Question:
Laser sailboat paleontology
I am rebuilding a Laser sailboat made in 1975. I had a bare hull with
NO fittings at all on it, mast, boom, a sail, dagger board, broken
rudder, and a box full of blocks from various boats, some may be Laser
parts. So far, I have replaced the deck acess port, self bailer,
fairleads, bow fitting, grabrails.
I do not have another Laser for comparison to see what I am missing or
what should go where. Fortunately, there are stains and holes marking
where fittings screwed to the hull so I have been able to decipher most
of it. I am uncertain about some things because they seem to differ on
this old boat from the more modern versions.
The boat seemed to have clamcleat style cleats on either side ofht
ecockpit instead of camcleats. Could this be right?
There is no tiller and I am loathe to spend money on a new one so I may
make one. Looking at the fitting for the tiller on the tiller box that
holds the rudder, there is a squareish mount for the rudder. Did a
wooden rudder simply fit into this? The pin that fits into the top of
this through the steel mount on the rudder box, was it simply to hold
the tiller in place? What kept the pin from coming out? How long
should my rudder be? This hole looks to be no more than 1'X1" which
seems sorta flimsy, what about this?
The cord that attaches to the forward edge of the rudder may be to haul
th erudder down after launching but I am not sure how to lead it.
I have downloaded a rigging manual for a newer Laser but it doesnt tell
the lengths of the various lines or their size. Can anybody tell me
this info?
Answer:
- You might also check out "The Laser Book" (Sail to Win Series) (Paperback)
by Tim Davison at Amazon.com.
If you're planning to race in "Class" races, then line lengths are
important. (Too long gets you disqualified.) If you just want to make
holes in the water and enjoy the scenery, then adding a little to the sheet
length makes life more comfortable, or at least it did with the Sunfish.
With the Sunfish, competitors went to extremes to get those extra inches;
e.g. using a simple overhand knot to secure the standing end with stitching
to keep it secure.
- I do have an APS catalogue and have ordered parts from them but I
cannot find anyplace that specifies what size line to use for various
things. This Laser is so old that it is somewhat different from newer
ones as shown in the catalogues. For example, the new gudgeons did not
fit so I had to fill the old screw holes and make new ones, the deck
access plate was an entirely different size, etc.
There also seems to be a lot of slop in the mast step. Is this
correct? APS does have some material to take up some slop but the mast
step on this old boat actually seems to be slightly oval with long axis
along the boat axis so the mast can tilt forward or back. This could
radically affect sail trim.
What really strikes me is that my strengthened MiniCups are probably
better built than this old Laser. On the Laser, they simply use screws
into the underlying wood to hold fittings instead of using backing
nuts. How often do these fail?
