rules of that race were “nobody crosses ahead of “name withheld” on the first beat. )
He sailed by his dad who was watching the races from the point and yelled, “I won! I won the last race”
His shit for brains useless excuse for a human being father yelled back, “They let you win.”
Three or four decades later I still wish I had walked over to that piece of shit and decked him. What a fucking asshole!!!
We would pull on the vang until the boom wouid just clear the tiller. The outhaul line would have a stopper knot do try could simply uncleat it and let it go to the downwind setting.
We put a big handle on the cunningham so they could pull hard for upwind, and a stopper knot so they could simply uncleat it for downwind.
In anything under about 12, the best of the little brats would fly by us on the reaches and runs.
One Wednesday evening I remember a little kid having won the last race (largely because the rules of that race were “nobody crosses ahead of “name withheld” on the first beat. )
He sailed by his dad who was watching the races from the point and yelled, “I won! I won the last race”
His shit for brains useless excuse for a human being father yelled back, “They let you win.”
Three or four decades later I still wish I had walked over to that piece of shit and decked him. What a fucking asshole!!!
tillerman
Super Anarchist
Oh yeah, the silly rope tricks era. Best forgotten.
RobbieB
Super Anarchist
I think it didn't happen. I just ran all the scores today for our annual series of events, (part of the do-nothing secretary duties) getting ready for our annual District awards. I also participated in the Charleston area opens this year and went 2-1 in the 7 rig events. No "new" boats were ahead of me or behind me, (except 1 ZIM boat and 1 PSA). The 6 rigs were thin compared to last year, (in the Charleston events) due to some higher-level Jr events. I know most of the new kids in 4 rigs and the usual suspects did well there also. That fleet is peppered with older boats and, new ZIM ILCA's and a couple of PSA's. Overall for the series though we've had 52 different 7 rig, 52 different 6 rig and 42 different 4 rig sailors participate across 6 different events.I do not recall.
Wess
Super Anarchist
Silly rope tricks were great! And what didn’t happen was and is a NA ILCA builder “soon.” Beyond that do you really think I am going to out them. A red neck I might be but that stupid I ain’t LOL.
tillerman
Super Anarchist
Sounds like ILCA sailing heaven.
Best joke you’ve ever told 😂😂😂😂😂😂
100% agree. It just shows that the model that works in one country may be impossible in another country.
Australia has some of the same issues; in some areas handicap racing is popular but there's still an emphasis on class racing within handicap fleets, whereas in other areas handicap racing is almost unknown. And we have the same (or greater) issue with distance. But on the other hand, with a much smaller population we may find it easier to make grass roots changes, especially since dinghy racing isn't as much under the shadow of big boats as in the USA.
You're passionately dishonest, aren't you? What sort of pathetic person lies just to troll people on SA? That takes a special level of dishonesty.
We are not lemmings, nor ILCA apologists. We're just honest and we have an understanding of the way the class works. If it's easy to rile us, it's because honest people often find liars like you to be as frustrating as they are disgusting.
Oh, and the new controls made the playing field MORE level, as many people have explained to you, because it allowed women, youth and masters to play with the rig as well as the fit adult males did. But since you are the sort of weirdo who lies to annoy people, that probably won't stop your BS.
