North Sails class legal in UK?

Merrily

Merrily

Administrator
Does anyone know if North Sails are legal/not legal to use in the UK? It seems to me that they should be since we are one design and they are legal to use in the US. But someone believes otherwise, and I'd like to get it straight.

Merrily
 
Yes, they are legal...
All new legal class sails will have the red laser logo and the red button at the tack.
 
i think it is something to do with the manufacturing and marketing of the boat,performance sailcraft have the licence to build and sell in europe they also control spares etc they use a diferent sailmaker .both countrys then appoint dealers for boats etc the dealer is then contracted to sell in an area the sail has a serial no. ie tracable when a dealer is found to have sold out of territory laser comes down hard on them.this alows laser to explot market forces and sell in england for your price in dolars.there is some talk in england that the american boat is better built stifer .a few years ago i was told that for an extra fee performance sail craft would leave a boat in the mold an extra day so that it set up fully and was closer to spec.e bay has xd kits appearing cheaper than laser and the dealers and i suspect personal imports.we also have patern sails ,foils on sale.just as late boats cant use woden foils.is there a similar rule eg europian hull and sails.laser have reduced the price of a sail over here but an bulk order of sails would be worthwhile to import. surely some one would have tried it.a pattern sail is£250 and is not suitable for racing however some clubs are turning a blind eye to this i have seen or read this topic somewhere else on another sailing forum perhap the situation has changed since then'
 
damn thats impossible to read

the laser dealers arent allowed to sell new gear outside their 'zone'

in Aus we get north and hyde sails so we can choose between them
 
Murphs said:
the laser dealers arent allowed to sell new gear outside their 'zone'
Click to expand...
In Germany/Europe you can get North-Sails Lasersails, too (price ~920 US-Dollar or ~470Euro (incl. shipping, without battens, with bag), Hyde: (folded) 575 Euro / (rolled) ~620 Euro (without shipping, without battens, with bag)).
The official dealers (call themselfes "Laser direct" -store and have special designed stickers for at their shops and online-stores) from PSE/Cornwall/UK-stuff only sell Hyde-sails here. Horrible expensive in GER (and France, NED/BEL/LUX etc. also). So, other "lower" level-dealers in the pecking order (not "Laser-direct"-stores) sell classlegal but imported Laserparts like Lasersails from North, or PTFE-discs for the maststep, xd-vang-kits from Harken or Holt and other gear I'm not going to tell here in public. So, sorry Chris, you are not right for the German market (I mean in general: European market), someone must have sold this gear to our dealers from outside 'their' zone (f.e. USA or BRA and other).
We have also "goodies" from down under (hulls, sails, spars, foils...everything, if wanted and is payed by the customer).
How will an Aussie-dealer prove, that my good friend Chris or Jackson or Tom or Keiran or... doesn´t buy Laser-gear for himself but sending the LooserLu a nice X-mas-"Care-box" from Australia that he (the LooserLu, of course) pays back to him via "Western Union"-Money-Bank, hm? :) This is a reason why you can find this goodies for a "nice-price" at ebay.yxz-etc. in UK or GER or... The Out-of- the-box-boatbuilders and the ILCA can be calm and go to sleep again, because they get their money/fees also from the 'imorted'-gear and only a few of this gear is sold on this way - related to all the other stuff theat is sold by the "Laser direct"-dealers.
My "Laser-direct" dealer is not a frieandly Laser-dealer, because he knows he is a monopoly-dealer and since 30 years he never cared for the real wishes ambitional-sailing-Laserites want, but thats his own problem...(not a rant from my side, but the German realitiy)
And finally, its not forbitten to race worldwide with that imported gear as long as this gear follows ILCA Class rules.
Ciao
LooserLu
 
just going on what ive been told by a number of people

an aussie dealer isnt allowed to sell a new boat out of his/her 'zone'

to get around that they could get someone to sail it for 5 minutes and sign a form that says it has been used

i guess its not the same for the sails etc
 
Murphs said:
an aussie dealer isnt allowed to sell a new boat out of his/her 'zone'
Click to expand...

The information about zones is interesting, but remember the original question. Is it legal? Not is it obtainable. You can travel outside the zone yourself, buy the thing, and carry or ship it home. Or in the case of our beloved Laser, sail it home!

Merrily
 
When all else fails, read the documentation......

  1. Does the UK race under the ILCA class rules or some separate local rules?
  2. If the former, do the ILCA class rules say anything about specific items being class legal in one country and not in another?
  3. If not, then legal is legal the world around.


The ILCA class rules are here: ILCA Class Rules
 
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