Australian vs American made hull

S

Simon Karlsson

New Member
Hi! Soon I maybe will buy a Laser Radial. The seller said something about that there is a difference between Australian made hulls and American made hulls. Something about that the Australian made are supposed to be stiffer. Is this something that you have heard about? Is the Austrailan better then?

Simon
 
Does it really matter? In the most part you're competing in a one design class against guys sailing boats built locally. Would you rather compete against them on an equal footing to determine how good a sailor you are or use a crutch to get some perceived advantage over them?
 
It looks like you are buying second hand. If so, the history of how the boat was used is much more important with respect to stiffness than the perceived differences between Australian (PSA), European (LP), or American (LP) hulls.
 
The Aussie hulls are 'supposedly' stiffer than the european or North American made hulls. In reality at the level you are likely to be sailing at you will not notice a difference.

My own boat is old probably softer, certainly heavier than newer shiny boats but I still manage to leave (most) of them behind me during local club races and I perform well at the club annual 'open' meeting for the class. Most people are surpirsed to see such an old boat up there....

I also occasionally use one of our club owned boats (which are abused quite a lot) and still manage to finish where I would were I in my own boat....

Does show it is generally the sailor that makes a difference rather than the boat. As long as everything is there you can still keep up with the new boats.
 
Jeffers' point is illustrated by our club's championship regatta this year in Lasers. We had eight entries, eight races sailed in a round robin. The winner took first or second, mostly first, in every race, even while sailing the old beater boats.
 
I've got an aussie hull and the difference i find is that it isnt stiffer but that it is better built. I've had it for 5 years and the there is no sign of the mast step coming through, it takes the bumps much better and has never leaked. When i have done repairs to both mine and sailorchick's (pse laser) mine was a green, fully wetted out. Lots of resin and fibre mixed. Sailorchicks had loads of dry fibre so loose i could pull them out with my fingers! The materials arnt any different, they are just take a bit more time to put them together.
 
LASERNUT said:
I've got an aussie hull and the difference i find is that it isnt stiffer but that it is better built. I've had it for 5 years and the there is no sign of the mast step coming through, it takes the bumps much better and has never leaked. When i have done repairs to both mine and sailorchick's (pse laser) mine was a green, fully wetted out. Lots of resin and fibre mixed. Sailorchicks had loads of dry fibre so loose i could pull them out with my fingers! The materials arnt any different, they are just take a bit more time to put them together.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Maybe it would be a good thing if the Australian manufacturer started exporting their boats to Europe and the Americas so we could all have the benefit of these boats built to a higher quality. Maybe those superior boats would even attract a (small) premium price over the local built boats.

Nah. Ain't ever going to happen. Or is it?
 
Thank you all you answered that fast! This is a forum I definitely am going to use a lot of times. J

Alan. I didn´t think of it that way. I am just going to buy a Laser and when the seller said it was a difference between the three different hulls I wanted to know if he told me the truth. Of course the sailing experience is more important than the material.

Wavedancer. Yes I am going to buy second hand so then I need to look at it very sharply.

Jeffery/ Merrily. Okay, but then the things he said are true. Okey, nice to hear! How old is you boat/ for how long time have you been sailing?

LASERNUT/Tillerman. Okay, that sounds kind of weird. Like Allan said, isn´t every Laser going to be exactly the same? It´s (like Allan said) a one design class. Strange...
 
Hi Simon,

My boat number is 121821 which I seem to recall is around the mid 1980's so potentially around 25 years old. It has been well looked after on the whole but is starting to suffer a little from it's age (decks are starting to go soft).

To be fair this has only happened since I have had the boat and I do sail it quite hard as well as use a Rooster 8.1 rig on it. It is still perfectly good for club racing and I would imagine that when I decide I really should have something newer then it will go on for a number of years after my ownership.

With regards to Lasernut and Tillerman I can honestly say i have never sailed 2 Lasers that feel the same. They all seem to go around the same speed but the feel has been very different. I have owned Lasers from very old (I had a 75,000 vintage) to brand new. The best feeling boat I have was a boat around the 150,000 sail number. In a lot of ways I regret selling it as the brand new boat that replaced it did feel nice to sail but somehow just didn't feel as quick.

Paul
 
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