Best way to leave a Laser at a dock?

Wavedancer

Upside down?
Staff member
It happened again; I left my Laser tied to a cleat on a dock in relatively light (5-10 mph), but shifty, wind. I was hot and thirsty and wanted to take a 15 minute break.
I looked back at the boat from time to time; she swung back and forth, but eventually capsized even though the sheet was still free. The vang was off.
After learning my lesson (AGAIN), I got the boat back up and released the clew. But tying the clew back on, while standing in the boat, is tricky.

Any recommendations for this somewhat helpless old Laser guy?
 
It happened again; I left my Laser tied to a cleat on a dock in relatively light (5-10 mph), but shifty, wind. I was hot and thirsty and wanted to take a 15 minute break.
I looked back at the boat from time to time; she swung back and forth, but eventually capsized even though the sheet was still free. The vang was off.
After learning my lesson (AGAIN), I got the boat back up and released the clew. But tying the clew back on, while standing in the boat, is tricky.


Any recommendations for this somewhat helpless old Laser guy?

Do you raise the board and rudder when it is tied to the pier? If you do that and remove the sheet from the boom blocks you should be OK. I leave the vang on when I do that.
 
Do you raise the board and rudder when it is tied to the pier? If you do that and remove the sheet from the boom blocks you should be OK. I leave the vang on when I do that.
I had the board and rudder down; I guess that prevented the hull from moving freely as the wind changed.
Next time I will take the sheet off and see how that works out. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
True, but I was in a pretty busy marina and others may not see the rig half submerged.

Agree, you cannot do that everywhere but on a location like this it works fine:

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I often lay my boat down on shore, too. If you're going to leave it capsized in the water for any length of time, be certain your top section is absolutely watertight. Water that makes its way in there adds up to bad weight aloft.
 

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