I am reprinting this e mail under a different heading because most of us are
probably deleting all the food for thought and centerboard posts. Please
read what follows and contribute more if you can. There were keys to the mad
mad success of the class i the seventies and we might be able to boom again
if we can catch the esence of what happened.
please read on....
In a message dated 12/16/99 11:56:23 AM Central Standard Time,
charles.w.queen@boeing.com writes:
<< Hi Lainie!
Well written response. I enjoyed reading it. I know a lot about Lasers, so
I'm familiar with some of the points in your discussion. I raced Laser
actively from September 1973 through March 1993, that's kind of a good run. I
have been a class officer too. I understand your passion for the boat. I am
(was?) one of those guys you refer to, fit 5'11" and 185#. I have had some
limited success at the national level, and I do expect to be competitive
again, at least at the local level in the not too distant future..
This is my 10th Laser. At $1000 it is a great deal. Being 'only' ten years
old, it did need about $400 dollars worth of parts and materials, and about
60 hours of my time to get it ready to race. I still need a new sail, and
the things I did to the hull were not so straight forward to fix. Some of the
things that would prevent the average individual from going out and just
buying this cheap boat to race. As a previous sailmaker, boat rigger, and
surfboard glasser, I have a "restoration" edge on the average Laser owner.
At standard "shop" rates (~ $40 an hour, cheap by today's standards), this
boat is now almost as expensive as a new one ($3700). Except it isn't as
good, it has an old sail, mast, and boom, and I did the work myself. My
point here is that the reason there are "..... thousands of used Lasers
around....rows of them sitting in racks at clubs all over the world......" is
that most of these boats are worn-out and need MAJOR repair. Many, most
actually, are mi!
!
ssing expensive parts that are too costly to replace to justify the hulls
purchase. You can rack up quite a bill of new parts with top spars selling
for well over $100 and $400 sails. I realize there are 1974 exceptions out
there, but not they are exceptions.
Most boats, with broken/leaking masts steps, split rails, delaminated water
logged decks, soft hulls, etc, etc, are not worth fixing. Many are not
"fixable" in a way that would make them even remotely competitive at the club
level. They're finished for our purposes. You need to be very careful which
used boat you choose to buy. And then consider new boats, I can't believe
they cost $4300 with tax! That's a lot of money! So the assumption that
there are thousands of cheap boats available is only marginally true. It is
true, only if people like you and I are willing to sail beat-up gear with no
hope of being competitive. Can we hope this is true? Can changing the class
rules fix this? Changing the class rules will only obsolete more of these old
boats, make them more expensive to up-date, and ultimately, in the long run
reduce the likeliness of their participation.
I'm glad many folks like yourself do sail Lasers, it is a testament to your
character. You also have to remember the Laser was originally NEVER intended
to be an easy boat to sail. That's why it is/was so popular. That's why you
like it! It wasn't intended as a boat for the masses. It is a hard,
demanding boat to sail well. Back in the days of old (I liked saying that!),
back when 10,000 boat sales a year were common, I was there. I remember
going to regattas and not seeing any women sailors. And Masters?!! That
wasn't even a concept then. My 42 year old dad (#9525) was the second oldest
man at the 147 boat SCYA Mid-Winters. I'm guessing this was '74 or '75. He
finished 133 and was so happy he got around the race course ahead of a
"countable" number of boats. I was 57th.
A weekend regatta back then was a three races series, two Saturday, one
Sunday. Race courses where measured in miles and were hours long. It was
sometime (often) brutal racing. I remember one stormy year where winds we
gusting to 50+ on the RC boat (1979?), 80 boats started , many stayed ashore.
Only 12 finished, I was so proud, I was sixth that day. We were the only
fleet that day to get any races off. You have to remember, that was the SCYA
Mid-winters and they canceled racing from Santa Barbara to San Diego, we're
talking 1000+ boats, 100's of classes....all except for the Lasers. They
raced us! Those fleets were all young males, strong and fit, and looking for
serious competition. I remember when Poppy Truman started sailing Lasers,
she was the first women I saw try to race Lasers. I was impressed.
What is Chuckie's Point?!?!? Well, I'm not going to say this was better, as
a Master, I'm very excited about the new Master circuit of events. But what
I am saying is that this is what the fabulous success of the Laser was built
on. The toughest, most competitive racing available, on a strict one-design
platform, at a price that anyone could afford. Nothing about it was designed
to be easy. This is what drew the impressive fleets and record boat sales
of the time.
Times and attitudes were different then too, maybe that has something to do
with it. People who sailed Lasers were not looking for an easier boat to
sail, they wanted a challenge, the ultimate challenge....that was the Laser.
Lasers were the sailing equivalent to running marathons, which was a very
popular activity at that time. And the Laser met these requirements, very
well.
If we want to make the Laser something different, change the rules. Why not
sliding hiking boards? That way folks with week abs can sail too....
Absurd! you say...., I know, I know..... but if you had suggested back in
1978 to allow all this adjustable crap on the deck, you would have elicited
the same response. "That's Absurd!"
Leave the boat alone! This is what the Laser is. If someone needs
something else, there are other class out there to meet those need....just
like Lainie suggests.
Everyone please remember one important thing, it's not a matter of screwing
with success, it a matter of taking away the boat the meets the needs, OUR
needs, of the people who CHOOSE to sail Lasers. That's the bottom line. If
the Laser isn't for you, that fine, sail something else, but don't take away
our boat, the boat we choose to sail...the simple, challenging, Laser. I
love it the way it is.
Chuck Queen
#134961
'Old Passionate Laser Dog'
>>
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