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
Laser 2
The Laser 2, or Laser II, is a sailboat that was designed by New Zealander Frank Bethwaite and Canadian Ian Bruce as a one-design racer and first built in 1978.
Production
The design was built by Bruce's company, Performance Sailcraft, in ...
and
Laser Pico
The Laser Pico dinghy is a small sailboat designed by Jo Richards in the mid-1990s and used primarily for training and day sailing. It can be crewed by one or two children or an adult. Current models come equipped with both a mainsail and a jib, t ...
.
Production
![Laser Radial 160588 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Laser_Radial_160588_02.jpg)
The Laser is manufactured by different companies in different regions. They include
LaserPerformance
LaserPerformance is an Anglo-American dinghy manufacturer- the world's largest producer of small sailboats. LaserPerformance manufactures many sailboats including: Laser, Sunfish, Laser Pico, Bug, Laser Vago, Laser Bahia, Club FJ, Club 420, Z ...
in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and the Americas, Performance Sailcraft Australia in Oceania, and Performance Sailcraft Japan in Asia. In 2019, the Laser's status as an Olympic class was reviewed, and retained on the condition that the class complied with the Olympic equipment manufacturers (OEM) policy, allowing any suitably qualified manufacturer to supply boats and class equipment on a Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) basis. The move would potentially see a significant increase in the number of Laser producers.
Design
The boat's design began in 1969 with a phone call between Canadians Bruce Kirby and Ian Bruce. While discussing the possibility of a car-topped dinghy (a boat small enough to be carried on a roof rack of a typical car) for a line of camping equipment, Bruce Kirby sketched what would be known as "the million dollar doodle". The plans stayed with Kirby until 1970 when One Design and Offshore Yachtsman magazine held a regatta for boats under $1000, called "America's Teacup". Hans Fogh made the sail and helmed the prototype in the regatta. After a few sail modifications, the Laser easily won its class. The prototype was originally named the "Weekender"; the sail held the letters TGIF, a common American abbreviation for "Thank God it's Friday". In December 1970 Dave Balfour, a McGill engineering student, suggested the name Laser and contributed the Laser sail insignia. The Laser sailboat was officially unveiled at the New York Boat Show in 1971 where many purchase orders were placed.
Bruce and Kirby agreed to put the boat into production with Bruce manufacturing the craft and Kirby receiving royalties on each unit. As world-wide demand grew, they realized that regional licensing the manufacturing would deliver boats more economically than exporting them from Canada.
The Laser hull accommodates interchangeable rigs with different sail areas. This allows for a wide range of sailors to sail and compete in a range of wind conditions despite the Laser's small ideal crew weight range for a given rig. Three rigs are recognised by the International Laser Association: original
Laser standard with a sail area of 7.06 m²; the
Laser Radial
The Laser Radial or ILCA 6 is a popular one-design class of small sailing dinghy, originally built by Laser Performance. It is a singlehanded boat, meaning that it is sailed by one person. The Laser Radial is a variant of the Laser standard, ...
with a sail area of 5.76 m²; and the
Laser 4.7
The Laser 4.7 or ILCA 4 is a one-design dinghy class in the Laser series and is a one-design class of sailboat. All Lasers are built to the same specifications. The Laser is 4.06 m (13 ft 10 in) long, with a waterline length of 3.81 m (12&n ...
with a sail area of 4.7 m².
The Laser's hull is constructed from
fibreglass
Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...
. The deck has a foam layer underneath for strength and buoyancy. The
daggerboard
A daggerboard is a retractable centreboard used by various sailing craft. While other types of centreboard may pivot to retract, a daggerboard slides in a casing. The shape of the daggerboard converts the forward motion into a windward lift, cou ...
is removable for storage and transport. The dinghy is manufactured by independent companies under licence in different parts of the world, including Performance Sailcraft Australia (Oceania) and Performance Sailcraft Japan.
As a one-design class of sailboat, all Lasers are built to the same specifications specified in the Laser Construction Manual. The association carries out inspections on manufacturers to ensure that boats are being made to the correct design. These factory specifications are the measurement of boats in a traditional sense. Sailors are prohibited from making any changes to the hull, sail, and spars unless specifically and positively permitted by the rules and are only allowed to use original parts. At regattas, boats are not measured, but rather inspected to ensure conformity with the rules.
The Laser hull is long, with a
waterline length
A vessel's length at the waterline (abbreviated to L.W.L)Note: originally Load Waterline Length is the length of a ship or boat at the level where it sits in the water (the ''waterline''). The LWL will be shorter than the length of the boat over ...
of . The hull weight is , which makes the boat light enough to lift onto a car-top rack.
The various sizes of Laser are all
cat-rigged
A catboat (alternate spelling: cat boat) is a sailboat with a single sail on a single mast set well forward in the bow of a very beamy and (usually) shallow draft hull. Typically they are gaff rigged, though Bermuda rig is also used. Most are ...
. The Laser Standard sail has a sail area of .
The Laser uses a
Portsmouth Yardstick
The Portsmouth Yardstick (PY) or Portsmouth handicap scheme is a term used for a number of related systems of empirical handicapping used primarily in small sailboat racing.
The handicap is applied to the time taken to sail any course, and the han ...
of 1097 for racing involving other classes.
The equivalent yardstick in North America is the D-PN, which is 91.1 for a Laser.
The Laser is designed to be sailed single-handed although class rules permit two sailors.
Variants
Lasers can be rigged with a variety of rigs. Three of these rigs, the Standard, Radial and 4.7 are recognised by the International Laser Association, while other rigs have also been developed by third parties and are also available.
Laser Standard
![Laser dinghy](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Laser_dinghy.svg)
The Laser Standard, or ILCA 7, is the original Laser rig. It has been sailed as the Olympic men's singlehanded dinghy since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Laser Radial
In Europe the smaller Laser Radial, or ILCA 6, has surpassed the original Laser Standard sail in popularity and replaced the
Europe Dinghy as the Women's Singlehanded Dinghy for the 2008 Olympics. The Radial uses the same hull and fittings as the Laser Standard, but has a smaller sail (5.8 m²) than the Standard with a different cut, and has a shorter lower mast section. Optimal weight for this rig is . The Laser Radial rig has a UK Portsmouth Yardstick number of 1139.
Laser 4.7
A smaller sail plan for the Laser, the Laser 4.7 or ILCA 4, was developed about a decade after the Laser Radial. The sail area was reduced by 35% from the Standard (from ) with a shorter, pre-bent bottom mast section, allowing even lighter sailors to sail it. The same formula as the Radial is kept. The hull is the same as the Standard and Radial. The optimal weight for this rig is , thus becoming an ideal boat for young sailors moving from the
Optimist/
RS Tera
The RS Tera is a one-man monohull dinghy in the RS Sailing range of sailing boats. It is recognised by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) as an international class, and is a popular boat for beginners and for children to race.
Perfo ...
who are still too light for a normal Laser. The Laser 4.7 rig has a UK Portsmouth Yardstick number of 1200.
Operational history
The Laser is raced worldwide from club levels to international and Olympic competitions.
Laser world championships are held in all three rigs and across junior, open, and masters age groups. In total in 2019, the Laser class association awarded 11 world championships. Places for world championships are limited due to high demand and are allotted to countries on the basis of the number of paid association members in each country.
In the Olympics, men race in Laser Standards and women race in Laser Radials.
Class association
The ILCA governs boat specifications and competition. The class association operates on four levels: the world level; a regional level based around continents; a district level based around states in the USA and Australia, and nations elsewhere; and at a local fleet level. The association plays a major role in ensuring conformity to Laser class rules worldwide.
Litigation
Bruce Kirby withdrew the license he had issued to LaserPerformance and later filed a lawsuit against LaserPerformance and Farzad Rastegar
on March 4, 2013, claiming non-payment of design royalties. Kirby also claims that the LaserPerformance boats have had issues with quality and parts availability. Kirby required the
International Sailing Federation
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
on March 25, 2013, to ask the International Laser Class Association to stop issuing ISAF license plaques to LaserPerformance (Europe) Limited, claiming that LaserPerformance were no longer a licensed builder.
Instead ISAF and the ILCA issued a new plaque design,
and changed the class rules so that a builder no longer needed to be licensed by Bruce Kirby.
Bruce Kirby Inc. has licensed the sailboat design under the new class name, "Kirby Torch", grandfathering Lasers bearing the "Bruce Kirby" plaque into the new class.
[
][
] On August 12, 2016, Bruce Kirby's claims were dismissed by the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.
In 2019 the ILCA moved against Laser Performance (the UK licensed builder which also owned the trademark on the Laser name) and withdrew its right to build officially measured boats. The ILCA has chosen the new name of "ILCA Dinghy" for the boat.
In 2020, the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut found boat builder Quarter Moon (QMI) and LaserPerformance (Europe) Limited (LPE) liable for a sum of $6,857,736, payable to Kirby.
See also
*
Laser 2
The Laser 2, or Laser II, is a sailboat that was designed by New Zealander Frank Bethwaite and Canadian Ian Bruce as a one-design racer and first built in 1978.
Production
The design was built by Bruce's company, Performance Sailcraft, in ...
, a double-handed dinghy.
*
LaserPerformance
LaserPerformance is an Anglo-American dinghy manufacturer- the world's largest producer of small sailboats. LaserPerformance manufactures many sailboats including: Laser, Sunfish, Laser Pico, Bug, Laser Vago, Laser Bahia, Club FJ, Club 420, Z ...
, the manufacturer of many dinghies such as
Laser Pico
The Laser Pico dinghy is a small sailboat designed by Jo Richards in the mid-1990s and used primarily for training and day sailing. It can be crewed by one or two children or an adult. Current models come equipped with both a mainsail and a jib, t ...
,
Laser Stratos
The Laser Stratos is an all-round cruising and racing boat designed by Phil Morrison and built by LaserPerformance, the same company as the famous Laser Standard dinghy. It is built from fibre-glass and foam sandwich. The Laser Stratos comes ...
and the Laser.
*
Laser Pico
The Laser Pico dinghy is a small sailboat designed by Jo Richards in the mid-1990s and used primarily for training and day sailing. It can be crewed by one or two children or an adult. Current models come equipped with both a mainsail and a jib, t ...
, a small double-handed dinghy designed by Jo Richards in the 1990s mainly for family use
*
Laser 4.7
The Laser 4.7 or ILCA 4 is a one-design dinghy class in the Laser series and is a one-design class of sailboat. All Lasers are built to the same specifications. The Laser is 4.06 m (13 ft 10 in) long, with a waterline length of 3.81 m (12&n ...
*
Laser 28
The Laser 28 is a Canadian-built sailboat designed by New Zealander Bruce Farr and first produced in 1984.
Production
The boat was built by Performance Sailcraft, the builder of the Laser dinghy, in Canada from 1984 until 1990, but it is now ...
*
Laser Radial
The Laser Radial or ILCA 6 is a popular one-design class of small sailing dinghy, originally built by Laser Performance. It is a singlehanded boat, meaning that it is sailed by one person. The Laser Radial is a variant of the Laser standard, ...
*
Laser World Championships The Laser World Championship have been held every year since 1974, organized by the International Sailing Federation.
Laser is an Olympic sailing class.
Editions
Medalists
Multiple medallist
See also
*ISAF Sailing World Championships
* Men' ...
Similar boats
*
Impulse (dinghy)
The Impulse is an Australian sailing dinghy that was designed by Arthur Caldwell as a one-design racer and first built in 1975.
Production
The design was originally intended as a wooden boat for amateur construction, but has more recently ...
*
RS Aero
The RS Aero is a British sailing dinghy that was designed by Jo Richards as a one-design racer and first built in 2014.
Production
The design is marketed and distributed by RS Sailing of Romsey, United Kingdom.
Design
The RS Aero is a singl ...
*
Phantom (dinghy)
The Phantom is a British sailing dinghy that was designed by Paul Wright (naval architect), Paul Wright and Brian Taylor (naval architect), Brian Taylor as a one-design Sailing (sport), racer and first built in 1971.
Production
The design was ...
References
External links
ILCA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laser (Dinghy)
Dinghies
Olympic sailing classes
Classes of World Sailing
1960s sailboat type designs
Sailboat type designs by Bruce Kirby
Sailboat types built by Performance Sailcraft