Cleaning up spars?

[marvin-miller]

Hi Folks;

Is there any way to re-finish spars? How do they get that satin finish on them at the spar factory? Does anyone know what the process is?

 

[AlanD]

Yes, it's called anodizing.

 

[marvin-miller]

Yes, it's called anodizing.

Thanks! Looking it up on the Internet seems to indicate that you can actually re-anodize them without too much trouble.

Just a quick question...if I re-andozed my OEM Laser spars and made them blue instead of silver would they still be legal?

All the new fittings seem to be blue - it would be kind of neat to make the mast & boom the same shade of blue if I was going to go through the trouble of re-anodizing them.

I'm thinking a color something like this;

But... if I did that I wouldn't want the spars to be declarted illegal. After all, they would be the same identical legal spars as before - just blue.

 

[AlanD]

While it wouldn't be illegal in my opinion (some of the other ISAF measurers might disagree), it does draw the measurers attention and it's something which may cause you trouble. I'd suggest not doing it.

 

[marvin-miller]

Thanks Alan - I hadn't thought of that but it sure would draw attention, which would mean explaining and I could see it growing from there - especially since they would have no stickers on them anymore.

Sage advice - if I do it I'll expect problems if I race it

 

[EddieDingle]

How would you anodize them? Isn't that a pretty tough process?

 

[marvin-miller]

This guy is having good success with it. It seems to me the hardest part is getting tanks long enough to hold the spars. Other then that it seems pretty straightforward in that all you need is a battery charger, a heater and some acid etc.

I think it would be a hoot to refinish spars in different colors. Gold would also look good. Red would probably look good with some colors.

It seems to me that everybody's Laser looks the same. No dubt that's a problem with the one-design principle

Thing is, usually when everyone has the same product and you can't change them - then usually people mod said product to make it stand out and look cool.

So, anodizing would be one way. Painting flames and doing a custom paint job would be another. There's got to be a lot of ways to make a stock Laser look WAY cooler then everyone else's run of the mill boat.

I've never seen a souped up Laser...but I think it's time. Maybe a mural on the bottom? A mural on the deck? Something with mermaids sitting on a rock?

 

[EddieDingle]

That is awesome. That looks like a great project. I agree, it is time to see a souped up laser.


I have always wanted black spars.. but why go black when you can go pink?

 

[marvin-miller]

I'd have to say it all depends on the overall color scheme. If you were making a boat for a girl you could use pink and some other pastel colors.

How about a gloss black hull with red tiger shark teeth approaching the front (like on an old fighter plane) with gold anodized aluminum? Black & gold usually go well together. Better yet, add some flames.

I'm very surprised there's no airbrushing going on. It adds vitrually no weight at all to the boat. The entire bottom could be airbrushed with something really cool. Maybe a beach scene with palm trees and a sponsor's name. (Malibu!) or something like that.

How about a Pirate themed boat? You could race with a patch on yer eye and a parrot on your shoulder!

Anything to get away from this terrible uniformity!

 

[Merrily]

I think that the decor sounds fun, but the reason people don't go for it is it makes your boat stand out on the starting line and in the race. It goes like this, "a couple of boats are over early, but I didn't catch the sail numbers of the white ones, but that one with the shark teeth and gold spars was over for sure." Same thing in the race. "That girl with the pink spars is really good. I'm going to target her."

 

[bjmoose]

Yeah, it would be cool.

From a practical standpoint, I think the biggest impediment would be that you'd need to remove ALL the hardware, rivets, etc.. from the spar before anodizing. (In addition to finding a shop with a long enough anodizing tank)

Then put everything back on, replacing all the rivets and (probably) most of the end caps. That's a lot of work for that "custom" appearance.

Not to mention that it's going to lose you your "Laser" stickers off the spars, raising interesting questions at measurement time.

 

[marvin-miller]

"a couple of boats are over early, but I didn't catch the sail numbers of the white ones, but that one with the shark teeth and gold spars was over for sure." Same thing in the race. "That girl with the pink spars is really good. I'm going to target her."

Good point, there's no doubt you'd stand out

From a practical standpoint, I think the biggest impediment would be that you'd need to remove ALL the hardware, rivets, etc.. from the spar before anodizing.

Rivets are a pretty easy job if you have good gun. I'm planning on doing this anyway because the rivets on my spars are vintage 1982. The tank would be the real issue I think.

With respect to doing a theme boat, I was just thinking....picture this...

Airbrush woden strips running fore to aft on the hull complete with airbrushed nails on a black background. Paint the transom so it looks like a transom (see pic) and then paint on deck guns (cannon) on the front and rear.

All that's left is to hoist the flag off the mast, put on yer eyepatch, grab a parrot and then go!

Surely no one would dare point the finger at the Black Pearl ?