The Laser 28 is a Canadian-built

sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminolo ...

Bruce Farr Bruce Kenneth Farr (born 1949 in Auckland) is a New Zealand designer of racing and cruising yachts. Farrdesigned boats have won, challenged for, or placed highly in the Whitbread Round the World Race, America's Cup, and Sydney to Hobart Yacht R ...

and first produced in 1984.

Production

The boat was built by Performance Sailcraft, the builder of the

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 ...

, in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

from 1984 until 1990, but it is now out of production. Production-level manufacturing was started in March 1984 and the first customer deliveries were made in October 1984 Early versions were hand-laid, while later ones were produced using a closed-mold process. The company specifically planned that the Laser 28 would be the sole

keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open w ...

offered and did not intend to produce a graduated line of boats, unlike other manufacturers at that time.

Development

The Laser 28's design started in 1978, following the success of the

, with the intention to produce a keelboat equivalent, for the Laser sailors who would outgrow the Laser, just need a keelboat as they aged, or for family cruising and racing. In 1980 Ian Bruce, president of Performance Sailcraft decided to take the boat design away from that company to reduce commercial pressures on the design team. He formed Bruce Yacht R&D Inc (BYRD) and teamed with designer Bruce Farr and a group headed up by the president of the International Laser Class Association, Tim Coventry. The Laser 28 was Farr's 91st boat design. The project development team included Performance Sailcraft's Ian Bruce, Tim Coventry President of the International Laser Class Association, experienced sailor Peter Hicks, Norman Frost as plastics engineer and Piers Phipps as project financial advisor. Hans Fogh designed the sails, as he had done for the Laser dinghy. The boat project had four design goals. First, that the boat should be a strict one-design in the same vein as the Laser dinghy, with all boats produced the same with class rules that prohibited any changes to the boat, so that the competition would be between sailing skills and not the ability to pay for improvements. Second, that the design should have outstanding performance, unhampered by adherence to any rule structure, such as the International Offshore Rule, to ensure a long life as a competitive boat. Third, that the boat be a quality product, using the best of available technology. Fourth, that the boat represent a good value for the monetary outlay, "the intention being to produce a 28 foot yacht with a performance of a 35 foot yacht at the price of a 25 foot yacht." Two prototypes were built and the first sailed in the early summer of 1981 in Falmouth, England, with the second in the water that autumn. Originally fitted with a large genoa foresail the second prototype used a 108% "lapper"

jib A jib is a triangular sail that sets ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its tack is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bows, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast. Jibs and spinnakers are the two main types of headsail ...

, that proved superior in winds over and was easier to handle by short-handed crews, as well as cheaper to produce. The prototypes were tested in severe conditions, including broaching and intentional knockdowns with the spinnaker flying, in winds that left the cockpit dry and with no equipment failures. With $1,000,000 invested, to get the design from testing to production, a new firm was created by financial consultant Piers Phipps, Precis Ninety Nine Limited. The design was licensed to Performance Sailcraft to produce.

Design

The Laser 28 is a small recreational

, built predominantly of

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 ...

, with a Termanto PVC foam hull and deck. It has a fractional sloop rig and a spinnaker, an internally-mounted spade-type rudder and a fixed fin keel. It displaces and carries of lead ballast. The boat has a draft of with the standard fin keel. The prototypes were fitted with

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

four-stroke gasoline engines, coupled to a Volvo

saildrive A saildrive is a transmission system for a boat whose inboard engine has a horizontal output shaft. The saildrive's input shaft is therefore also horizontal. That input shaft is geared so as to drive a vertical intermediate shaft extending dow ...

, but there was resistance to using gasoline engines in Europe, due to the fire hazard. The production boats were therefore delivered with a Bukh 8SME

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...

of . Production sails include

mainsail A mainsail is a sail rigged on the main mast of a sailing vessel. * On a square rigged vessel, it is the lowest and largest sail on the main mast. * On a fore-and-aft rigged vessel, it is the sail rigged aft of the main mast. The sail's foot i ...

, a 106% "lapper" jib of , a working jib of , a #1 spinnaker of , a #2 spinnaker of and an optional genoa of . The boat has a

hull speed Hull speed or displacement speed is the speed at which the wavelength of a vessel's bow wave is equal to the waterline length of the vessel. As boat speed increases from rest, the wavelength of the bow wave increases, and usually its crest-to-t ...

of and a

PHRF Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) is a handicapping system used for yacht racing in North America. It allows dissimilar classes of sailboats to be raced against each other. The aim is to cancel out the inherent advantages and disadvantages ...

racing average handicap of 123 with a high of 117 and low of 132.

Operational history

The Laser 28 was not sold though the existing Performance Sailcraft company dealer network, but rather through direct representatives who owned and sailed Laser 28s and organized events for them. Robert Dunkley of Nassau, Bahamas, took delivery of his Laser 28 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and sailed directly to Nassau with a crew of three, the same day. They sailed in north winds in the Gulf Stream and encountered waves en route, but completed the voyage without incident, although the rigging required tightening at destination. Judy and Frank Button from Vancouver, British Columbia won the IYC winter series in their Laser 28, for the fourth time in a row. The company's San Francisco Bay representative, Paul Kaplan, sailed his Laser 28 single handed on its fourth outing and won first place in the class and first overall in a 38 boat fleet in the Singlehanded Sailing Society’s ''Three Bridge Fiasco Race''. Kaplan's wife, Chris, sailed the boat with an all-female crew to third place in the Women’s Racing Association winter series.

References

External links