Re: Laser name rip-offs

["John Kelly" <jkelly1 (at) CAPECOD.NET>]

 The first J24 was named Ragtime and was built suspiciously similar (some
say) to a Bob Evelyn design.  
The design was Rod Johnstone"s hence the J and the boat was 24 feet so
there you have J24.  It almost seemed like
they just put the design in the copier and blew it up to make the J29 and
30 (same hull mold I believe).  The 35 was next  and the 22 and 27 seemed
to come from the next copier trick.  The boats were marketed brilliantly by
Rod's brother Bob who made selling J boats like selling cereal (small
joke).       
     Laser did the same thing with the Laser >> , the Taser (10 times the
boat the Laser>> is), the Laser 29 and I even had
a Laser sailboard. I see no problem with using the Laser name to sell other
products if it helps grow the sport.  TB, you're 
right on the money.  JK    
----------
> From: Dulcinea77@AOL.COM
> To: Lainie9126@AOL.COM
> Cc: laser@laser.org
> Subject: Re: Laser name rip-offs
> Date: Tuesday, January 04, 2000 4:47 PM
> 
> Very good point.  
> So heres another question that i do not know the answer to.
> If the J-24 was the Classic J, was it called the J-24 from conception? 
Or 
> just called a J-boat, at the time being the only one?  Later appending
the 
> "24" at the advent of the next design?  Is it not the name that sold the 
> later designs?  If you ask some one that is in the J-120 fleet (drastic 
> departure from the classic J-designs) if they are on a J-boat, do you
think 
> that they would discount it saying that it was only the name?  But it is
not 
> at all like any of the previous J's.  The rig, the hull, the sail plan, 
> everything is different even of boats of the same length.  And then you
get 
> into things like the J-35 and 35C.  Big difference there, no?  
> People use names to sell new boats, or they would never get off the
ground.  
> Im not saying that it is right, but anyone that wants to race lasers,
will 
> know what they need to buy.  Who knows, maybe Vanguard will sprout a
fleet of 
> something even better than the laser/radial etc.  That will actually
launch 
> as a fleet due to the laser name?!?!?  Is this a bad thing?  
> Its a Marketing tool and sometimes a great thing that should not be
shunned.  
> None of the J-sprit classes would be here today if the name was not used,
and 
> C&C's would have faded into obscurity if tartan had not bought them out
and 
> put out a new design.
> ~tb
> -----------------------------
> Website for all answers: www.laser.org
> Public Replies: laser@laser.org
> To Unsubscribe: Send "unsubscribe laser" to majordomo@laser.org
> Sending "remove" does not work
> Questions: will@laser.org
-----------------------------
Website for all answers: www.laser.org
Public Replies: laser@laser.org
To Unsubscribe: Send "unsubscribe laser" to majordomo@laser.org
Sending "remove" does not work
Questions: will@laser.org