Multi colored Sails

[candokeeper]

I'm looking at '83 Laser which comes with a multi colored sail. As most I see are white, I 'm wondering if this was the norm back then or a just different manufacturer. Are they class legal? Besides the funky look is there any difference from the whites?

Tks

 

[roshambo]

Many boats of that vintage used colors in sails. yes they are class legal, though i doubt that this sail is in very good shape being this old.
i have had colored spinnakers on a different boat that grew weaker as time passed. I believe that the process to make colored dacron changes the properties of the fabric. ie. UV may damage colored sails faster... but then again, what do I know? ;^)
If you like the colored sail, have fun with it, otherwise buy a new white one...
cheers

 

[gouvernail]

The colored sails were nmade with 3.2 oz cloth. When Laser sails were made both colored and white the sail cloth had variations just as the white cloth has today. Color had nothing to do with the variation in stiffness, thickness or durability though.

The colored sails sometimes had panels of one color from a stiff roll of cloth and cloth from lighter material from another color of cloth.
Some sails had white panels and colored panels and sometimes the colored panels were of stiffer thicker cloth and sometimes the white panels were stiffer and thicker.

I had a reall fast colored sail made of very stiff cloth and used it in many regattas before it died of brutal use and was made obsolete by the change to 3.8 oz sails.

Here is a picture of that sail crossing the line in first place sometime around 1989 in the North American Interdistrict Championships. Current NA Vice President Eric Faust is driving the boat finishing second. It is an easy race for me to remember. I crossed the fleet on port at the start and held everybody off for six legs.