The ILCA approved today the new Carbon Wing Sail for all Lasers beginning in 2012. The sail will retail for $650, and Intensity will not have a replica version right away, but after after some testing it should be available for $179 in 2013. The prototype looks very promising, the big test will come at this years worlds where some off the cuff 2 boat testing will take place.
Its not April 1st, but I just needed to stir something up.....Its boring around here today
So much for the new sails being cheaper. . . But then they should last longer I suppose. If they don't you can always give your old sails to the wife/girlfriend (as long as they don't know about each other of course!) and keep them happy.
So much for the new sails being cheaper. . . But then they should last longer I suppose. If they don't you can always give your old sails to the wife/girlfriend (as long as they don't know about each other of course!) and keep them happy.
And "The Wing" is for Laserites only, that race with a total body weight (incl racing dress) of over: 15,75 stones ( = 221 lb = 100 kg).
It has been a top-secret for a loooong time. But now, as we have passed some couple of years, I am able to tell about (Forgive me Heini/Jeff, but you definitely know, I am a "yappy person" ... ):
At that time, 2007, "The Wing" originally was secretly tested at "AC" at Valencia/ESP!!
"The Wing" has been installed on Larry Ellisons boat, in an oversized version (as an "erl-king"), to perfectly hide the "real" intention, which was:
Indeed to test "The Wing" for the famous Olympic sailing class boat "Laser I Standard". The hearsay was: Bruce Kirby himself, behind the curtains, did the difficult negotiations successful with Larry because he, Bruce himself, did want to optimal extend the worldwide known "Laser Formula" over the limit of the already successful "Rooster 8.1 Rig" to complete the Laser for all ranges of weight.
This was Bruce answer to Ian Bruce's (Co-Inventor of the "Laser I Standard") gambit of installing Ian's later invention, "The Byte CII", as the official single handed male/female sailing discipline at the 1st Olympic Youth Games of Singapore 2010, last month.