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Bruce Kirby (yacht Designer)
Bruce Robert William Kirby, (2 February 1929 – 19 July 2021) was a Canadian-born sailboat designer, dinghy and offshore racer and journalist. His designs spanned in size from the single-handed Laser dinghy to the 12-meter class Louis Vuitton Cup yacht, ''Canada One''. He continued his design work in his American company, Bruce Kirby Marine. Career Kirby was born in Ottawa. A Canadian newspaperman and former editor of ''Yacht Racing'' (predecessor to ''Sailing World''), he designed the Laser (dinghy), Laser in 1969. Kirby started as a reporter in Montreal before editing ''Yacht Racing'' and, in his spare time, taking up yacht design and drawing the Laser. In 1970 Kirby became editor of ''Yacht Racing'', where he stayed until 1975. Kirby's career began with the International 14 class, a developmental skiff with relatively few rules. Kirby designed several International 14s, winning the world championships in 1958 and 1961. Kirby also represented Canada at the Sailing at the Summe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laser Dinghy
The Laser is a class of single-handed, one-design sailing dinghies using a common hull design with three interchangeable rigs of different sail areas, appropriate to a given combination of wind strength and crew weight. Bruce Kirby designed the Laser in 1970 with an emphasis on simplicity and performance. The Laser is a widely produced class of dinghies. As of 2018, there were more than 215,000 boats worldwide. It is an international class with sailors in 120 countries, and an Olympic class since 1996. Its wide acceptance is attributable to its robust construction, simple rig and ease of sailing that offer competitive racing due to tight class association controls which eliminate differences in hull, sails, and equipment. The International Laser Class Association (ILCA) defines the specifications and competition rules for the boat, which is officially referred to as the ILCA Dinghy, due to a trademark dispute. Other "Laser"-branded boats of related designs include the Las ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
