Time to Vote on New Laser Rules

Between now and September 1, 2009, members of the International Laser Class Association (ILCA) have an opportunity to vote on changes in our one-design rules. None of the current proposed changes are major, but each will affect how you are allowed to set up your Laser for sanctioned regattas.

If you’re not a member of ILCA, then you’re at the mercy of how the rest of us want things to be. So, before I get into the changes I’d strongly encourage you, again, to invest the $40 and join your class association. You get a magazine, a class handbook and can revel in the fact that you are one of us.

1.     If you’ve sailed your Laser for more than a year, it’s likely that you’ve had to replace the rubber o-rings in the self-bailer; broken ones mean you can’t easily keep the bailer closed and water backs up into the boat. A proposed new rule allows the use of non-builder supplied alternatives. There are some neat stainless springs available (see Intensity Sails) and this would make them legal.

2.     Current rules don’t allow blocks at the gooseneck to be attached with bolts - shackles, lines, clips and hooks are legal. The proposed change would allow bolts or pins. I can’t see why not.

3.     It isn’t currently clear whether or not you are allowed to place reference marks on lines, decks, the hull or spars. The new rule would make it clear that you can.

4.     Again, it isn’t perfectly clear that we’re allowed to use lubricants on hardware; this change makes it clear we can.

5.     To protect your hull from the abrasion of the centerboard, you can use general purpose plastic tape or duct tape on the front edge of the centerboard trunk, the change makes it clear that you can use any tape, 2mm thick or less, including Velcro loops.

There are other changes in the works over the next couple of years – newly designed centerboard stops, more durable and perhaps cheaper sails, fiberglass foils and rudders, etc. Members will get to vote on each of these after they are tested to be sure they don’t appreciably affect the speed of boats equipped with them.

I’m dying for the new centerboard brakes. Give me any change in their design; I vote yes.