Class Politics Field Trip to LP Rhode Island!

Here at GER: I have in stock: 2 unused, folded Laser Standard sails !CLASS LEGAL! "made by "Hyde" / with "ILCA sticker" for 350,- € plus shipping costs to sell (related to that: at GER's offcial main Laser store it costs 390,- € plus sh.costs). Nobody wants to buy ... The same situation for an unused, common "Original Builder Supplied" Laser centerboard (UK-language: "daggerboard"), 1 rolled "Hyde" Sail (Standard) sailed: 3 times etc. etc. It seems to me: Somebody (me) sails at the wrong continent, does he? :)

Cheers...
LooserLu

P.S. At GER for years: At the "Guarantee Certificate" (= "Declaration and Warranty") for about many years at Laser you may find this responsible adress for the "shipyard" = Performance Sailcraft Europe Ltd. (aka:"LaserPerformance"):

"6 Riverside, Banbury, Oxfordshire, OX 16 8TL, UK".

If one do use "Google-maps" satellite images or Google's "Street View" or Bing's satellite images.... what do you find???? -> Old W A R E H O U S E S / S T O R A G E H O U S E S, without any hint to LP!!! So, for me: "LP"/"PSE" perhaps does play a "game of hiding"? A backyard-company / "post-box company", perhaps? Does a backyard company of UK rules the American and European market of production for the very honoured Laser, the Olympic open singlehanded sailboat ... (and Sunfish sail boat)?
Please, may somebody resolve this issue for me, thanks. (Yes, I know the main Laser Store of UK is at "Long Buckby..." (but, what is it all about this dubiuos adress, above, mentioned at the papers for the purchaser of a Laser, made by "LP" ))
 
LP does not build boats in the winter.

funny, when you go to the site they no longer list the RI location.

China seems like the place but wouldn't they have to get the boats certified again by the Olympic measurers?

I am currently looking for a new or newish boat so I need to know what is going on with LP.
 
I called the RI plant today. Recorded messge said they were closed for the holiday. Regular hours are 8/5, M-F. Will try again tomorrow.

I also have a call in to one of LP's suppliers to see if they will share any info. If they do I'll post it here, but won't reveal the source.
 
P.S. At GER for years: At the "Guarantee Certificate" (= "Declaration and Warranty") for about many years at Laser you may find this responsible adress for the "shipyard" = Performance Sailcraft Europe Ltd. (aka:"LaserPerformance"):

"6 Riverside, Banbury, Oxfordshire, OX 16 8TL, UK".

LP have not been there for many year Lu. They are now located at:

Station Works
Long Buckby
Northampton
NN6 7PF
Phone: +44 (0)1327 841600<A title="mailto:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
" href="mailto:This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it " target=_self>
[email protected]

Which is a horrible place to get to, all country roads for the last 5 miles or so.

How they get large trucks in there defies me....perhaps that is the source of the supply chain problem....

I did have some contact with a guy from LP a few months back. He was very tight lipped about this. His line was 'Yes, we are aware of these rumours'. Which, to be honest, was probably all he could say.

All I know is that a mate of mine waited 8 months to get his new boat.....
 
I called the RI plant today. Recorded messge said they were closed for the holiday. Regular hours are 8/5, M-F. Will try again tomorrow.

I also have a call in to one of LP's suppliers to see if they will share any info. If they do I'll post it here, but won't reveal the source.


You might check with the new Laser Performance Platinum Dealer in Connecticut they recently added.
 
It is only to obvious, as what I have realized from two years of asking for instructions to install a Laser 2 Spinnaker launch tube (Zero Help!), from not only the help at RI Performance Laser store and Corporate Customer service, is that incompetence and disregard for the customer base is running rampant.
Case in point: a certain unnamed Premier CT based supplier told me flat out they were fed up with the economic situation that has driven the supply chain trouble, poor sales in this sour economy, has been all to proven by the calls made, and the run around they have received since Steve C. sold assets & Licenses of all Class's to build, back to Performance.

So as I see it proper Management works well, suppliers respect the 30 day net payment for shipped parts for example, as we saw through the Vanguard years.

However when sales of complete boats fall off in a recession belt tightening occurs such as : corporate measures like 90 day net, till paid to the vendor, of the out sourced manufactured parts, thus drives the supplier/vendor to not build the OE Parts, till close till the 90 days from order placement.

Also when orders of replacement parts fall off, the costs go up per unit, as the vendors still need to pay their help, at least a minimum weeks wage, even though the orders have dropped in quantity.

In the end the last resort is a shear work force reduction starting with higher paid employees being displaced, and the lesser experienced help within the work place bring on incompetences, often causing big problems , and unable to handle quality and performance demands. This is most likely the reason for what we are experiencing today, starting from the Corporation as well their vendors, in huge back order issues in the worst business downturn as a result of this recession.

Performance needs an economic stimulus package! Flat out! And a sailing purist leader. Such was Steve C. the "Vanguard" business man that had run the show in great economic times, not a board of directors (Gavel Holdings), with bad choices, importing roto-mold models. with no class to race in so far.
Steve C. could certainly help as he had a keen business sense and truly responded to his customers, as he truly understood the market being an intrepid racer, and designer of small sport sail-craft, ie., V-15, and others.

Vanguard Sailboats, under Steve C's direction, had a respect for both their vendors and suppliers, and he was completely up front and personable to his staff and the Corporation as a whole to their customer base.

I don't understand why management is so aloof to all, other than the fact they have no sailing passion (I suppose), nor respect for us sailors, as S.C., the former fellow purist sailor, and President of Vanguard truly had.

Simply put Performance (Gavel Holdings) has made many poor choices, so will they ship most manufacturing off shore? Try to continue to start Roto-Mold built boat classes, killing Laser 3000, Laser 2, and failing to bring in the Laser 2000, as aught to have been done at least at their start here in the USA two years back?
What then? Will the ILCA pull the plug? An uprising can happen. Remember the Berlin Wall? ( bit of a stretch). Truly most parts will in the end be other source supplied parts (non-Class), and only high end costing Class legal parts will be privately traded/sold, amongst those who already choose do so on this forum, and other means. OE supplier is asleep, and poorly functioning, for good reason.....
 
Ok. Today I spoke w/someone in sales at Laser Performance. I called to ask about, (insert item here) spars. I asked where I could get a top section. They directed me to my local dealer. I told them my dealer was out of spars where else could I go? I was then told all top sections were on back order. I asked when would they come in? I was told they did not know, but took my number and would call me back when they found out.

THEN I called Seldon Mast in Charleston, SC. I talked to one of the "higher ups", (whose name I had been given from the receptionist when I called there yesterday and left him a message which he did not return) and told him that LP said the spars were back ordered. I asked him when exactly were they going to make some top sections for LP. He said they made a shipment to LP in Rhode Island TODAY.

He acted like he did not really want to talk. I have no idea how many top sections were shipped.

LP has not gotten back to me yet. However, someone did answer the phone and at least one supplier has recently made a shipment to LP.

I take from this that LP Rhode Island is NOT shut down and are still doing something.....
 
The sales exec at LP did respond to me today to let me know top sections are on the way. I believe his intent was to make sure I got one.

My suggestion, (for what it's worth) if you need something for your Laser and can't get it from a local dealer or on-line supplier call LP directly. Perhaps it was luck that spars were shipped today, but the guy at LP did what he said he would do.
 
The sales exec at LP did respond to me today to let me know top sections are on the way. I believe his intent was to make sure I got one.

My suggestion, (for what it's worth) if you need something for your Laser and can't get it from a local dealer or on-line supplier call LP directly. Perhaps it was luck that spars were shipped today, but the guy at LP did what he said he would do.


Not to sure what your little exercise was all about but one would hope that after taking up those peoples valuable work day time you place that order for the upper spar.

It will be interesting to see how many of the existing dealers that sell illegal parts remain in the Laser Performance dealer network once the new stock begins arriving.
 
Not to sure what your little exercise was all about but one would hope that after taking up those peoples valuable work day time you place that order for the upper spar.

It will be interesting to see how many of the existing dealers that sell illegal parts remain in the Laser Performance dealer network once the new stock begins arriving.

Not everyone races, so there is nothing "illegal" about the parts when they are sold for recreation/practice use. On top of that, it wasn't/isn't the dealers' fault that LP can't manage their supply chain
 
He acted like he did not really want to talk. I have no idea how many top sections were shipped.

I don't blame him. You are not his customer and in reality he has breached business confidentality by discussing with you anything associated with one of his customers, even if you are an end user of his product. I assume you'd be upset if one your clients discussed your financial situation with your bank?
 
In the UK, Selden don't make the Laser/Pico spars. Some metal works place in eastern europe does that. Selden make the spars for everything else.
 
I don't blame him. You are not his customer and in reality he has breached business confidentality by discussing with you anything associated with one of his customers, even if you are an end user of his product. I assume you'd be upset if one your clients discussed your financial situation with your bank?

Sure. I did not ask any questions beyond the spars. Banking qestions do not relate at all to this. I simply asked if they had made any of their product. If I were a widget maker and there was a store selling my widgets, but they had not been able to get widgets for a while and a customer/end user contacted me wondering if we were still making the widgets I'd have no problem telling them if I was making the widgets or not.

By the way, I think you're missing the message that SPARS ARE AVAIALBLE IN THE US NOW! So of all the people bitching about not being able to get them you can now do so!

I was never one of the bitchers, but I guess I was the only one to try and find out what was going on with all the rumors by going to the sources. At least the spar rumor is done.
 
By the way, I think you're missing the message that SPARS ARE AVAIALBLE IN THE US NOW! So of all the people bitching about not being able to get them you can now do so!

I was never one of the bitchers, but I guess I was the only one to try and find out what was going on with all the rumors by going to the sources. At least the spar rumor is done.

Maybe yes, maybe no - no way of knowing how many where shipped, and how many of those are for new boats missing spars (LP did sent a number of new "complete" boats to dealers missing various bits) and how many are for existing back orders from dealers. It may well be that LP is only ordering enough for existing demand and not replenishing their stocking levels... I think it will take a few weeks before we really know if dealers have available stock
 
Rob, you acted entirely appropriately. You needed a new top section and weren't getting any answers. As the only source of class-legal parts, LP has a responsibility to deliver them to Laser sailors. If they can't, the class (or more realistically the license holder) needs to find someone who can.
 
I've had additional contact with a representitive of LP today regarding sails and blades, (The items people bitch most about not being able to get). Paraphrasing, here's the information:

Shipments of new GRP Laser blades are arriving regularly and filling backorders. The former supplier of Laser blades and Sunfish daggerboards decided to eliminate the small marine component of their business in the spring. Simon Cooke Infused Foils is building the new blades which has taken time. There are Hyde Laser sails in stock. North are on the way now.

Way I see it. LP has, or is getting goods. These parts are available.

So....if you really need these parts get them and go sail.
 
I did tour the factory earlier this year, it did seem a little quiet on the shop floor with a minimalist crew. I can't make any comparison to "good times" because I haven't seem them in full swing. I do know some peeps there maybe I can squeeze out some info, If I do, of course, I'll return with a full and uncompromising report. Go Go Gadget Ninja Spy!
 

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