Zim Sailing has been busy over the past years building institutional dinghies (FJs and 420s) for clubs, high schools and college programs across the country, but now, with licenses in hand to build both ISCA (Sunfish) and ILCA (Laser) class-legal boats, the production team in Bristol, Rhode Island, is about to get even busier.  

For the past several years Zim has been pushing behind the scenes to complete a thorough certification process and recently got its green light from ILCA and World Sailing. It’s a long and labor-intensive approval process that requires adherence to World Sailing’s Olympic Equipment Policy, and according to a statement from Zim this week, ILCA dinghies now manufactured in Bristol are “fully compliant with ILCA regulations, and legal for use in ILCA events.”

 “We are absolutely thrilled to be a class approved ILCA builder in North America. The certification process has been rigorous, but the technical support of ILCA and World Sailing have been terrific,” said Zim Sailing’s George Yioulos. “We are joining a collective of builders who are paving the way for all ILCAs to be effectively identical. Our company has an almost 20-year history with the class and we look forward to supporting local and regional dealers who work directly every day to grow sailing. We hope that our support of sailing, and history as dinghy builders, will give sailors the confidence to check out a made Zim ILCA.”

With the announcement, Zim said its first ILCA production run of 50 boats will be a “Founders’ Series.” These boats will carry a commemorative plaque alongside World Sailing and ILCA designations. Additionally, Zim will be stocking and supplying all major ILCA parts for dealers, programs and retail customers.

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On Super Bowl Sunday the greater Tampa/St. Pete area was consumed by national and local media attention and fanfare for the big game. Only 25 miles west of Raymond James Stadium, another major championship was on the line for sailors competing on the final day of racing at 2021 West Marine US Open Sailing Clearwater, the third and final Florida tour stop in the new six-event series.

Sunday was also a big-wind, big-wave, and big-wet kind of day as sailors and kiters ripped through the racecourse. They raced in 14 to 16 knots and gusts in the mid-20s. The Foiling Kites notched three more races on Sunday for 18 total and it was a mad dash to the top of the podium between Evan Heffernan (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and Kai Calder (Alameda, Calif.). Heffernan had a lead entering Sunday, but Calder posted a pair of wins to take the lead entering the final race.

“Going into the final race of the day I was two points behind,” said Heffernan. “The final race was a tough one, but I had a few people between me and Kai, and I was able to pull off the win. It’s been tight racing all week.”

Heffernan also discussed the important decisions he had to make about his gear and equipment this week. “Changing out my kite and taking the loss and missing the first race allowed me to be set up for the final two races of the day, even though I might have been behind. Weather is such a big factor and being set up with the right gear will make a big difference.”

He spoke about the top Foiling Kite sailors training in Florida this winter. “For the past two weeks we’ve been out here training together with the support of [the] Olympic Development Program and US Sailing and it’s been really cool to see everyone working as one, analyzing all the data, and seeing where we are making gains.”

RELATED: West Marine US Open Sailing Series Fort Lauderdale

Markus Edegran (West Palm Beach, Fla.) had a tremendous regatta through the first two days before sustaining an injury and could not compete in the final two days of the regatta. Edegran had a six-point lead through 11 races in the Foiling Kites fleet.

Daniela Moroz (Lafayette, Fla.) finished the regatta in sixth overall as the only women’s competitor in the fleet. She was second in the last race of the day and she posted nine top-five results this week. Noah Runciman (La Porte, Texas) rounded out the podium with a third-place finish overall.Hometown sailor and Olympian Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla.) won the women’s division in the Laser Radial fleet after another exciting duel with Sarah Douglas (Toronto, CAN). Railey posted a 3-4 on Sunday which was good enough to edge Douglas by 1 point. Douglas made a push on Sunday by winning Race 10 and placing second in Race 11. These two training partners competed closely at West Marine US Open Sailing Fort Lauderdale with Douglas earning the win in January.

“I was pretty consistent and not very risky at all, so I think that is what set my scores apart from the others,” said Railey. “I had really good downwind [legs] as well and that saved me a lot of points. The waves were perfect, and we got nice swell with chop, so two different directions with the waves. You round the windward mark, and you can just rip downwind. I thought that was pretty fun. It made all the hiking we did upwind worth it.”

Chapman Petersen (Fontana, Wis.) took home the overall title in the Laser Radials with 19 points through 11 races. He won five races this week and never placed worse than seventh. Peterson also won the Laser Radial fleet at West Marine US Open Sailing Fort Lauderdale.

Leo Boucher (West River, Md.) held back a hard charging Marshall McCann (Kemah, Texas) to win the Laser fleet by 6 points. Boucher had a 17-point advantage heading into Sunday’s final set of races. McCann and Boucher alternated first and second place finishes in Sunday’s two races. Boucher won four races this week and finished in the top three in all 11. Connor Nelson (Tampa, Fla.) took third place honors in the fleet and finished just 11 points behind Boucher. By contrast, at West Marine US Open Sailing Fort Lauderdale, Boucher was 10th, McCann was ninth, and Nelson was eighth.”We got a little bit of everything from the weather and conditions this week,” said Boucher. “Towards the end of the regatta the racing got a lot closer and it was a lot of fun.”

Anna Vasilieva (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) wrapped up an impressive four days on the water by placing second and first in Sunday’s two races in the Laser 4.7 fleet. She won 10 of 11 races to earn a 15-point win. Evan Wern (St. Petersburg, Fla.) was the top male sailor in the fleet and second overall. Oscar Parzen (San Diego, Calif.) finished third. The win marks an improvement for Vasilieva who placed fourth at West Marine US Open Sailing Fort Lauderdale.

The iQFoil fleets conducted an hour-long marathon race beginning shortly after noontime. In the Men’s fleet, Mateus Isaac (Sao Paulo, BRA) put the finishing touches on a perfect week by winning all 15 races to take the title. Adrien Gaillard (MEX) was second and Alexander Temko (Palm Harbor, Fla.) was the top-performing American in third place. Temko posted 10 top five finishes this week.

Mariana Aguilar Chavez Peon (MEX) won the Open iQFoil fleet by 11 points over Giovanna Prada (BRA) who won today’s race. She was followed by Farrah Hall (Annapolis, Md.) who was third in today’s race and third overall for the regatta. She posted eight top three finishes.

On January 11, US Sailing and host yacht clubs at sailing venues in Florida and California launched a new racing and training series of Olympic-class regattas in 2021 and beyond. The West Marine US Open Sailing Series offers an increase in high-quality Olympic-class racing for U.S. athletes with a goal of attracting top-level international competitors to race in these regattas for years to come.

US Sailing and the larger community of sailors in the U.S. identified a demand for a racing and training platform based in the United States that serves to provide as a runway to the Olympic Games for prospective athletes. With the 2028 LA Olympics on the distant horizon, it is essential for US Sailing to establish a consistent and predictable cycle for athletes to plan for on an annual basis.

The first two events of the 2021 series took place in January at venues in Fort Lauderdale and Miami. The series resumes in San Diego this June for the start of three events in California, including Long Beach in July and San Francisco in August.

To learn more about the West Marine US Open Sailing Series and to follow all the action in 2021, visit the series website at usopen.ussailing.org.

The post A Super Sunday in Clearwater appeared first on Sailing World.

After a nearly seven-year battle, a federal jury awarded Laser designer Bruce Kirby $6.8 million from Laser Performance Europe, LTD, and Quarter Moon, Inc., as the company is called in the U.S. Says Kirby, “For nearly two-and-a-half years, they deliberately produced and sold boats with plaques in the back of the boat that had my name on them and paid no royalties. To me there was no doubt they knew what they were doing.”

Kirby does not know exactly how many boats they built without paying royalties, but “it was a shitload,” he says. Kirby sued them for their profits and unjust enrichment during that time. Kirby says, “I expect most of the suit will be bulletproof against appeal.”

Despite not paying royalties, Laser Performance continued to build boats, says Kirby, but they eventually changed the plaques so his name is no longer there. And the class has changed the name of the boat to the ILCA Dinghy. “Not that I have any clout left because they took my name out, but I want to talk to them about it to see if we can’t come up with a better solution. I want to point out that part of the success and legacy of the boat is the wonderful Laser name, which was international and had that wonderful symbol.”

The lawsuit has taken its toll on Kirby and his wife, Margo. “They wrecked the last years of our lives,” he says. “I’m 91 years old, and there are things we could have done, would have done, that we were unable to do.” He received news of his court victory just days after being diagnosed with broken spinal vertebrae.

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A Board of Directors recommendation to select the RS:X as the Men’s and Women’s Windsurf Equipment was rejected meaning a new proposal will be required and the process on selecting the Equipment for the Mixed Two Person Offshore Keelboat was also confirmed.

Before Council made its decisions on the Paris 2024 Equipment, the Board of Directors updated Council on its current plans for the Olympic Classes Contract. This included the position on implementing World Sailing’s Olympic Equipment Strategy (FRAND) agreed by Council in November 2018. In order to provide certainty for MNAs, sailors and teams, the Board will engage in contractual discussions only until 1 August 2019. If by that time no agreement is reached, the Board will report to Council that no agreement has been concluded and Council will then have to select new Equipment for the relevant Event.

Ahead of the debate, 21 Council members voted in favor of all votes on the Olympic Equipment being held in secret with 20 against. As a result, every vote cast was secret.

Men’s and Women’s One Person Dinghy

The Laser was selected as the Paris 2024 Men’s and Women’s One Person Dinghy Equipment, subject to agreement of the Olympic Classes Contract for 2024, following a ballot vote. Under Regulation 21.1.3 (e), the decision on selecting the Equipment has to be made before 31 December 2019. Council members voted on deferring the selection of the Equipment to the 2019 Annual Conference but this was rejected meaning a decision had to be made in London.

The next step was to vote on the Equipment Committee recommendation to select the RS Aero. Their recommendation was rejected.

The process moved to a ballot and Council members were able to vote on the four boats that were part of the process – the D-Zero, Laser, Melges 14 and RS Aero.

The Laser won in the first round of votes. For the Men’s One Person Dinghy, 36 voted for the Laser and five voted for the RS Aero. The D-Zero and Melges 14 received zero votes and there was one abstention. For the Women’s One Person Dinghy, 37 voted for the Laser and four voted for the RS Aero. The D-Zero and Melges 14 received zero votes and there was one abstention.

Men’s and Women’s Windsurfer

As the Men’s and Women’s Windsurfer Equipment is under a re-evaluation procedure, World Sailing’s Board of Directors have authority on making recommendations to World Sailing’s Council. The Board of Directors recommendation was to select the RS:X as the Equipment. 19 Council members voted to accept the recommendation, 23 voted to reject and there were zero abstentions. As a result, the recommendation was rejected. The Board of Directors will now have to propose a new recommendation to the Council.

Mixed Kiteboard

The Equipment Committee recommended to Council that they should approve the IKA Formula Kite Class as the Equipment for the Mixed Kiteboard Event. Forty Council members voted to approve the recommendation subject to agreement of the Olympic Classes Contract for 2024. One member rejected and one abstained.

Mixed Two Person Dinghy

World Sailing’s Council approved the 470, subject to agreement of the Olympic Classes Contract for 2024, as the Equipment for the Mixed Two Person Dinghy following the recommendation from the Equipment Committee. 41 members voted in favor of the 470. One member was against the 470 and there were zero abstentions.

RELATED: Olympic Sailing Menu Changed for Paris 2024

Mixed Two Person Offshore Keelboat

Submission M01-19, which proposed a way forward with the procedure for selecting the Equipment, was put forward by the Board of Directors in advance of the Mid-Year Meeting and was approved by Council. 39 members were in favor with two rejecting and zero abstentions. The Submission proposed that World Sailing’s Council shall select a list of different Equipment which it considers to meet the key criteria of the event by December 2019 and then decide on the Equipment, selecting from the list no later than 31 December 2023. The Board agreed to amend the date to meet the key criteria of the event from 31 December 2019 to 31 December 2020 which Council approved.

MNAs, Classes and Manufacturers will now be invited to propose Equipment for the list. A Working Party with members from the Equipment Committee, Offshore Committee and Events Committee will evaluate the Equipment against the key criteria and present the recommended list for Council approval in November 2020.

The list will provide event organizers, MNAs and sailors with diverse opportunities to train and compete in Equipment that is tested, readily available and affordable in their continent. Postponing the decision of the Equipment that will be supplied at the Paris 2024 Olympic Sailing Competition will also promote fair opportunities for all MNAs.

Any changes to the Regulations that Council makes must also be ratified by our Annual General Meeting in November.

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The International Laser Class Association issued a statement on April 25 announcing it would brand each new, class-approved boat as a “ILCA Dinghy.” The association’s action was another offensive in its effort to terminate its European builder, LaserPerformance. With another twist in the Laser’s modern storyline, the fate of the world’s most popular singlehander uncertain for certain.

According to Eric Faust, the association’s Executive Secretary, ILCA is strictly an acronym for the class. “We’ve used that for a number of years,” Faust says, “so it made sense to use it as the brand for the boat.”

Not so fast, says Laser Performance CEO, Bahman Kia, whose company owns the Laser trademark. “Changing the name requires changing the [ILCA’s] constitution, which requires that two-thirds of the membership vote for it,” Kia says.

However, it is unclear whether a membership vote, which is clearly specified for a rule change, is also required for a constitutional change. ILCA’s membership has yet to have its say, but Faust says the issue “will be addressed.” If a vote is deemed necessary, it’s unclear what the membership would be voting on, since the name change has already been announced and implemented.

Another consideration is that the name ILCA Dinghy strongly suggests “International Laser Class Association,” as the acronym has for more than 40 years. LP’s lawyers might take issue with the inference of “L” in ILCA, but according to Faust, who admits he’s learned much about trademarks in the past few months, the association’s usage falls into a different class of trademark than that owned by LaserPerformance.

“The examiners [of trademarks] would say, ‘OK, here’s this word, Laser.’ Then they’d look at the other word, ILCA, and conclude it doesn’t sound or look the same,” Faust reasons.

The specifics of the new name may be the least of the class’s concerns. While the rebranding might be a tempest in a teapot to the general sailing public, it does have ramifications for the wide range of Laser owners, from recreational sailors to Olympic contenders—assuming the Laser remains equipment of choice for the Olympics after the 2020 Tokyo Games.

For those at the top of the sport, the question is whether the Laser or the ILCA Dinghy will be used at the Tokyo Games. The equipment chosen for the Games is the one-person dinghy, says Faust. “They don’t name a brand as an event—it’s not the ‘Laser Event’ at the Olympics, so there’s a distinction between the class and the brand. That’s the way World Sailing sees it, based on discussions with their legal counsel.”

Laser Performance Japan, a class-approved builder, will provide boats for the 2020 Olympics.

World Sailing conducted equipment selection trials for the 2024 Olympic singlehanded dinghy in March, which included the Laser and Laser Radial, but not the ILCA Dinghy, which was not submitted. If selected as the singlehander for 2024, would boats built by Laser Performance be used rather than boats built by other ILCA-approved builders? Again, Faust says, don’t confuse the brand name with the boat.

“The boat is the boat, and the class is the class. The boat can be re-selected as Olympic equipment even though it’s now sold under a different brand name.”

Further muddying the waters for every-day dinghy sailors, LaserPerformance recently marketed its Laser Club Edition, which is said to be nearly 20-percent less expensive than what is now called the ILCA Dinghy and built by Laser Performance Australia ($6,450 versus $7,910, depending on exchange rates). Kia claims the Club Edition and the Laser are identical, with the exception of the absence of a World Sailing plaque. Faust reserves judgment, however, stating that LaserPerformance boats have not been inspected lately to validate class tolerances.

ILCA Dinghy class language has made clear that LP’s Club Edition boats are not class legal, and ineligible to race in any event listed on the ILCA calendar. Owners of LP-built boats would be subject to disqualification. It’s unlikely Corinthian competitors and regatta organizers would inspect for World Sailing plaques at such events, but it is feasible a sailor could be told to pack up and leave. Any sailor winning a major ILCA championship regatta with an LP-built boat, might find themselves in the protest room.

At the club-racing level, however, ILCA’s stance is soft, leaving plaque-policing to local clubs and race organizers. It’s not new territory for the association either. Inexpensive, non-compliant sails are readily available and widely used. These sails, unbuttoned and missing the iconic starburst, often sell for roughly $150. A class-legal sail fetches more than $600, a price Faust says will likely come down as a result of ILCA’s rebranding. For casual racers—which make up a large portion of the class membership—knock-off sails allow them to race and train without investing a significant amount of money in sails.

Will the same free pass be granted to Laser Performance’s Club Edition? Perhaps. Kia states the Club Edition is the exact same boat as an off-the-shelf Laser. “We’re not building anything new,” Kia says. “We are advertising it as a training boat because only a small percentage of our market are racers at world events. The majority of our market just want to sail.”

While it seeks to terminate LP as a class builder (see timeline, below), ILCA is sourcing new builders to support those already in Australia and Japan. There have been four or five inquiries in North America from qualified builders, says Faust. “We’re excited to see what we can do when we have a strong builder/dealer network.”

Of particular interest are Africa and Asia, as well as “invigorating areas such as North and South America,” which Faust says have been struggling with supply issues with LaserPerformance.

Kia’s concern is that additional builders will undermine the one-design tolerances of the boat. “The logistics of maintaining standards across many builders is a huge challenge,” Kia says. “We found this out a few years ago when LP Australia started building lighter boats. Even then, ILCA was unable to identify that they were doing so. It was only because we purchased some of their [LPA’s] boats, analyzed them and gave a full report to ILCA, that they finally woke up to the fact that there were really two designs rather than one out there. If a major supplier like that can only be caught because there’s a concern, how are you going to manage a global supply chain?”

RELATED: LaserPerformance Terminated By The Laser Class

While the upheaval is ongoing and unpredictable, there is growing consternation and confusion among amateur Laser sailors. Steve Cockerill, of England, a Radial Grand Masters World Champion, coach and small-craft gear purveyor, sees a big difference in attitude between class veterans and the newcomers.

“The newer sailors are saying, ‘Oh my God! We’ve got a world championship in Canada this year and there are no charter boats. What are we going to do?’ I suspect those issues will be sorted out, probably by a load of ILCAs going to North America.”

The veterans, on the other hand, are taking it in stride. Cockerill points to Nick Harrison, a stalwart and world champion of the masters’ fleet. “Nick loves the Laser. He wouldn’t think about changing his socks when he goes sailing, let alone sail a different boat. He told me, ‘Well, it’s going to be called an ILCA, and we’ll just have to put up with it, if that’s what’s right for the class.’”

It’s clear the war is far from over. At the moment, LaserPerformance’s territory includes everywhere except Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Korea, so they clearly have the kingdom. ILCA, on the other hand, has an army of class members capable of forcing change. Faust is confident his organization will soon be bringing other builders on board. How this will shake out is anyone’s guess, but the battle will most likely pass through someone’s court. This story is far from over.

Recent Timeline of Events

April 28, 2019—LaserPerformance issues a press release that includes documentation to support their position that Performance Sailcraft Australia produced non-compliant Lasers from 2006 to 2015. The boats are alleged to have had an additional layer of fiberglass added to the inside of the hulls, from the centerboard case forward to the bow, glued-in foam flotation blocks (instead of Cubitainers) and plywood reinforcement of the grab rails. Reportedly, there were 2,280 boats produced in that period. LP also alleges ILCA changed the Laser Construction Manual to make these boats legal. Documentation includes emails dated March of 2015, between ILYA to LPA addressing the non-compliance issue.

April 27, 2019—World Sailing issues a press release stating they have “not endorsed or pre-approved the proposed name change of the Laser to the ILCA Dinghy.” World Sailing also states it has “received no class rule change requests related to the name of the boat.” It also states it has “not approved any individual class or manufacturer’s position concerning production and intellectual property rights.”

April 26, 2019—LaserPerformance issues a statement accusing Global Sailing (a privately-held company, which bought Bruce Kirby’s licensing agreements) and Performance Sailcraft Australia, of creating a monopoly and suggests Global Sailing owns no rights to the Laser. It also claims ILCA’s name change is an “illegal initiative” and accuses PSA, Global Sailing and ILCA of creating a “secret alliance” to replace rigs for the Laser Radial and Laser 4.7 with “C rigs.” LP concludes these events explain the ILCA’s reluctance to negotiate a new license agreement.

April 25, 2019—ILCA rebrands its boat as the “ILCA Dinghy.” The name will apply to all new, class-approved boats, in all three rigs. New, class-legal sails will also be rebranded, as will all class-approved parts. Existing boats and related equipment will not need to be rebranded.

April 21, 2019—The ILCA issues a statement that “Club Edition” boats built by LaserPerformance, will be “ineligible to compete in any ILCA/North American Laser Class Association sanctioned event. Broadly speaking (but not exclusively), this means the boat cannot be used in any regattas listed on the Laser.org website.” The ILCA stopped short of completely outlawing them, stating, “we do not consider that we should dictate to sailing clubs throughout North America over their adoption.”

April 18, 2019—LaserPerformance introduces a “Club” model Laser that will be sold without the World Sailing builder plaque or Sail Button. An initial listing shows these boats will sell for 22.5-percent less than class-legal boats, not including shipping.

April 9, 2019—LaserPerformance claims Performance Sailcraft Australia delivered boats for the 2014 Santander ISAF Sailing World Championships that were “built differently than the Laser construction manual and thus sailed faster.” LP also claims ILCA “did not admonish or decertify LPA” and “agreed that the other builders follow the PSA laminate schedule, making all previous Lasers technically obsolete.” LP also claims the breach in protocol was not reported to World Sailing, ISAF, or the Laser community.

April 9, 2019—LP responds to Australian designer Julian Bethwaite’s online post of March 6, 2017, about his development of the “C” rigs for Lasers, claiming the ILCA misrepresented its involvement in the project.

April 6, 2019—ILCA announces all current and future ILCA-approved builders will sell boats under a new brand name, to be chosen in the beginning of May.

April 4, 2019—European ILCA chairman Jean-Luc Michon publishes a letter stating that he, along with the two representatives at the Laser World Council (Alexandra Behrens and Heini Wellmann) have been pushing for three months to broker a mediated settlement between the ILCA and LP. Nothing is known to have come of Michon’s proposal.

April 2, 2019—LaserPerformance issues a formal response to the ILCA’s March 27 announcement of termination as a Laser class builder, asserting its rights to the Laser trademark and accusing the ILCA of refusing to enter into a renewal of the trademark agreement, which expires on August 31, 2019. LP also states, “ILCA is not legally able to seek new manufacturers for Laser products in LP territory without LP’s consent,” which, according to LP, includes everything but Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

March 28, 2019—LP issues a brief statement asserting ILCA’s claims are “falsehoods and defamatory.” In addition, they assert they will “fully protect and enforce our intellectual property rights, including Laser intellectual property.” They argue the ILCA’s offices should relocate to Europe, where they claim more than 75-percent of active Laser class members and sailors reside, and that a full-time professional team manage the class.

March 27, 2019—The ILCA announces it has terminated its relationship with LP, alleging breach of contract after the builder’s refusal to allow inspection of the boats being built in their manufacturing facility, as required by contract. According to the announcement, LP has provided boats for most of Europe, Asia and the Americas. The European region, for which they supply boats, represents 61-percent of the worldwide class membership.

The post Laser Class Builder Battle Escalates appeared first on Sailing World.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The official statement from the International Laser Class, provided on March 27 is provided below. We’ll update as this story develops.

AUSTIN, TEXAS – Managers of the world’s most popular racing sailboat class are seeking new builders to complement their existing network of manufacturers, the International Laser Class Association (ILCA) announced today. The move comes after longtime builder of the class dinghy, Laser Performance (Europe) Limited (LPE), breached the terms of the Laser Construction Manual Agreement (LCMA), which seeks to ensure the identical nature of all Laser class boats, regardless of where they are built.

“We’re disappointed to see such a long and productive relationship come to an end, but we had to move ahead in order to protect the level of competition and the investment for the 14,000 members of the International Laser Class and the more than 50,000 sailors around the world who regularly sail the Laser dinghy,” said Class President Tracy Usher. With its UK-based manufacturing facility, LPE was the ILCA-approved builder that produced boats for most of Europe, Asia and the Americas until earlier this week, when Usher says the class terminated the LCMA with respect to LPE after the builder’s refusal to allow inspection of the boats being built in their manufacturing facility as required by that contract.

“The very heart of our class is the ability for any sailor to race any other on an equal playing field, and the only way we can guarantee that level of parity is by ensuring that all builders are producing the boat in strict accordance with the Laser Construction Manual,” explained Usher, who said that LPE has unequivocally denied the class their right to access to LPE’s factory. “It’s the same for every class of one-design racing boat: if we can’t be sure that they are all the same, we have no class left,” said Usher, who said that LPE left the class “no option.”

Fortunately for sailors around the world, there are already two other manufacturers of class legal boats, one in Japan and another in Australia. According to Chris Caldecoat, General Manager of Performance Sailcraft Australia (PSA), his company is able to take up the slack if needed. “PSA has sufficient capacity to supply the market until new builders are appointed in Europe and around the world,” Caldecoat said. “We have and will always do what is right for the sailors and the sport.”

“Doing what’s right for the sailors” is really all that matters, according to ILCA Executive Secretary Eric Faust, who emphasized that there will be no disruptions to the the 2020 Olympics or to any major ILCA event. “Performance Sailcraft Japan will supply all the boats for the Olympic competitions in Tokyo, while the next two World Championships are in regions with Performance Sailcraft factories. These are existing, class-approved builders so we expect no issues,” said Faust. “We’re confident that we’ll see new builders coming on line soon, and that we’ll once again have a robust dealer network around the world in plenty of time for the lead up to the 2024 Olympics,” he added. With PSA and PSJ supplying boats and parts to sailors formerly served by Laser Performance over the next few months, Faust expects the disruption to class owners to be minimal or non-existent.

About the International Laser Class Association

Established in 1972, ILCA is a self-funded international association providing coordination, organization, and communication for owners of the world’s most popular racing dinghy, the Laser Class sailboat. Sanctioned by World Sailing, the sport’s governing body, ILCA’s three classes of boat – the Laser class sailboat, the Radial class sailboat, and the 4.7 class sailboat – feature differently sized sail plans for the same hull, allowing sailors of every size, shape, age, and ability level to sail confidently in all conditions. Because of their worldwide popularity and ease of use, Laser Standard and Laser Radial Class sailboats are used in the Olympic Games as equipment for the Men’s and Women’s One-Person Dinghy events, and ILCA is one of just 6 international organizations permitted to run qualifying events for Olympic Class sailboats. ILCA will release more details about this matter over the coming days via their official website.

The post LaserPerformance Terminated By The Laser Class appeared first on Sailing World.

Editor’s Note: Upon finishing the recent Chicago YC’s Race to Mackinac, I opened my email to learn that the great Bruce Kirby had passed on July 18 at the age of 92. An amazing man he was, not only for his yacht designs and innovation, but for his incredible hand on the editorial helm of Sailing World in its early days. His columns were so sharp, eloquent and loaded with information that they remain a pleasure to read today. A true newspaperman, he was. “Young Dave,” is how he’d always address me on the phone, “you’re doing great work, but where the hell is my copy of the latest issue?” For some reason, he kept getting bounced off the comp list and I know it annoyed him to no end. Rightfully so.

We enjoyed many phone calls over the years during the torturous lawsuit over his Laser royalties, a battle that I’m sure brought great undue stress and robbed him of a few hard-earned golden years. “Happy to report Federal Court in Connecticut today awarded Bruce Kirby, Inc. $6.8 million settlement in our suit against Laser builders.—BK,” he wrote on February 14, 2020. That, I’m sure, was a happy day for the Kirby family.

Contributing editor Dave Powlison, who literally wrote the book on Laser sailing with Ed Baird awhile back, visited Bruce a few years ago to file the profile below. Once published, he did approve of the story and wrote: “Dave–Reports in from both sides of the border indicate you are the man. I’ve received nothing but very good chatter. Noroton YC is running the complete yarn, with pix on their website. We’ll have to do another on my 100th.”

He didn’t get to the century mark, but he will certainly be remembered as one of this century’s most important contributors to the sport. Sail on, Bruce, you will forever remain an inspiration and mentor.

— Dave Reed

Whether he likes it or not, Bruce Kirby’s legacy will be defined by one ­achievement — designing the world’s most-popular sailing dinghy. This one little boat is, of course, the Laser, and its story is the stuff of legend, having flourished from a rudimentary sketch in 1969 to an Olympic one-design class with hull numbers well into six figures. Every success story eventually has its final chapter, however, and for Kirby and the Laser, the conclusion is uncertain. Lawsuits over the little craft with which he’s most identified have consumed his golden years.

The topic of the protracted legal battle involving the Laser’s custodian, LaserPerformance Europe, is a toxic one in the Kirby household in Rowayton, Connecticut. Kirby, who turned 90 in January, and his wife Margo prefer not to speak of it, nor of the protagonists, for fear of more litigation. Instead, when I visit him in mid-December 2018, he reflects on the November 1969 phone call from Ian Bruce, of Canada, asking him to design a boat for a camping-gear company that could be car-topped, the now-famous sketch made during that phone call and the explosion of Laser sales that eventually followed. All led to what is arguably the pinnacle of the sport — selection as an Olympic class for the 1996 Games.

The Laser’s genesis, however, was no fluke. The seeds of Kirby’s design skills were planted long before. Born in 1929, Kirby grew up on the Ottawa River, which runs between Ontario and Quebec, where he first sailed on his father’s 24-foot Great Lakes Skiff class sailboats. Later, as a news editor at the Montreal Star, he says, “When there were lulls, I would draw boats on these pads that you put headlines on.”

After leaving the Star in 1965 to work for the magazine One-Design Yachtsman, colleagues at the Star kiddingly sent him a bunch of papers with doodles of boats they had made on them. “They were pretty bad,” Kirby admits.

“Even today, he still does sketches,” says Margo, his wife of 63 years and sole partner in their business, Bruce Kirby Inc. “He’s always drawing sailboats and hulls.” In their business, he designs the boats, and she does the all the rest. “I consider myself an enabler. I enable him to do his job.”

He carved boats early on as well. Pine was his material of choice and he melted down lead sinkers for his keels. At his Rowayton home, Kirby proudly carries one of his models up from the basement for me to see. He crafted it when he was 14. It’s a sleek sloop with white topsides, black bottom and a varnished deck.

“My aunt, who lived across the street in the summertime, had a beautiful piece of pine at the back of one of her kitchen cupboards to raise the smaller tins up so she could see them,” Kirby says. “I had been eye-balling it for a long time and finally asked her if I could have it.” He carved the outside first and then chiseled out the inside, being careful to leave the wood thicker around the keel than anywhere else.

“He won trophies every year,” Margo says. “He would go ­underwater and watch the boat move through it — as a kid. It’s spooky. Even today, he’ll look at a picture of somebody with a boat in the background, and it’s the boat he sees.”

The model in his hands shows an attention to detail well beyond his youth. There’s an adjustable mast step, handmade sails with broad seams to create proper shapes, and simple tensioning devices on the standing rigging. “It’s had different rigs,” Kirby says, “and this is about the third keel.”

He pauses and tilts his head to examine its underside as if observing water molecules flowing around the hull. “It’s one of the better hull shapes I’ve ever done,” he says. The rigging is loose, and he attempts to tighten the port shroud, fumbling in the process. Macular degeneration has robbed his left eye of most of its vision, so this is not an easy task.

“Now, don’t break it!” Margo cautions.

I lend a hand, and the rig returns to plumb.

If model-making and sketching were the practical elements of Kirby’s education, the academics were self-taught; he has no formal training as a naval architect.

“We got Yachting, Rudder and Yachting World,” Kirby says. “When I was supposed to be doing my homework, I’d grab a stack of these and pore over them.” At age 17, there was a pivotal moment. “My father borrowed a book, Skene’s Elements of Yacht Design, from the local doctor. I slipped it into my bedroom, and the doctor never got it back. I got most of my education from that book. I probably only understood about half of it, but I was just good enough in math to understand the rest.”

He still has the pilfered text, with the front cover inscription, “Medical Arts Building, Ottawa.”

As we walk through a short hallway to the dining room, he stops to point out a framed black-and-white photo leaning against the wall along the floor. “That’s a Beken of Cowes photo,” he says. Taken by the late Keith Beken, an icon of sailing photography, the subject is Kirby and his crew at the 1958 International 14 Team Race Championship in England. The lighting is spectacular; the moment captured is quintessential Beken. But it’s all about the boat. Kirby critically notes, “We didn’t have enough vang on there.”

This championship, he says, was one of the most emotional moments of his life, one that would propel him into the ranks of professional designers. He tells the story in vivid detail: In the regatta’s final and decisive race, he and his Canadian teammates face a New Zealand squad whose boats are better in strong winds. The Canadians struggle on the windward legs, barely hanging on against the faster Kiwi boats. By the final downwind leg to the finish, the race committee is recording puffs up to 30 knots, and through attrition, each team is down to two boats. Kirby and crew, Harry Jemmett, lower their mainsail so only about 12 feet remain aloft. Jemmett sits to leeward, desperately trying to steady the leech while Kirby, on the other side, wings the jib. Because of a heavy mist, he’s unsure where the other Canadian boat is. Kirby finishes first, followed by one of the Kiwis, while the second New Zealand boat, sailing with a cracked mast, is working its way downwind with only a spinnaker.

“I lost sight of our third boat, when it suddenly appeared out of the mist, going like a bat out of hell,” Kirby says. “He had rounded the weather mark, didn’t hoist his chute, reached off and then jibed and reached back. He beat the second Kiwi boat by 50 yards, and we won the event.

“I wasn’t in one of my own 14s in that regatta,” Kirby says, “but it was because of that race that I went home and immediately started designing what became the Kirby Mark I. That was in late 1958. The idea was to create a boat that could beat the Kiwis, but we never came up against them again.”

The Canadian team did win the next team-race championship, two years later, and had good upwind speed in stronger breeze. Over the next 12 years, the Mark I would be followed by four other Kirby 14 designs.

“I recently learned from a 14 buff that for the two or three years the Mark V was being built, no one was buying any other designer’s 14,” Kirby says.

Bruce Kirby the designer had arrived.

The International 14 era also marked the beginning of his partnership with Ian Bruce, who owned a small company in Pointe Clair, Quebec, about 20 miles south of Montreal. Bruce built Kirby’s 14s in fiberglass, beginning with the Mark III.

After their November 1969 phone call, Kirby took his sketch home and drew a full set of lines on mylar drafting film, then followed with deck, daggerboard, rudder and sail plan for the yet-to-be named boat. He sent a copy to Bruce and kept one copy for himself. But then the camping company changed its mind — they didn’t want a sailboat. “I still have a letter to Ian, saying, ‘Hang on to the design. That little boat might make us a buck someday,’” Kirby says.

In Kirby’s basement, I watch as he rummages through drawers in a metal draftsman’s cabinet. “I know it’s here somewhere,” he tells me. We go through five or 10 drawers before he finally says, quietly, “Here it is.” Lying in the drawer, on top of some of old photos, as if randomly tossed there, is a large manila folder with neat draftsman’s lettering, “Laser, Original Lines, 1969 and Sketch.” He hands me the folder, and there they are. It’s almost like being in the presence of some sacred relics, which, in a way, I suppose they are to the more than tens of thousands who sail or have sailed the boat. I keep waiting for a beam of sunlight to come streaming through the basement window to illuminate the moment.

The design sat on the shelf until 1971, when Kirby’s magazine, One-Design and Offshore Yachtsman, decided to hold a regatta for boats costing less than $1,000. The regatta was held at the Playboy Club on Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. “I called Ian and asked if he could get a prototype of that boat made in time for the event,” Kirby says. “He said, ‘I’ll build two of them, and we’ll tune them up together.’ But he barely completed one.”

With the boat atop his car, Bruce drove from Montreal to Toronto, where he picked up sailmaker Hans Fogh, who had an untried sail for the new boat tucked under his arm. Off they went, driving through the night to Wisconsin to what was called the America’s Tea Cup, while Kirby flew in from the East Coast.

“The next morning, the three of us put the boat together on the beach. It was the first time the mast had been in the boat,” Kirby says. Fogh built the sail relying only on his experience with Finn rigs. He had not even seen the spars before they arrived in Wisconsin. There was one race the first day, and that evening, Fogh went to Buddy Melges’s loft, recut the sail, and the next day the boat handily won the first race. Then, with a significant lead in the next race, the regatta was called for lack of wind.

“It was quite decidedly the fastest boat there,” Kirby says. Still, the boat also had too much weather helm, so he and Fogh adjusted the sail plan to move the center of effort forward a few inches, shortened the boom 4 or 5 inches and raised the mast to keep the sail area the same.

The next stop for the boat, now officially called Laser, was the New York Boat Show in January 1971. “The success at the Boat Show gave us a hint of what was to come,” Margo says, “although it didn’t really sink in then. We thought, ‘How could this be?’ Those things don’t really happen.” She quickly organized a class, forming the first Laser association in the states, and hosted one of the first Laser regattas in Connecticut, where the magazine was located. Competitors from Ottawa camped in the Kirbys’ backyard.

RELATED: Bringing the Laser to Life

Several years after introducing the Laser, Kirby got a call from Dennis Clark, of the Clark Boat Company in Seattle. They had built some of Kirby’s Mark IV 14s and wanted to know if he would design a quarter-tonner for them.

“I had never designed a keelboat, so the first thing I did was call [C&C designer] George Cuthbertson,” Kirby says. “I didn’t want help designing the boat, but I did want help creating the measurement certificate. He sent me certificates for two or three boats in that range, which helped me figure out the righting moment and how that influenced other things.”

The result was the San Juan 24, of which 1,200 were built. “The IOR people put out a book every year that lists all the boats that have been measured for a certificate,” Kirby says. “A while back, I discovered that the San Juan 24 was the most measured boat in the world for a few years in the 1970s. It was a big thing in those days.”

In the past year, Kirby has been communicating with a Dutch sailor who reports that San Juan 24s are raced in Europe. But the strangest San Juan 24 story was from many years ago when, according to Kirby, “some madman from California sailed one from Los Angeles to Honolulu by simply following the paths of aircraft flying the route. With scores of planes going to and from Hawaii, day and night, and with no other place for the planes to go, ­navigation was not a problem.”

With three reputable designs to his name, Kirby left the magazine business in 1975 to pursue yacht design full-time. And, of course, continue sailing. He raced Lasers intensely for a few years, finishing sixth at the 1972 North Americans on Lake Geneva and fifth at the U.S. Nationals at Brant Beach, New Jersey, the same year. A plastic cube trophy from the North Americans sits on one of his office shelves. “They still owe me a cube for the U.S. Nationals,” Kirby says.

His other trophies are relegated to the basement, laid out across two 7-foot tables that once served as drafting surfaces for many other noteworthy designs, including the Sonar and Ideal 18. “The two tables were beside each other, and especially in the 1970s and 1980s, when I was most busy, I would often have a boat on each board,” Kirby says. “If I got bored working on one, I’d go to the other. The 12 Meters, in particular, were so full of very, very fine calculations that it was a nice break to go to the other board and do a 14.”

Kirby designed the 12 Meters Canada I and Canada II for the America’s Cup, the latter of which is represented by a large half-model hanging in his dining room — a white hull with a bold, red horizontal stripe just below the sheer line, interrupted only toward the aft end with the Canadian maple leaf.

“We never really had enough money,” he says. “We were going to build a new Canada II, but we couldn’t afford it, so we took Canada I and put a winged keel on it. There was no science behind it. It was just from having seen the Aussie boat.”

Kirby’s Canadian heritage runs deep, having represented the country in three Olympics — twice in the Finn (1956 and 1964) and once in the Star (1968). Recently, he was awarded the Order of Canada, the country’s second-highest honor, for his contributions to sailing. He’s met Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth, again, for what he has done in sailing. There are few boxes left for him to check.

One of the things that thrills Kirby most is the number of times he’s had strangers tell him how the Laser changed their lives.

“The first time that happened to me was maybe 20 years ago,” he says. “A fairly young kid came up to me and said, ‘Thank you for saving my life.’ I asked, ‘What?’ He said, ‘I was headed down the wrong path. I was on drugs, and I knew where that was headed. But a friend of mine grabbed me by the back of my neck and said come here, I want to show you something. And he took me to the local lake and said, you need to learn how to sail one of these.’”

Recently, at Connecticut’s Cedar Point YC, a Swedish sailor approached him to share a similar story. “These fellows who sail the boat today do it at a much higher, more intense level than I ever did,” Kirby says. “These guys start at 17, and it becomes a major part of their existence, winter as well as summer. It’s really upper crust for people to come up to me and tell me that.”

These are the highs, but there have also been plenty of personal low points associated with the Laser. In the late 1970s, Kirby and Bruce had a falling out, largely over financial matters. “He should have made a lot of money on the boat, but he was hardly ever out of debt,” Kirby says. “I thought he should have charged more for the boat that first couple of years — maybe $720 — and people would have still bought it. Instead, he insisted on the low price of $695. Plus, marketing was basically Ian’s show, and he was not a businessman. I was always beating on his accounting department. I knew that was better than letting it slip and go altogether.”

Bruce died in 2016, and Kirby admits he didn’t know he was ill. “Maybe,” he says with a tinge of regret, “it would have been better if I had been able to at least call him.”

Then, there is 2010, when he discovered he had macular ­degeneration. As the fear of going blind weighed heavily on him, he says, his royalty checks for the Laser stopped coming. Soon, he found himself embroiled in a protracted, eight-year legal battle involving LaserPerformance Europe, its principal, Farzaad Rastegar, the International Laser Class, and the International Sailing Federation (now World Sailing).

The intricacies of the case are Grisham-worthy, and suits and countersuits followed until the judge ultimately ruled in favor of LaserPerformance in 2018. Litigation continues, so Kirby is reluctant to talk about it, but he and Margo wear their feelings on their sleeves.

“We would have had a different life if this hadn’t happened,” says Margo. “But we have survived the anger, the disappointment. I couldn’t believe they would do this to him after what he’s provided for them, for decades. But I guess when money’s involved, ­everything else falls away.”

Kirby says, “It’s funny because I don’t remember anger — I remember disappointment.” What will happen next? “Nobody really knows. We don’t speak to anyone anymore and haven’t for some years. It’s so complicated that I don’t really have it clear in my own mind right now. The whole thing breaks my heart, to see something that was so great go completely bad. I’m probably owed about a million bucks from this, but I don’t think I’ll ever see it.”

It’s a sunny day in Rowayton, just a few weeks before year’s end, but it feels more like the middle of October. I’ve just finished lunch with Kirby at Brendan’s 101, one of his favorite lunchtime haunts. As I hold the door for him to pass through ahead of me, he says quietly and with a subtle smile, “You know, people usually go in front of me — so they can catch me if I fall.”

But it’s no joke. His pace is slow and deliberate. After years of hiking on International 14s, Lasers, Finns and Stars, his knees are shot, he has a broken back and he wears hearing aids.“It’s kind of strange,” he says in a somewhat baffled tone, “because no Kirby male has lived anywhere near this age.” His brother died at 42, his father at 58.

Yet, he remains sharp as a tack. He’s been working on his memoir, and says he still has two more chapters to write.

“Whether I’ll ever finish those or not, I don’t know,” he confesses. “I do find myself searching for words, and they’re not always there.”

The last boat to come off Kirby’s drafting board was a 38-foot yawl for author and magazine alum Nat Philbrick, in 2010.

“Part of it is my eyes,” Kirby says when asked if his design days are over. “If somebody came along with something I’d really like to do, and it’s a person who would be nice to work with, I might give it a try.”

As for sailing, it’s all memories at this point. On the Kirby fireplace mantel is a framed photo taken in Vancouver of a Laser on a mad reach, the skipper hidden by spray, but the sail’s nationality letters are clear: CAN. I ask his thoughts when looking at it, and without missing a beat, almost as if he knew what I was going to ask, he says, “I’m right in that boat. I can feel it immediately.” Then he adds with a wry smile, “Only I’d probably be rolling over to windward.”He studies the photo a bit longer.

“I’d just like to be out there. And, of course, to be as far up in the fleet as possible.”

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To compound the confusion, there are two separate Laser entities — LaserPerformance and Laser Performance Australia — each experimenting with three different new rigs. In case you’re counting, that’s nine rigs total, including the three original rigs (Full, Radial and 4.7).

To try to get a handle on what’s going on in Laserdom, and perhaps dispel some uncertainty and achieve clarity, we spoke with Bill Crane, Chairman of the LaserPerformance Group, which is experimenting with three “ARC” rigs. We also spoke with Tracy Usher, President of the International Laser Class Association, who was able to provide information about the class’s possible direction and the Julian Bethwaite-designed Australian proposals — the C5, C7 and C9 rigs.

In January 2019, several videos went viral showing some of the new rigs, most notably the “C5” which, like the other two C-series rigs, and the three-rig ARC series, features carbon spars and a newly designed, plastic sail that looks much different than anything that has ever appeared on a Laser. The ILCA then issued a press release attempting to quash some of the more negative responses the proposals stimulated. They were adamant the rig development had no intentions of bettering their chances at the Olympic selection trials currently underway in Valencia, Spain.

“It’s kind of unfortunate timing,” says Usher, “that suddenly everything hit the airwaves right as we’re going through sea trials because the impression out there is that these are to replace the current rigs, or are being done for the Olympics. It really has nothing to do with that at all.”

Says Crane, “The timing wasn’t planned. To be honest — I did put in an Olympic tender for the ARC rig last June, despite having been advised by World Sailing that our tender would not be accepted. But the idea was that if the Laser were chosen as the Olympic equipment, we would then be in line to be an evolutionary product, if World Sailing and the class thought it was time to move forward. If you don’t put that in, chances are you won’t have that opportunity.”

Crane says the idea of moving the Laser up the evolutionary ladder originated at least four years ago at an ILCA technical committee meeting. “We had talked about the need to move the Laser along, but we hadn’t been getting a lot of traction with the class, other than the Mark II full-rig sail and carbon top-section.”

While those were significant advances for a class with a reputation of evolving at a glacial pace, they were still a drop in the bucket compared to what their competition in the singlehanded boat market was doing. “It’s pretty hard to watch the RS Aero come out and the Melges 14, and the Devoti D-Zero, which is in Europe,” says Crane. “These are much more contemporary designs. The Laser class has always wanted slow and methodical change when it affects performance, which I fully understand. But at some point, we have to take it up a notch.”

The Laser has numbers on its side, with more than 215,000 built, and, according to Crane, probably 100,000 of them still sailing. They’re found in every continent except Antarctica. However, Henry Ford could have made the same argument for the Model T, and many of us might still be driving them only because they were ubiquitous. But we’ve moved on, which Usher acknowledges. “Name a class that is still going strong, is 50 or 100 years old, and looks like it did when it first started out,” he says. “You have to keep looking forward and keep yourself relevant.” That’s what the class is trying to do.”

Crane credits the Laser’s designer, Bruce Kirby, for “an awesome job designing the boat.” But they’re still building them the way they were in 1971. “The world has moved on,” he says. “The hull, that will be trickier, but the rig, we can do.”

At the November 2018 Laser World Council meeting, Bethwaite’s testing program was given the green light. The main focus was the 4.7. “In Europe, the 4.7 has had tremendous success,” says Usher. “Then, kids move into Radials or full rigs, depending on their size. But the same kind of thing’s not happening in the rest of the world. There is a whole category of lightweight adult sailors, and the 4.7 or Radial are not right for them. I should add that the Japanese builder, for as long as I can remember, has been championing some way to make a rig that was for lighter-weight sailors. The question for Bethwaite was, can you design something that will slot between the 4.7 and Radial, and appeal to sailors we’re not capturing now.”

RELATED: The Zen of Rigging a Sailboat

Meanwhile, LaserPerformance decided to take on the other sails, says Crane, to provide sailors with an option. “We were not aware the Australians had done the other two rigs. I thought they were just working on the small rig, and suddenly the video came out showing their three rigs, which was a bit of a surprise. Then, we decided we’d show them what we were doing. We hadn’t brought it to the class at that point because we didn’t want to disturb things, right when they’re looking at picking a new boat for the Olympics.”

Crane’s plan includes contemporary Full and Radial rigs. “We broadened the weight range so that heavier and lighter men and women could be competitive,” he says. “We came up with a rig that was rather stiff down low, but much more flexible up high. The sail has much more high-aspect ratio, which means you can really twist the top off when it’s windy. We’ve tested it, and it really works.”

Crane emphasizes they’re not going to get rid of the Radial or Full rig, but as Usher noted, they “need to start moving the Laser forward, and the rate of evolution has to increase.”

A big challenge for the Laser class is that the boat is being sailed much differently than Kirby could ever have envisioned, and modifications to the original sail controls have created unintended consequences, especially for those racing at the highest levels of competition. “It was fine when Hans Fogh’s 3.2-ounce Dacron sail came out and there was just a 3-to-1 vang and 3-to-1 cunningham,” says Crane. “But then people started tying loops in those controls, creating a lot more purchase, and sail life rapidly diminished.”

To address that, the class switched to sails made of 3.8-ounce Dacron. “All of a sudden, the top sections started to bend, and everyone was blaming the manufacturer,” says Crane. “We upped the spar alloys as high as we could without driving the price out of the realm of reality.”

Then came a vang and cunningham system that allowed significant amounts of tension to be applied with considerably less effort, and the 3.8-ounce Dacron sail suffered the fate of its predecessor. The response? The 4.5-ounce Mark II sail, which checked the box for sail durability, but did no favors when it came to the top section. The stronger sail, coupled with heavy cunningham load, dramatically increased pressure on the rivets holding the top-section mast collar, and the rivets began to fail. Plus, top sections continued to break.

The solution was a carbon top section with a molded collar to address the rivet issue, and the carbon construction provided a tube much less prone to breakage.

“Now, we’re starting to see some of the lower masts starting to bend, not so much in the full rigs, but on the Radial,” says Crane. And so, we’re in the process of doing a composite lower for the Radial.”

Given the domino-effect created by attempting to stay modern, it’s not surprising that the class wants to hit the reset button. But there’s more to it. “The goal is to possibly introduce a new rig to appeal to a new group of people,” says Usher.

“There will be some crossover, I’m sure. Maybe eventually, everybody will say, ‘Wow, these things are a lot cooler, and that’s what we want to do.’ But we’re not going to force that on people.”

Crane agrees. “I think it’s one of those things where, if you can get it launched and people buy it, the younger people who are going to get in the Radial might think it’s cooler.”

Usher does not anticipate much incentive to switch from one rig to another, “Unless you’re a sailor coming up and you buy into one or the other, and you stay on that path. And if you buy the rig with the boat, I think the price will be close. But the key is it does actually make the boat sail better.”

With testing ongoing in Australia and Japan, Usher says that the World Council meeting in November 2019 will determine the next steps — if any. “Remember, the Laser class is notoriously slow at making changes,” says Usher. “If I were out there sailing a Laser, I wouldn’t hold my breath for a new rig to show up.”

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Charleston Tops Men’s Singlehand Nationals

College of Charleston senior and ICSA College Sailor of the Year frontrunner, Stefano Peschiera claimed victory this weekend at the Laser Performance Men’s Singlehanded Nationals in a decisive fashion. A regatta, stacked with talent, showcased three previous champions, including Peschiera himself, who won the event as a freshman in 2014.

Peschiera walked away from the strong competition, averaging just 4 points over 12 races. With only the Atlantic Coast Championship left to sail, Peschiera has put together a compelling season, winning his conference championship, A-Division at the Danmark Trophy and now Singlehanded Nationals.

Teammate Gerald Williams (‘19), finished second at the event, 14 points behind the lead. The competition finished right on William’s heels, with the top five decided by the final race. Williams secured a second place finish to beat out Navy sailor Gary Prieto (’18) by just one point.

Jacksonville’s Gage Wilson (‘21) finished fourth, winning a tiebreaker against last year’s champion, Scott Rasmussen (‘20) of Boston College. Wilson’s three first place finishes at the event gave him the nod in the tiebreaker against Rasmussen.

Reineke Steals Win at Women’s Singlehands

Boston College Freshman Sophia Reineke narrowly triumphed at the Laser Performance Women’s Singlehanded Nationals over Coast Guard’s Dana Rhode (’18), in the final moments of the event. After the twelfth and final race, the two sat tied for the win, with a protest ultimately allowing Reineke to jump ahead by just one point and take the top spot.

Going into the final race, Reineke stood 11 points behind Rohde. In a tense battle for points, Rhode took an 18th place finish, and a steadfast Reineke was able to capitalize. Despite the heartbreaking finish for the senior, Rohde finished second overall, two points ahead of Kelly-Ann Arrindell (‘20) from College of Charleston.

Lindsey Baab (‘18) finished fourth with 75 points and Marian Frances Williams (‘21) of Charleston finished fifth with 76 points in what was an extremely tight regatta.

Instersectionals Around the Country

At Connecticut College, light winds plagued the Hap Moore Team Race, with just one round robin completed over the weekend. Connecticut College won the event, led by skippers Hugh MacGillivray (’18), Walter Florio (’18) and Carter Pemberton (’20). The Camels defeated Boston College in a tiebreaker, after beating the Eagles when the teams went head to head. The Camels and Eagles each lost only one race to finish 6/1 on the weekend. The Brown Bears finished third, going 5/2.

Texas teams, joined by Tulane, battled it out at the Kathryn Hammond Memorial Regatta. Light winds meant just eight races were sailed on Saturday, with no races sailed on Sunday. Texas A&M Galveston won the event, with their second-team teammates also taking the third place spot ahead of Tulane. Texas A&M finished second.

At the Kennedy Cup, hosted by the US Naval Academy, collegiate big-boat sailors found wind in Annapolis after a slow week to compete in Navy 44s. The USF Bulls sailed to victory, defeating Mass Maritime, who held onto second, despite a DSQ in race two. The Buccaneers strung together two bullets in the final two races to secure their second place finish. The local Midshipmen finished third.

With the Fall season almost in the books, East Coast teams will look to finish strong at the Atlantic Coast Championship and Atlantic Coast Tournament, and match racers will vie for the ICSA Match Race National Championship at College of Charleston.

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In Maryland, at the second major interconference regatta of the season, the St. Mary’s Fall Interconference, Dartmouth delivered a strong performance to take a 20 point win over George Washington. Despite a slow start, the Big Green took the lead in race 6B and help onto their lead for the remainder of the event. Brothers Christopher ’19 and Duncan Williford ’18 sailed A and B respectively with crews, Rebecca McElvain ’19 and Paige Clarke ’20. Both secured second place finishes in their divisions on the way to victory for Dartmouth.

“The racing was tricky, with pressure filling from the edges and many of the common moves toward consolidating and centering up not as beneficial as normal,” said Dartmouth’s head coach, Justin Assad. “Our team was able to start cleanly most of the time, and focused on being patient and balanced sailing the long tack with finding the next pressure.”

“Duncan and Christopher are unique young men, and the overwhelmingly positive relationship they share is infectious for our entire team.  They could trick you with their mellow and relaxed demeanor, but Duncan is an elected team leader and has a great attitude, and Christopher is a ferocious competitor.  They enjoy pushing each other and love to compete, whether it is winning practice starts or a quick game of pick-up basketball before lift, which leads to a successful dynamic when representing Dartmouth, as well as pushing the whole team to mirror their spirit of fun competition.”

George Washington’s second place finish was led by Kai Friesecke (’18) and Andreea Rainey-Pace (’20), who sailed to victory in A-Division, establishing a 14-point lead over Navy in third place. Yale and Georgetown finished fourth and fifth, separated by just one point.

Full-Rig Laser Sailors Vie for Qualifying Berths

SAISA, NWICSA and NEISA all hosted conference championships this weekend, with sailors vying for qualifying berths at the Mens Singlehand National Championship in the full-rig Laser in November.

At the SAISA Men’s Singlehanded Championship, 10 sailors from College of Charleston, Jacksonville University and the University of South Florida, competed for just three spots at the National Championship. College of Charleston’s Stefano Perschiera (’18) dominated the event, with just 15 points over 10 races. Peschiera will be joined by fellow SAISA sailors Gage Wilson (’21) from Jacksonville University, and teammate Gerald Williams (’19).

In the northeast, the NEISA Men’s Singlehanded Championship brought together 27 sailors from 14 different schools on Mount Hope Bay at Roger Williams. With just 4 berths available, the competition was fierce in a deep and talented fleet. Yale’s Nicholas Baird (’19) won the event with 44 points in 10 races. Reigning national champion, Scott Rasmussen of Boston College (’20), took second place, winning a tie breaker with another former national champion, Yale’s Malcom Lamphere (’18). Alp Rodopman ’17 of Tufts secured the fourth and final spot for NEISA.

University of British Columbia freshman, Benjamin McMaster was the lone qualifier from the NWICSA Men’s Singlehanded Championship. McMaster sailed to victory with 18 points after eight races.

Women Battle for Laser Radial Qualifiers

At the US Naval Academy, 18 MAISA women battled for five available spots at the national championship at the Faye Bennett. Georgetown dominated the fleet, taking three of the five a three berths. Lola Bushnell (’18) won the event, with teammates Carly Broussard ‘(21) and Haddon Hughes (’20) tying for fourth and fifth place, and the two final qualifying spots. Lenox Butcher (’20) of UPenn took the second place finish, and George Washington’s Riley Legault (’19) sailed to third place.

In Washington, at the NWICSA Women’s Singlehanded Championship, Laura Smit (’18) won the final four races to edge teammate, Farzanan Mohamedali (’20) for the lone qualifying spot.

Like the MAISA championship, the NEISA Women’s Singlehanded Championship pitted a deeply talented fleet for just five berths. Tight racing and tough conditions made for exciting racing on Mount Hope Bay at Roger Williams. Coast Guard Academy senior Dana Rohde sailed to victory, just two points ahead of the second and third place tie. Tufts’ Talia Toland ‘(21) and Boston University’s Anna Weis (’20) both finished with 49 points, with the tiebreaker going to Toland. Brown University’s Lindsey Baab (’18) and Boston College’s Sophia Reineke (’21) claimed the fourth and fifth place qualifying spot for NEISA.

The Singlehanded National Championships for both men and women will be held in St. Petersburg Florida in November.

Stanford Claims Match Racing Berth

In a down-to-the-wire finish at the 2017 PCCSC Match Race Championship, Stanford beat out UCSB in a sail-off to represent PCCSC at the Match Race National Championship in Charleston in November. The Cardinal and the Gauchos squared off on the match race/team race circuit in what appears to be a budding rivalry. Stanford, the long standing champion of the conference has found competition at conference championships over the past year.

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