Laser 1 possibly very early #39

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Slingbat
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Laser 1 possibly very early #39

Post by Slingbat »

Found this on gumtree whilst having a browse, if sail number on old sail is correct this has got to be one of the oldest surviving laser kicking about, not my cup of tea personally but thought I would share

https://www.gumtree.com/p/boats-kayaks- ... 1273060254

Tom
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Re: Laser 1 possibly very early #39

Post by trebor »

I believe Looes S C have two early Lasers one in the 30's and one in the 70's.
Would they have a classic scene ?
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PeterV
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Re: Laser 1 possibly very early #39

Post by PeterV »

I think not, there were thousands of Lasers built before they started to come to Britain as far as I know, I think the first one Y and Y tested was probably in the 3000s. Besides, why would anyone go by sail number when so many clubs and schools numbered theirs 1,2,3.....
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Re: Laser 1 possibly very early #39

Post by realnutter »

When one sail has the digits 3 9 on it with a big gap between, and the other shows 10359, I think the number must be 10359!

It's still pretty early as the wooden foils attest...
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Re: Laser 1 possibly very early #39

Post by neil »

Are we really having a discussion about the Laser on the CVRDA forum?
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Re: Laser 1 possibly very early #39

Post by Michael Brigg »

Is someone trolling Neil?? :twisted:
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Re: Laser 1 possibly very early #39

Post by trebor »

David would say they are part of the dinghy narrative.
Never knew they started production elsewhere.
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Re: Laser 1 possibly very early #39

Post by Rupert »

The Laser started life in North America, I believe. I once heard that about 5000 were built before it came across here, but I have no idea if that is correct.

As for discussing it on here, it does remind us how nice our boats are!
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Re: Laser 1 possibly very early #39

Post by trebor »

That's true, swapping from Aquabat or Sprint into a Laser is quite a shock, never understood how it got so popular.
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Alan P.
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Re: Laser 1 possibly very early #39

Post by Alan P. »

I took delivery of a new Laser from the factory in Banbury in Feb 1974, sail no 12268.
But I was young and easily impressed. Had it for one year only. Sold and replaced by a six year old OK and so, at 17 years old, my world changed forever. I still have this OK today. K1211. Some of you may recall this boat.
12268 was lime green and had wooden foils and grab rails in the cockpit.
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Re: Laser 1 possibly very early #39

Post by davidh »

I would go further and say that it is hard to have any dialogue about the timeline of dinghy development that DOESN'T include the Laser. It isn't just part of the narrative, but from the 1970s onwards pretty much defined major segments of the narrative.

I understand the reluctance to even have the boat discussed in some quarters, but at the same time, I still get the occasional twinge of conscience that in all truth, the Laser is 'just another boat'. I saw one just recently with a genuine 4 digit sail number 8xxx, but couldn't help thinking that you couldn't have a more unloved dinghy. In theory at least you could stick a new sail on it and go and play with the big boys, but beyond that thought I knew this to be simply impossible - it would be totally outclassed. So what DO you do with a 4 digit sail number Laser? ILCA aren't interested in you or your problems, nor is anyone else!

It's like finding a floral polyester top or flare in the back of the cupboard - you loved them once and still love them deep down, but wouldn't be seen dead in them.....

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Re: Laser 1 possibly very early #39

Post by cweed »

Sadly I know a few things about Lasers, and this one is not early: The eggshell blue colour is circa a 130000 sail number, the grab rails are plastic, whereas the earlier boats with cream/ orange/ bright green hulls had magnolia decks and wood grabrails. The sail number would be impressed into the deck below the bow eye, until the telephone number sail numbers occurred, and as is correctly stated many were produced in North America before coming to Europe. Although there are wooden foils shown, I suspect this is a bitsa......
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Re: Laser 1 possibly very early #39

Post by Pat »

I know of a couple of early Lasers, 4 digit numbers in 6000s and 8000s and yes, tangerine and magnolia colour scheme and wooden grab rails.
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Re: Laser 1 possibly very early #39

Post by PeterV »

If you put a new sail on it you wouldn't necessarily be totally outclassed. I sailed a 21000 number Laser at the inlands a few years ago, the only boat over 5 years old in a fleet of over 100 and I finished in the top 20. This year I pulled my son's 85000 boat out of the garage and with its old sail won 2 races in our club's competitive Laser fleet. On the sea it wouldn't be competitive but you can upset a lot of people with a really old Laser inland!

But I'm not arguing we want them in CVRDA!
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Re: Laser 1 possibly very early #39

Post by LASERTOURIST »

Hello and happy new year
My first laser (bought second hand) was 17802 and the making year was 1974 centrebord was fiberglass with foam core (they reverted to wood for some time before using the hard foam on stainless steel rods because those early fiberglass/foam core foils tended to break.
Grab rails were wooden and i m pleased to say that this boat (well hull only) is still sailing today after some four different lives including some 10 years in a sailing school fleet.

The mast well cracked after some genius tried to make it watertight by pouring resin (the mast wouldnt go down enough in the step), but it has been repaired and the place where you sit isn't even soft. (the airex foam for this early boats was brown and quite hard, diferent from the later white stuff ).

The original sail (long gone) had the elvström crown and not the laser tag in the cunningham eye corner.

I understand that this industral boat hasn't much appeal to "boat lovers" who like to have a personalised, handcrafted boat...but back in the time it was something quite sensational: everybody had the same boat, money couldn't buy speed, it was back to the basics of sailing : (good starts , playing windshifts, close quarter tactics,proper sail trim eyes out of the boat instead of on the cleats and rope spaghettis) ...It was absolute heaven for the guys who hadn't a rich father .
Before thet i raced OK's but they weren't half as safe in heavy mistral, broached like mad downwind, most OK's we had in France were amateur built in the FFV molds lent to the clubs (and the top guys had some differnt shape and faster OK) the really god wooden masts were expensive and fragile,and had to be matched to oone sort of sail...

After some 2 or 3 seasons on the Laser i realised that i could win a 420 or Open DII windsurf race with inferior equipment because the "fast" guys relied to much on boatspeed and tended to skip the useful windshifts...and sometimes weren' t as fit phisically as they should have been.
All told the Laser is very much a milestone in boat history as the star (by the way,the original Laser class constitution was more or less copied on the star class constuitution) because , believe it or not, both were cheaper boats when designed, bringing new blood in the sport. The Star back in 1911 (OK that is LOOOONG ago) was some sort of poor man's yacht, with the simplified hard chine hull and almost flat bottom, as compared to the one off and Metric classes handcrafted with expensive wood and very specialized workers.

Granted the laser is currently way too expensive (Fazad Rastregar is a greedy and rather stupid sort of buisnessman), but back in the 70's and 80's it was such a fantastic improvement that it deserves at least some sort of credit
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