Restoration project

tonyquoll

tonyquoll

Member
G'day,
Last week I bought my 1st Laser: 24877, on registered trailer for a bargain AU$500. Red hull, so calling it Firefly.
I learned Lasers were first built in Australia in 1974, and in 1977 the sail numbers began with 35265, so I'm guessing this one was built in 1976.
Immediately I've replaced all the frayed, rotten bits of cord with proper braided line, then taken it out for a blast in 20knot winds. Awesome! Great speed off the wind, but barely made any progress to windwards with the stretched, baggy old sail and my 62kg (140lb) bodyweight way overpowered with the standard rig.
After close scrutiny of the class rules, have ordered about $900 parts; radial mast lower, cunningham base plate, cleats, self-bailer/venturi, and luckily a generous friend gave me a decent radial sail. I'll rig up the rest with the original vang blocks and some other bits from my spares box.
The hull bottom was worse than a teenager's face, so I've smoothed down the gel-coat blisters with some 400grit wet & dry. Will fill in the big gouges where it's been dragged over rocks, and then rub it all down to a polish.
There's some major wear, inside the mast socket and inside the centreboard case. The gel coat is long gone and I'm not sure how thick the remaining fibreglass is. Doesn't leak though! Wonder if I should do something about this? Am I allowed to fill the gap around the centreboard?
Should be called a keel; the centreboard weighs 4.7kg (10.3lbs). Is that normal?
In a week's time hoping to enter the ACT Dinghy Championships (Oct 29-30, Canberra Yacht Club). Should be good fun and a learning experience. Then the big one, the reason I wanted a Laser; NSW State Masters Championships, Jervis Bay Nov 12-13. Last year they had 115 boats, but no races as it was blown out. Sounds unreal; will be the biggest fleet I've ever raced against! Other classes I've sailed: Leader, Australian Sailfish, Heron, Moth, NS14 and continue to race Paper Tiger Catamaran: http://www.papertigercatamaran.org/
I'm aware of the Lasers Down Under forum, http://www.lasersdownunder.com/forum/ but traffic there is a country back road to this site's Main Street.
Anyone have advice or suggestions?
 
Save yourself alot of time and money and weigh the hull. If it weighs around 150lbs, dump the hull. All the new parts are great but a heavy hull is no race boat. My 2002 weighs 129 and is very quick even in light air. I had an older laser that was a little heavy and the difference is night and day. Good luck.
tonyquoll said:
G'day,
Last week I bought my 1st Laser: 24877, on registered trailer for a bargain AU$500. Red hull, so calling it Firefly.
I learned Lasers were first built in Australia in 1974, and in 1977 the sail numbers began with 35265, so I'm guessing this one was built in 1976.
Immediately I've replaced all the frayed, rotten bits of cord with proper braided line, then taken it out for a blast in 20knot winds. Awesome! Great speed off the wind, but barely made any progress to windwards with the stretched, baggy old sail and my 62kg (140lb) bodyweight way overpowered with the standard rig.
After close scrutiny of the class rules, have ordered about $900 parts; radial mast lower, cunningham base plate, cleats, self-bailer/venturi, and luckily a generous friend gave me a decent radial sail. I'll rig up the rest with the original vang blocks and some other bits from my spares box.
The hull bottom was worse than a teenager's face, so I've smoothed down the gel-coat blisters with some 400grit wet & dry. Will fill in the big gouges where it's been dragged over rocks, and then rub it all down to a polish.
There's some major wear, inside the mast socket and inside the centreboard case. The gel coat is long gone and I'm not sure how thick the remaining fibreglass is. Doesn't leak though! Wonder if I should do something about this? Am I allowed to fill the gap around the centreboard?
Should be called a keel; the centreboard weighs 4.7kg (10.3lbs). Is that normal?
In a week's time hoping to enter the ACT Dinghy Championships (Oct 29-30, Canberra Yacht Club). Should be good fun and a learning experience. Then the big one, the reason I wanted a Laser; NSW State Masters Championships, Jervis Bay Nov 12-13. Last year they had 115 boats, but no races as it was blown out. Sounds unreal; will be the biggest fleet I've ever raced against! Other classes I've sailed: Leader, Australian Sailfish, Heron, Moth, NS14 and continue to race Paper Tiger Catamaran: http://www.papertigercatamaran.org/
I'm aware of the Lasers Down Under forum, http://www.lasersdownunder.com/forum/ but traffic there is a country back road to this site's Main Street.
Anyone have advice or suggestions?
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for that. Weighed my hull at 62.5kg (138 lbs); should be OK. Agree with you about the importance of hull weight; a light boat is faster, more responsive, and more fun.
The foils are something else though; very heavy. Maybe I've been spoiled with the carbon on my PT!
I read the minimum weight for a Laser hull is 59kg (130 lbs). Yours must be just within tolerance of what can be weighed. Would expect it to be especially quick in light air. A credit to the class and their builders that they have remained competitive.
 
tonyquoll said:
Thanks for that. Weighed my hull at 62.5kg (138 lbs); should be OK. Agree with you about the importance of hull weight; a light boat is faster, more responsive, and more fun.
The foils are something else though; very heavy. Maybe I've been spoiled with the carbon on my PT!
I read the minimum weight for a Laser hull is 59kg (130 lbs). Yours must be just within tolerance of what can be weighed. Would expect it to be especially quick in light air. A credit to the class and their builders that they have remained competitive.
Click to expand...
My board is 10lbs and the rudder and head are 4lbs. Yours are fine. Upgrade your vang if you race in heavy air. Good luck.
 
My hull weighs 132lbs, (number 165491) and my foils are also 10lbs and 4lbs.
And I believe the most important part is having a good sail and again a good kicker.
Otherwise you have done everything right with the bottom of the hull and the rest of the boat.

Have fun sailing it! They are great boats!
 
You also might want to consider adding the sleeve inside the boom if you plan to sail with "21st Century" kicker load.

I would also strongly suggest installing a port so you can check the attachment of the mast-tube base to the bottom of the hull. It's an easy reinforcement job if things are still in the right positions, and fixing it if it fails is a much (much!) bigger task.
 
Thanks for the info and encouragement.
I put a fair bend in the old boom by pre-loading with the mainsheet and cleating the old 3:1 vang (kicker). The boom sleeve makes a lot of sense!
At $350 for a turbo vang block, that's asking a bit much to upgrade from V-jam to cam-cleat. Definitely adding a block to increase purchase on the old unit. Found this page to be a great help: http://www.wvaegir.nl/newrig_2.html
 
yes the old style vang with a couple more turns would be fine to start out... but when you get more serious with racing it really nice to have the easy holt/harken upgrade...
 
tonyquoll said:
At $350 for a turbo vang block, that's asking a bit much to upgrade from V-jam to cam-cleat.
Click to expand...

The place where the new system really shines isn't when you're adding tension going up-wind (although it is handy then), it's releasing the vang after you round the top mark...

I forget how much it cost when I switched from my 12:1 Holt-cleat system to the new vang, but I don't remember it being the $285 that APS wants now (Ouch!).
 
Wondering about some chunks of stuff I can hear rattling around inside the hull.
Section 26(e) of the Rules: "Any flotation equipment (flotation foam blocks or Cubitainer inserts) that is defective or has been removed shall be replaced by fully air filled, builder supplied, Cubitainer inserts which shall have an equal volume."
I'm going to install a hatch cover, about 20-30cm starboard and rearwards of the mast hole. This should provide access to the mast base (as suggested above), and also the cunningham plate and cleat plate; in case the screws need to be replaced with bolt-through later on.
How would I check if the flotation is defective, and what would i do about it?
 
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