And...., we've got a boat!

[Just A Mom]

I'm never going to see my son again. He's in the garage (for hours now) fawning over his new purchase.

We bought a 1988 in absolutely terrific condition. Came with trailer and dolly (collapsible) and both full and radial rigging. Three sails - brand new rolled radial race sail, practice radial Laser sail, and a Laser full sail. All rigging replaced in the last year. All pulleys and blocks new as well. Brand new (last year) tiller and extension, and cunningham. All bags, cover, and a ton of extra parts.

We paid $3500.

I'm so happy for him!

Thank you for all your help and for answering alllllll my questions!

 

[cskudder]

Congrat's to you + to him. Of course you'll see him, maybe out on the water - a decent pair of binoc's might make sense for next summer.

I don't race but I know there's lots of peep's here that'll be happy to lend an ear and / or a hand if he's inclined.

Wishing him many happy, safe, + successful days + years on it.

 

[andyatos]

Hi Just A Mom,

Congrats on your hard won acquisition! And... something for your consideration. I also bought a 1988 Laser out here in California a few years ago. And one thing I immediately noticed when I started sailing it was I could hear something rolling around inside the hull. Something hard. Well, it turns out it was a chunk of the donut that the bottom of the mast tube is stuck into. Ie, even though the boat was pretty new, that dreaded mast step reinforcement issue appeared. Here's some photos of what I discovered.

What the mast tube and donut looked like when I took my first pictures of it.

What it looked like after I cut a hole in the deck to do the reinforcement.

That donut appeared to be pretty solid. But the chunk that had broken off completely on its own and had been rattling around inside the hull concerned me. So I took a cat's paw nail puller and started gently prying under the edge of the donut... just to test how solid it was. Well, I was astonished to find how easily more pieces of it just broke off! Here's a photo of what I was able to break off after just a few minutes of prying.

Anyway, when I heard that you had bought a 1988 boat, I thought I should let you know what I discovered with my 1988 boat. Needless to say, I did a complete step reinforcement and now no longer have to worry about my deck being destroyed by the bottom of the mast tube shearing free from the step when the mast is loaded up by sailing in stronger winds. By the way, this happened with another Laser I own back east. That was a very expensive repair even though it happened many years ago.

There's a ton of great information on this forum on how to do this. It may just be a simple matter of laying fiberglass mat over your existing donut without doing any of the additional work that I ended up doing.

Cheers,

- Andy