Were they faster than you?... multiple boats using Intensity, and APS laser sails, ...
Extremely unlikely.The really ridiculous thing is that the non-class sails are probably built closer to spec than the class ones!
Tell you what, I'll buy only class legal sails if you guys pay my kid's college tuition bills.
Think the above is true for a lot of laser sailors, for those who don't rely on their parents lavishing or those with kids n mortgage etc.
I treated myself to a new sail recently as the official genuine sail is a bit blown out and the draft is way back, making it such hard work it wasn't fun.
I could've merely not bought diesel and not bought food last month and got a new one eh !
It winds me up that the ethos was always about encouraging folk on the water to have fun, now it seems to be about balancing the books...
£450 quid for 8 metres of Dacron ? Only if it came in black with a logo of my choice
Of course the counter argument is that you both bought into the class with the long standing sail situation so you could say tough and live with it or sail a different class.
That's exactly the kind of snobbery that elvoves from narrow minded ness ...and more than slightly presumptious.
So in your world, only those with expendable income can go sail a laser ?
Very elitist..
I agree though at 'important' events all boats should be equal, but with regard to sails can this happen without total sponsorship ?
If 100 sailors arrive for an open meet, how many will be breaking out a brand new rolled sail that morning for the 1st time ?
How many will be using that 3 race old sail ?
How many will be using that 5th event sail ?
It's never going to be exactly equal unless we all get brand new sails at every meet.
Ok say you drive a Ford ute and there is a part that only Ford supply are you going to take them to court because you cannot use a Holden part?
Same thing...the choice is there (and I believe has been tested in other countries where monopoly laws are similar).
Yes, we all understand that to race in sanctioned events, you have to use class legal parts. But if we step back to the supply of those class legal parts, we find that they supplied by a business, which business is registered in Australia. That business has to comply with the laws of the country in which it operates. OK, we accept we have to use Laser approved parts to race, but the problem is, we are being done over in the supply of those parts. Unlike the Ford ute part analogy where we can choose to use another non-Ford branded part and still drive it legally, the same is not true of Laser parts. It is not true for Laser parts because the Laser business restricts other suppliers from operating in their cartel-like market. We all know who manufactures the bits that the builders themselves don't make. But, even if a supplier wanted to make those parts and supply those parts to the Laser business, royalty paid, they cannot do so because of the cartel arrangement. I think that's essentially what the Laser sailors beef about.
Choosing to sail the Laser means having to also bow to the cartel, so it's too bad for us. Just because we accept this arrangement, it doesn't mean that it's right. Just that we are prepared to be screwed over.