Snips, Sails, and Vang and Cunningham Tails

[rhicks (at) doldatacomp.com]

I disagree. A block is not "high tech purchase system". The current system 
of loops and thimbles is a crock and should have never been allowed. It was 
a halfway measure to allow more purchase without changing the "sacred" 
Laser design. Clearly more purchase is required, or the class would not 
have originally voted to allow the loops and, later, thimbles.

This system clearly benefits the existing, skilled Laser sailor and 
penalizes the new Laser sailor. Even if he is an experienced sailor, he 
would have never seen a bird's nest of loops used for these purposes. 
NOBODY else does this! Other classes either set a maximum purchase (and you 
pick the hardware) or you must use the factory hardware as is - no extra 
purchase allowed.

Laser class should do the latter. There should be a factory downhaul (say 
8:1 or 12:1) and you must use it as is. There should be a factory outhaul 
(8:1 would be OK here, too) and you must use it as is.

Easy, cheap, anyone can figure it out, and no fiddling allowed. That's the 
spirit of the Laser class, not rigid adherence to increasingly absurd rules.


Flame suit on,
Ray


>X-Authentication-Warning: cerebus.winsite.com: majordomo set sender to 
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>From: "Andrew Weyl" <laseranimal@hotmail.com>
>To: Keeldude@AOL.COM, laser@laser.org
>Subject: Snips, Sails, and Vang and Cunningham Tails
>Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2000 01:19:56 GMT
>Sender: owner-laser@cerebus.winsite.com
>
>Fred and List,
>I don't understand why we have to make so many new high tech purchase 
>systems that require a major refit of the hull and spars when we could 
>"tweak" the current systems to make them better.  Permitting the use of 
>one or two thimbles in the vang would sure make it easier to adjust. I say 
>thimbles rather then blocks because they are less expensive, and unlike 
>blocks, which are made of many different materials and come in many 
>different sizes, thimbles are generally pretty standardized.  As for the 
>Cunningham, three thimbles seem to work fine, in some venues, such as 
>western Long Island Sound they're overkill.  As for adjusting the 
>outhaul/cunningham while sailing, it would be nice to have fingertip 
>control while hiking, but short of making the Laser deck layout look like 
>a Byte, I can't think of a solution.  The traveler is one area that could 
>really get beefed up.  It would be nice to be able to pull tension on 
>without feeling like you're about to rip the fairleads off of the boat, or 
>break your wrist trying to uncleat the traveler so you can get your tiller 
>out.  As for bending the tiller, why not, it's annoying to hit the 
>traveler cleat whenever you move the tiller.  We ought to go through and 
>change these rules that don't seem to have any purpose before we go about 
>re inventing the whole layout of the Laser and having to spend a lot more 
>money to do it.
>Andrew Weyl
>164203
>PS. Not to revive a dead issue but if there is one thing that needs to be 
>changed in the Laser Class is the sail.  I'm not a sailmaker, but for the 
>amount of sailcloth that's in a Laser sail and the competitive life span 
>of Laser sails, I feel that $400 is a little much for something that has 
>to be replaced so often.  There has to be a way to make the Laser sail 
>better and cheaper, right?  Or am I just dreaming?
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