Multi-Color Sail??

H

Harrison

New Member
I've been sailing Lasers for some time now, and my sail got ripped off from the beach earlier this year. A guy I know offered me his "multi-color" mainsail. Is there a difference? I only see white. Where can I pick up a new (or slightly used) 'white' mainsail?

I'd feel like a catamaran sailor or worse...a sunfish!

Any advise or sites to visit for Laser sails?

ALSO, a new mast???
 
There is no difference in the multi colored sails as compared to the white ones. It was in the 70's and 80's that Performance Sailcraft thought it would be nice to change things up a bit as that was when the colored sails came out. They are no longer made in North America today but they are made in Europe, and you can still see some vintage 70's and 80's colored sails out there today. I saw a picture in a link from laserinternational.org of the 2003 Laser Radial Junior World Championships, I believe, held somewhere in Europe and one sailor was sporting a brand new multi-colroed sail. And if you look close enough, in Jaws 2 (ca. 1976) you can see a Laser with a multi-colred sail.
 
I dont know wether your a racer or not but to be as normal as possible on the start line as possible is good, because if you are over on the line it is easier to see the multi colour rainbow sticking out among the rest of the boats
 
Clarky is right!

I also hope you got a legal sail so that you can race with it, too!

Do you sail a Radial or the Standard Rig???
Part of what determines whether the sail that was "offered" to you (whatever that means) is legal or not is the answer to the above question.

Colored standard rig sails are nowadays just third-party "practice" sails, and they are illegal. So, if you have any "legality" concerns, you should give us much more specific information (age of sail, and marks on the sail, any old numbers on the sail, etc.)

Shevy
 
Hi there,
a few days before I got an original multicoloured (radilal-) sail that is build in 1989. The former owner, a personal known and trustable regattasailor, said that it is allowed to sail regattas with it. He asked an official of the Laserclass-Measuring in our country and this person says, when the Sail is original from the Laser Producer there will be no Problem with legality.
Alltough I agree to Shevy, that it is not very effective to sail a very old sail on a laser profi regatta. I use this sail for stormy winds to spare the maststep of my old Laserhull. Therefore this sail is good enough and as freetime sailor I have no need to get the best newest (and not cheap) mainsails.

Harrison-DMH,
I agree to your question - where to get a new used sail in good condition...
I got one by "ebay". This is maybe a big risk (not only because of the financial part of ebay deals), because at ebay you often only can see a picture of the sail. I think that is like buying a car only by looking a picture of it, when you don´t know about the "trustability" of the owner of the sail.

Often I think, there are so many Lasers in the world and a lot of "profi"sailors. I read about, that often they have to change to new sails because one week strong racing at big Lasercup the mainsail allready gets too bad for them.
What do they do with their "older" used sails, wich does not fit anylonger to get the first in regatta´s? - Do they "eat´em"? I don´t know.

Another way to get a "new" used Lasermainsail ist to go to a bigger Laserregatta in your country and ask direktly the profis about getting a used mainsail from them. Sometimes they have one for you.

Some sailingclubs have an internethomepage on which they have a little marketplace. Maybe you search in this way for a new Lasermainsail.

Sometimes official Lasersellers are offering used Lasers and used Laserparts from their boatexhibitions. Maybe sometimes a "used" sail is offered - look on their hompages.
I wish you Good Luck Harrison-DMH :)

Regards to all
LooserLu :D
 
> What do they do with their "older" used sails?

In North America, the "pros" typically announce the sale of their used sails on the "NA Mailing List", http://cerebus.winsite.com/archives . Go there and do a search for "used sail" to see the "history" of the ads there.

(Brad: One thing you can do - for instance - is to track the NA List to ensure that such ads are placed in The Forum, too.)

In the past, I've sold a few used sails on the Mailing List, too. I've sold them at serious discounts ($150-200, etc.), specifically to newcomers to Lasering, on the condition that they also join ILCA for a specified number of years. So, I had used it as a means of promoting Class Memebership. I wish more sailors followed the same path.

There are close to 70,000 Lasers in North America, probabably 20,000+ still sailing, but only 3000 or so registered as ILCA North America members. What a pity!

Once again, make sure that your colored sails are legal for racing. I emphasize this because, a few years ago, a merchandiser sold a colored "practice sail" without mentioning to the buyer that the sail could not be used for racing. And hell broke loose!

SG
 
Hi there again,
I full agree to Shevy Gunter`s last reply.

In my experiance you can get a used Lasermainsail (standard, in white of course) in fair condition (1-2 years old, folded or maybe even rolled, not so much used) nearly about 200 / 300 Euros (I´m sailing in central Europe; 1 US$ = 0,8 Euro) when you buy it "private to private". (Such a link, like Shevy told, I don´t have for Europe; but maybe go to the Laserhompage of our Country and there to the boatmarket-site and there make a search-question)

Older used Lasermainsails will nearly cost in my experiance about 100 Euro less than a really good one I told above. Be careful as Shevy told it.

And Harrison-DMH, I think you are, like me, a careful person, because you asked at The Laser Forum what´s to do. :)

You must(!) be shure that you buy an original-legal-Lasersail if you will join to Laserregatta´s. Otherwise you have a really big problem with the ship-measurement.

If you are only a freetime Lasersailor (like me) and you are definitly sure you don´t want to start up at official Laserregattas, you can of course ask your local sailmaker to sew a practice Lasermainsail for you. In my experiance this is also a not bad way to go, because often the product-quality of this trainingsail is much more better than the original Lasersailquality but you only pay (in Europe) nearly 350-400 Euro.

Thanks to Shevy Gunter for his link-Tip in his last reply. Although the costs for a Lasersail (new or used) are less in USA/CAN than in Europe (Euro is climbing higher and higher) the Amercian Laserartis shouldn´t be afraid that now Laseratis from Europe buy all the Sail at the link that Shevy told.
In my Opinion the shippingcosts and the bordertax makes this sails (and other Laserparts) to expensive for Europeans.

Harrison-DMH, what I told before that is in the same for the mast you are searching for, too, I think: Be shure about the Big Basic Rule of the Laserclass: Use only original Laserparts if you will sail on Laserregattas, ok.
Maybe someone from your country has a tip for the mast you are looking for too.
In Europe you can get this used too (from England and Germany). But I´m afraid as I told above the shippingcosts and the bordertax makes this to expensive for you.

Have all a nice day
LooserLu :)
 
This goes back to the multi colored sail conversation. I have heard that the multi colored sails had more resin in them. Is there any truth to this? Wouldn't more resin mean longer lasting sails with advantages in big breeze? I know that is the case for the optimist class.
 
mattsterett said:
This goes back to the multi colored sail conversation. I have heard that the multi colored sails had more resin in them. Is there any truth to this? Wouldn't more resin mean longer lasting sails with advantages in big breeze? I know that is the case for the optimist class.
Click to expand...

No truth to it.

In multi colored sails, you are dealing with different lots of cloth, so the chances of ending up with panels with different stretch characteristics is much higher. Not what you want for racing.

More resin doesn't translate to longer lasting sails. It translates to sails that may stretch less until the resin is broken down (luffing is a really good way to break the resin down quickly)
 
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