Building a scaled laser

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pierettidesign

New Member
Having recently moved to Ithaca, NY I am lucky enough to get 40+ days on the water each season. A huge improvement after living in NYC. My son just turned two and I was joking about building him a scaled down laser to learn on as he gets older.

Also, I am a model building fanatic. Model cars , planes, soap box derby cars etc...
I was thinking it would be actually pretty easy to build a 1/2 scale laser. I have all the drawings, and an actual laser already. I could use much of the same hardware -- some simplified-- as a real laser and would focus on building the hull out of wood or fiberglass. A scale rudder, daggerboard and sail, etc...

My question is what scale should I build?
A seven year old weighs about 60lbs I'm guessing.

1/2 scale would be 7' long
5/8 scale would be approx 8'-9"
3/8" would probably be too small.

I even thought about building a wheeled sled for it. Change the rudder to a third wheel and the boy could learn to sail in a parking lot at first.

Any comments other than I'm Crazy!!!??

Thanks

Any advice
 
I'd prolly think of an Opti before I tried scaling anything. Optis are fairly easy to build, and can be built for ~1000 including everything.

We have a group here in NC that builds Optis with kids in the winter, and then they sail them during the summer in a sailing camp environment. So far we've built 10 boats in three years, and had three dozen kids get exposed to sailing.

We have a dry land sailer.. it's a frame that straps under the hull of an Opti, and the kids learn to sail it in the field near our shop. I actually don't think I'd recommend it, as you have little control over it on a parking lot, and it can get quite fast. One of our kids opened up the rear corners of a newly built Opti on the asphault by seeing how hard he could tack. So we took it off road after that.. and the kids end up needing a slight 'tow' in light winds. I'm sure we could upgrade our wheel rig, but it is OK for them to get the feel of the main sheet/tiller so we've just let it be. I will mess around here and come back with some pix, just gotta size them for posting.

Richard
Salisbury NC
 
So, no, you are not crazy :)

As you can see, our kids range from 3rd to 5th grade, around ages 9-11. They have a ball.


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http://www.laserforum.org/picture.php?albumid=71&pictureid=3910
 
I like the idea, you'll also have to build the spars, blades and sail but it could work you never know it might catch on. The parking lot sailboat is another good idea as long as it doesn't capsize easily.
 
Ha! That's just what I was picturing...
That's great that you guys build your own boats in the winter and then sail them in the summer. I will look into the Optis. I can see that the hull design may be more appropriate for kids rather than having to sit on the deck of a laser.

I was not familiar Opti class until you mentioned it.
Thank You!
 
If you are going to spend time building a boat I would definitely go with an Oppy (or whatever equivalent is sailed locally). Your kid(s) will get far more out of sailing what their peers are sailing (local class, etc.) than with a one-off.

Also, children grow quickly and the Laser 4.7 seems to be sailed by quite young people these days.

Also, obviously a half sized version will perform nothing like the boat it is based on so you would not even be sailing together.

Ian
 
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