New sail for an old boat - is it worth it?

M

Martin Williams

New Member
I have just started racing again after a fifteen year break. My Laser is 55721 and thus 25 plus years old. The hull appears very solid with no obvious soft spots or major damage and spars and foils are reasonable. Sail is shot. I've upgraded the vang, outhaul and cunningham with some extra blocks. Within my racing fleet several people have now suggested to me I should not spend time and money on this boat but rather buy a newer boat. I am unconvinced and would like peoples opinions.

To put things in perspective I see my two options are (i) spend $1200 on this boat and buy a new sail, the new cunningham and outhaul deck hardware and the self bailer or (ii) sell this one and spend another $2500 -$3000 over what I get for it to get a boat that has the newer hardware but although much newer is still several years old, probably with a sail of the same age.

Personally to me option (i) seems to offer the liklihood of the best returns as I see a new sail being likely to offer me much better performance improvements than a newer hull - what are your views?
 
If the hull is solid (and dry!) I'd keep it and upgrade the rigging and sail as you want. You can always remove all the fancy hardware and sell the boat as it was (with the old sail) if you decide you need a newer hull.

If you're not racing in ILCA events, you might also want to consider buying a "practice sail" (ex. http://apsltd.com/Tree/d9000/e7500.asp) instead of a one that's class-legal. I've never seen one of them up close, so I don't know how different from a "real" sail they are.

Cheers,

Geoff S.
 
if the hull is in good shape (it sounds like it is) buy a new sail
it would be less expensive than buying a newer boat

upgrading the rigging would be cheaper too :cool:
 
Have you weighed your hull? Sounds like it is fine. If it weighs in I'd keep the hull and upgrade the gear.
 
Thanks for the question....and the answers. I was just asking myself the same thing. My boat's a '79 and the sail - not the original - is a '78! I've had bedsheets that have more snap. Time for a new one.
 
hulls in that time period were made like tanks.
you can't even put a hole in it using the claw end of a hammer.
it is going to weigh a lot more.
they started getting lighter i believe in the late 80's
 
I have a 1979 laser that sounds like it is in similar condition to yours. I got the new hardware and a new sail and the boat is very competitive. One thing that I would reccomend checking is the mast step. Check and see if the bottom of the mast step is still stuck in the bottom of the boat. ANother thing that you could do to defray costs is to by a used sail. You can get a sail in extremely good condition from charter companies in the Florida area.
 
Thanks for the advice. It has all confirmed my initial thoughts and a new sail is obviously the way to go. Re the question on the mast step, yes I have checked it and all was not well but that has now been fixed. Thanks for the pointer though> Also earlier in thread someone asked as to wether I have weighed the boat - the answer is I have not as yet. However when I first got it I noticed (when putting it on the club racks) it was distinctly heavier than other peoples boats. After that I put an inspection port in forward and aft and connected up a fan to blow air through the hull continuously for about three weeks. Next time I picked it up the apparent weight difference had dissappeared - so now I am paranoid about chasing leaks keeping it dry inside.
 
Tim, what charter compaines, (can you list a couple) sell charter boat sails in FL?
 
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