...However, if you check recent world podiums you see a bunch of south Americans, South Asians, etc, ruling in the classifications. Europe is not the major force anymore, but countries that are economically challenge (to some extend). I know there are many rich people in these countries too, however not all of the top sailors belong to the upper classes.
Just a thought.
Well, I'm still using a boat from '90.Well I never meant to say that the rules force them to botch the boats and pump out pieces of shit, dunno how you got that
I meant that if the rules were changed, the boats could be built with much high quality materials, and could last a lot longer, instead of replacing a boat every year, more like every 3 or 5 years, make them stiffer and all around better
Unless the boats are total crapp I can not understand why that would be needed.instead of replacing a boat every year
Anyway, what he pointed out was not things that comes from using normal materials, but things that is caused by misstakes in manufacturing.
Olympic guys get new boats every year because they go soft
Olympic guys get new boats every year because they go soft
Olympic guys get new boats every year because if they don't they'll start wondering if it's the boats fault that they're not winning =pOlympic guys get new boats every year because they go soft
Olympic guys get new boats every year because they go soft
Olympic guys get new boats every year because if they don't they'll start wondering if it's the boats fault that they're not winning =p
Another thing I've noticed is how they sell their boats for more than they payed for them so they probably actualy make money of it. Now if it works like it does in many other classes where you can buy the boats you borrow at events for a reasonably low prize they make even more money of it. I don't know if this is the case with the laser class though.
Why would they go soft?
...too much overtraining?
...too many dates with the olympic-gymnast hopefuls?
Defining diffrence might be a good idea.it's only the elite Olympic sailors that can tell the difference
Olympic guys get new boats every year because they go soft
Where do you get that from? I never said that =pSo you don't like the strictness?
andit sucks
my bad im kinda tired =0Pbut it's still the best way =P
FORD....
Fix
Or
Repair
Daily
I know, an old joke.
FORD....
Fix
Or
Repair
Daily
I know, an old joke.
---snip---
And for everyone who wants a cheaper boat that's even better quality (all of us, I'm guessing) it might be a good idea to remember that every North American Laser builder before Vanguard went bankrupt and Vanguard is, I believe, generally doing a much better quality control job than previous builders (weren't the '80s vintage boats generally reviled?). It doesn't do us any good at all having builders who can't stay afloat just so we can save a buck or two up front.
Certainly I'd hate to see the current builder "rest on their laurels" and not keep making incremental improvements to the product.
But I read somewhere once that car companies could make a bumper that would work at 60MPH but it would cost a fortune and weigh so much that performance and gas mileage and so on would suffer. So I'm sure someone could probably build a Laser out of unobtanium that would never break or wear out but it would likely cost so damn much that even Bill Gates might have trouble affording it. Or it would probably be such a heavy tank of a boat that no one would want to sail it. And either way the company would go out of business because no one would ever buy a second one!
---snip---
By the way, in case you wonder how I measured the offset of the centre board trunk, we flipped the boat upside down and pulled a string from the split line at the bow to the point where the rudder attaches, that gave us the centre line.
Has anybody done a weight comparison on new boats?
Coming back to quality of new Lasers. Vanguard has a problem with the centre board trunk in general. From 6 boats that I helped unloading between Christmas and New Year, 4 of them had the trunk offset to one side. One of them as much as 3/4". I don't know what the allowed tolerance is. Our coach said he has seen worse. I picked the best two for my relatives and left it at that...
...By the way, in case you wonder how I measured the offset of the centre board trunk, we flipped the boat upside down and pulled a string from the split line at the bow to the point where the rudder attaches, that gave us the centre line...
Are you saying that the location of the trunk itself in the hull (not deck) was off center ? If you are, given that the trunk location is part of the hull mold how do you think that is possible...