Rob Hair
Active Member
I'm new to Lasers, although I've sailed for many years and got my start sailing in a similar sized boat - OK Dinghy.
I bought a used boat (1976) with sail number 555. I don't think the sail is original, because its in very good condition, so I don't know if that's really the right sail number and I can't find a hull number on the transom.
I rigged the boat completely last week and all seemed fine except that the tack (the hole for the Cunningham) seemed too low. The Cunningham hole came down as far as the pin for the boom, making it impossible to tension the luff of the sail. It appeared as though the mast was about 4 inches short (or the sail 4 inches long). After looking up the Laser class rules it became obvious that everything was the right length, but the plastic collar on the upper mast section that mates with the lower mast section had been moved by some past owner, making the upper mast section sit lower in the lower mast section by about 4 inches. The original hole for the rivet that fixes the collar is visible and I can even hear the part of the original (drilled out) rivet rolling around in the upper mast section.
Its a simple matter for me to move the plastic collar back to its original place (I have SS rivets and setting tool) and that's what I intend to do, but I wanted to see if anyone may know of some reason that I may want to leave it as it is. I can only guess that at some time in this boat's past someone used a slightly shorter sail.
Any idea why someone would have modified the mast in this way? It doesn't seem like it was shortened enough to fit a Radial or M rig.
Rob
I bought a used boat (1976) with sail number 555. I don't think the sail is original, because its in very good condition, so I don't know if that's really the right sail number and I can't find a hull number on the transom.
I rigged the boat completely last week and all seemed fine except that the tack (the hole for the Cunningham) seemed too low. The Cunningham hole came down as far as the pin for the boom, making it impossible to tension the luff of the sail. It appeared as though the mast was about 4 inches short (or the sail 4 inches long). After looking up the Laser class rules it became obvious that everything was the right length, but the plastic collar on the upper mast section that mates with the lower mast section had been moved by some past owner, making the upper mast section sit lower in the lower mast section by about 4 inches. The original hole for the rivet that fixes the collar is visible and I can even hear the part of the original (drilled out) rivet rolling around in the upper mast section.
Its a simple matter for me to move the plastic collar back to its original place (I have SS rivets and setting tool) and that's what I intend to do, but I wanted to see if anyone may know of some reason that I may want to leave it as it is. I can only guess that at some time in this boat's past someone used a slightly shorter sail.
Any idea why someone would have modified the mast in this way? It doesn't seem like it was shortened enough to fit a Radial or M rig.
Rob