Just measured my older centreboard which I have here at home, and it's 340 mm across (about 364 along the flow/parallel to the bottom edge) and just a bit over 31 mm thick. You can't change the cross-section much because the case opening is similarly foil-shaped, and there's no point really in trying to "improve" on it anyway. It's good enough the way it is.
The rudder is whole another matter. I am fundamentally against "improving" one-design boats against their class rules, but it's also a fact that Bruce Kirby has said that the rudder blade is the only part of the Laser that he'd re-design; elliptical planform and deeper, with 33 % more area. If you want something along those lines, you'd probably want to find a Laser rudder head and start from scratch: the only relevant measurement of the legal foil is the 20 mm thickness.
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All daggerboards are centreboards, but not the other way roundThe Laser has a daggerboard though, not a centerboard? Perhaps our terminology is a bit different.
According to Ian Bruce's chapter on the Laser in "Small Boat Racing With the Champions (Edited by Bob Fisher 1976), the Laser centreboard is a NACA 0009 section.
Interesting. My understanding is that a prototype that was tested in New Zealand around 1999 looked very much like that. Is that actually designed by BK himself? Do you have drawings?
Yes, I like my vertical rudder.the rig is so well balanced you can sail upwind and take your hand off the tiller.
Interesting. My understanding is that a prototype that was tested in New Zealand around 1999 looked very much like that. Is that actually designed by BK himself? Do you have drawings?
The reason this is interesting is that ILCA was actually going to change this at the time. However, it got kind of buried under the control system changes, and then forgotten. Of course, it would be interesting to hear what Tracy (Usher, president) or Aileen Loo (chief measurer) would think of this as a future project now.
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I will look at both designs in comparison to my clean-sheet Laser rudder fin, which will likely appear similar to the ‘Sabre’ rudder fin I’ve designed for the Sunfish. See some details at Aerosouth.net.
Yeah, we've talked about that adaptation on this forum before, and it's quite close to my impression of what Kirby had in mind at the time."Repurposed" a Hobie 16' rudder to fit into the stock Laser head.
Here's what I did about 25 years ago. "Repurposed" a Hobie 16' rudder to fit into the stock Laser head. It's made the boat much more balanced and cut weather helm entirely. I don't race, but I do go fast with it.
Hi, Pierre, Yes that Hobie rudder requires some shaping and shaving at the top to end up with the proper fit into the Laser rudder head. I used a belt sander to thin it, and for that waterline entry just below the aluminum I used a rasp and file to "sharpen" it a bit. (that part still kicks up a little rooster tail of water, but I feel whatever little drag that is, is more than made up for by having a non-stalling blade and perfect directional control. Now I know three other local Laser sailors who had done the same modification, and they are all very happy with it!
Awesome, thank you. There will be a fourth one soon... Do you know how much you cut from the top? Or rather, what the finished length is?
Thanks!
(hello from Florida -- short clip)
Broken mast in the trail of hurricane Sally:
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