Class Politics Cutting a Laser sail

Merrily

Administrator
Is it possible to refresh an old stretched Laser sail by cutting it down? I don't recall any discussion of this, but I know that cruising sailors often do this to get more life out of their sails. I reckon it would be hard to make it a first class racing sail again, but would it be a good racing sail? Also, if the sail were legal to begin with, would cutting it make it illegal?
 
yeah im pretty sure it would definatley be illegal and do you mean cutting a chunk out of it so it will be smaller in the end but have more life.
 
IIRC, you are allowed to repair a torn sail - you aren't allow to re-cut or reshape a sail. There is a specific section in the rule that deals with this, but I can't get on the ILCA site (If anyone from the NA office is reading, why can't we have a copy of the rules PDF on the NA site ? All I can find is the page that has the link to the ILCA site )

Now if you aren't planning to race with it, you can get rid of the leech flutter with a small leech take-up in the seam between the two battens - You need anywhere from a 2mm to 5mm take-up that goes about 75cm into the seam. You can get rid of the overbend wrinkle at the joint of the mast by adding 1cm more of luff curve in that area, tapered back to the existing luff curve line. Taper it over 2 meters towards the head and 1.5 meters towards the tack.
 
Merrily said:
Also, if the sail were legal to begin with, would cutting it make it illegal?

If you check your ILCA handbook you can see that the fundamental rule tells you that you are not allowed to make any alterations to builder supplied equipment, other than what is specifically allowed in parts 2 or 3 of the rules. Part 3 talks about "repairs and maintenance" and says you can do "repair or preventative maintenance" on the sail provided "such repairs are made in such a way that the essential shape, characteristics or function of the original are not affected." In addition, 26(d) specifically prohibits replacement of panels.

It sounds harsh but remember the intent is to make it unnecessary for Laser sailors to own scissors and thread.
 
49208 said:
There is a specific section in the rule that deals with this, but I can't get on the ILCA site (If anyone from the NA office is reading, why can't we have a copy of the rules PDF on the NA site ? All I can find is the page that has the link to the ILCA site )

ahem... you don't have your ILCA handbook close by your side? The one we dutifully send out each year? Well... I have to admit I'm getting to the age where I find it difficult to read the fine print anymore...

ILCA maintains the Class Rules and we can make sure we are sending people to the right version of the rules by linking to their site. For example, I discovered that the "old" ILCA-NA site had exactly this problem, an old pdf that was out of date, when I was trying to check something. Anyway, the ILCA site is normally "always" available so it is usually not a problem to find the current pdf there. Ok... it is a problem when they are updating the text of the rules (like now) and take the old version offline before updating (which I don't think is the problem right now). Anyway, I'm sure the site will be back online by tomorrow.
 
SFBayLaser said:
If you check your ILCA handbook you can see that the fundamental rule tells you that you are not allowed to make any alterations to builder supplied equipment, .

I was aware of this, but you know, with my old brain, I really didn't make the connection that that included sails. That's why I asked my friends at TLF.

SFBayLaser said:
other than what is specifically allowed in parts 2 or 3 of the rules. Part 3 talks about "repairs and maintenance" and says you can do "repair or preventative maintenance" on the sail provided "such repairs are made in such a way that the essential shape, characteristics or function of the original are not affected." In addition, 26(d) specifically prohibits replacement of panels.

See now I would read this that it is allowed to cut and sew the sail as long as the shape is the same. What I was meaning to ask was is there a way to do this that would not change the characteristics or function of the original, but just to maintain its original shape? You are, after all, allowed to do repairs to builder supplied equipment that keeps it in the original shape. For example, if you take a chunk out of the rudder, you can expoxy and paint it back to new.
 
I hear you on the age issue - remembering where I left the printed copy is my problem, lol.

And my gripe about the link vs a static copy on another server is partly my own fault - I had downloaded the rules PDF file on my other computer, but not the one I am currently using...
 
i dont think there would be much point to doing so. the draft of the sail would be improved but the sail cloth would still be worn down and not have the resin finnish thing on the sail so it still would not only be not class legal but not worth the trouble and not as good as a race sail
 

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