Righting a capsized Laser 2

James1983

New Member
Hello,
I am planning to sail a laser 2 single handed. Do you guys know if a single person who weights about 65 kilos is heavy enough to right a laser 2 that capsized and turned turtle in a ˜15 knots wind? If yes, is this easy/hard?

Thank you
Best,
James
 
Should be no problem.

The issue that arises most is the boat flipping right on over the other direction as you get it upright.
Easiest way to avoid this: Make sure the boat is nose to the wind with boom pointed back when you apply your weight to the daggerboard to pop it upright, Mainsheet should be completely slack. When the boat pops up the sail should luff (flap like a flag) and stay over the back of the boat.
Many people can climb on from the side, crawling on and keeping as low as possible. Some have to pull themselves on from the transom.
The boat will want to turn as you get on so its VERY important that the mainsheet is not preventing the sail/boom from freely turning. If the sail fills before you are on and ready to take control, it can flip the boat again.

Secondary is the mast coming off and needing to dive for it
Just happened to the local sailing class on Sunday... they needed a diver to get 3 masts back, indicating the instructor didn't check for the boats being properly rigged.
When rigging the boat at the dock/shore, make sure the halyard is tied to the deck so at least you don't have the mast and sail at the bottom of the lake.

Also a good idea to tie the daggerboard and rudder to the hull with lengths of paracord... just to be paranoid.
 
James: 65 kg should be enough. But 2 x 65 would be much better. That way you would have much more fun with the boat upright, too.
Secondary is the mast coming off and needing to dive for it
FH, you seem to have a strange obsession about capsizes and loose masts. Or at least, in this case, you're mistaking the Laser 2 for a Sunfish.
 
Definitely there were a few capsized lasers... with the local dive rescue boat... out in the middle of the lake.

And the divers were getting the masts. Since it turned out they didn't need to recover bodies, and they could see the sails...

And no, I'm not as stupid as you seem to be and I can see the obvious differences between a Sunfish hull and a Laser hull
And the local training program DOES NOT HAVE ANY Sunfish.
 
Fhhuber: first, we're talking about Laser 2s here - it has a stayed mast which certainly doesn't fall off the boat just by capsizing.

Second, I thought you must have been thinking about Sunfishes as they're the only boat (that I know) that uses a halyard to keep the mast in (and Lasers don't have halyards in the first place).

And you've suggested in the past to intentionally take the mast off capsized boats, so they'd be easier to right.

By no means am I implying that you're stupid, but you do sometimes give some strange advice.

(Also, I find it very strange that whole Laser rigs would go to the bottom. Didn't they even have their sheets and cunninghams in place?)
 
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Yes, let's keep it nice on this forum!

My comment to fhhuber: The rig shouldn't come off a Laser after a capsize when the boat is rigged properly. In fact, Laser class rules require a method to prevent just that. I suggest you have a little chat with the responsible party.
 
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Laser 2s are designed to turtle as a safety point. Stops them drifting away from you.

Our Laser 2 has a mast head float so that we do not have the mast stuck in the mud and break or bend it getting out. I am 80 Kg in my socks often sail it single handed and have no difficulty righting it from horizontal. Righting from 180 deg is a pain. However I sail in enclosed waters and am never more that 200m from the shore.

I'd say that 65 kg will be ok as you will have at least 5kg of water on you as well.

So decide on whether you can safely have a mast head float or not, big deep water leave it off and just work harder to get it up.

The main difficulty with an L2 is that it floats very high so getting on the dagger baord is difficult. If you have a mast float you can just climb up the using the boom and mast and step over the edge onto the dagger board. Our float is a crewsaver one about a meter long and 100mm diameter. It is tied to the mast head and to the shroud attachments very firmly.
 
Just thought I'd add to the sum of human happiness.

Laser 2 works well with just the mainsail up. Kicker tension/vang tension is critical, a nice loose leech with the tell tale on the top batten flying all the time works well and means that the boat goes fast. If you tighten the vang too much the weather helm increses and it slows down a lot. Make sure that you are sheeting from the centre line not like a Laser standard, otherwise you will have too much leech tension. Boom over corner of boat going to windward just like a Laser Standard. It's like having a cheap Contender.:)

Ive attached some pics of the mast head float we use. Looks a little strange but solves so amny problems.
 

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Secondary is the mast coming off and needing to dive for it....
I can't see how the mast could drop out. It's well attached to the boat (shrouds, forestay, etc.) so for it to "drop out and having to dive for it" would require so many wires to break.

Ian
 
Just thought I'd add to the sum of human happiness.

Laser 2 works well with just the mainsail up. Kicker tension/vang tension is critical, a nice loose leech with the tell tale on the top batten flying all the time works well and means that the boat goes fast. If you tighten the vang too much the weather helm increses and it slows down a lot. Make sure that you are sheeting from the centre line not like a Laser standard, otherwise you will have too much leech tension. Boom over corner of boat going to windward just like a Laser Standard. It's like having a cheap Contender.:)

Ive attached some pics of the mast head float we use. Looks a little strange but solves so amny problems.
Can you explain in great detail how you attach this mast float to the mast, I bought one these floats but there is nothing to tie it to at the top of the mast and I cannot see how you have done it in your photos. Thanks
 
Our club has since given the Laser 2 away to a member.

I drilled a hole in the mast head pulley fitting to attach it at the top with some 3mm polyester cord.
The lower end was tied to the bolt that goes through the mast to attach the trapeze to. Works well and is absolutely essential for safe sailing on confined and shallow waters. Different if you are in the middle of a big lake or sea, then you want it to invert so it does not blow away from you. This can happen really easily. If you fall in at full speed the boat can easily be 10m in front of you before you have got to the surface. Its a long hard swim to catch it. Never let go of the mainsheet!
 
Thanks very much for replying to my question about the mast float. I am reluctant, however, to drill a hole in the mast. We sail in a deep lake so we do not have to worry about damaging the mast when capsizing, but we had some trouble reaching the daggerboard when the boat inverted because the bottom of the boat is very slippery and we had trouble getting on to it. We tried using the yellow mast float that fits over the bolt of the sail for many years, but this float frequently gets jammed where the two sections of the mast meet when the sail is being raised and it is a pain to remove it, so we finally gave up on that. Any suggestions on how to get up on to the bottom of the boat after it has turtled would be helpful.
 

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