International Laser Class

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The Laser dinghy

The Laser is by far the most popular and numerous single-handed boat in the world. At 4.23 metres (13 feet 10 1/2 inches)  in length, with a sail area of 7.06 sq metres (76 square feet) and a weight of only 59kg (130 lbs), it is suitable for men and women to race competitively and to handle ashore. There are smaller sail versions for lighter sailors to use in stronger winds. Boats are readily available across the country at a wide range of ages and prices and the popularity of the class means that they can always be sold quickly and with very little depreciation. The class at Tamesis provides a warm welcome to new owners and coaching (if required) to ensure that they are able to become competitive as soon as possible. A busy social programme ensures that newcomers are rapidly integrated into the club.

The Laser is an Olympic singled-handed dinghy that was designed by Bruce Kirby in 1970 and first introduced in Canada in 1971. There are now more than 181,000 Lasers throughout the world. It is a strict one-design although the rules permit certain variations in the rigging of the kicker and boom outhaul, and the tiller.  The Laser Radial, which has a smaller sail area of  5.7 square metres, has been chosen as the women's single-handed class for the 2008 Olympics.

There are 26 Lasers at Tamesis.  Current turnouts range from five to 10, with 16 for the annual open meeting in October 2004, 14 in 2005 and 2006, and 18 in 2007. The  pictures below show Lasers racing at Tamesis during the 2005 and 2006 open meetings.  

Laser Newsletter from Paul Jamieson, Laser Class Captain, (23.12.07): "Interesting conditions and low (but increasing!) numbers have characterised the recent Sundays.

"Dec 2nd, Race 4 - Steve Bartlett was the solitary laser sailor and under the old rules this would have been a void race. Steve, however, completed the course, further honing his skill for when the rest of us show up and won himself a point as well!

"Dec 9th, Race 5 - The weather men threatened all kinds of horrendous conditions for the three brave Laser entrants, Steve Bartlett, Henry Defries and Peter Johnson. Donald Forbes was OOD and I was in the Rescue boat with Graham King. In theory at least this was a six Laser turnout, best of the season so far! In the event, the wind was much less than anticipated, but the stream was challenging, Peter taking four attempts at the upsteam mark while Henry and Steve went racing. Donald generously shortened course after just under an hour. Henry took first at the bottom mark after swapping with Steve on each leg and came home under a minute ahead. Peter took third but after his early difficulties, finished almost six minutes behind Steve.

"Tales from the Safety Boat.  First it's a high five for Graham who showed up on time, despite a nasty cold and several other good reasons for arranging a swap. Donald sent me a really good set of notes about safety boat procedures that he had prepared with Richard Howells. Essential reading even if you've done loads of rescue duties, as it only counts as experience when something serious happens. Now the red face bit. It took me 20 minutes to get the boat started, with help from John Adams. As we loaded the marks it stopped, refusing to restart. With the threat of bad weather we got the dory out and thankfully had no problems starting that. Eventually a kindly Doug Pope rummaged around in the big boat and discovered that "someone" had removed the tape that fixes the tap in the open position and turned off the fuel. A day of useful lessons.

"Dec16th, Race 6 - Now we're motoring! Five entries and two Jerrams in the rescue boat. A seven Laser turnout!! Charlie and Carolyne on the bank but not on the water, sorry that doesn't count. The light SE wind was tricky and produced some entertaining sailing on course S with the dogleg almost straight across opposite the club. Henry took the lead and then touched the first mark, losing time that he never managed to recover. Speaking of recovery, Stewart showed remarkable powers of recovery on his first day back on the water, leading on the first, second and crucially fourth laps, to take the win. John Dunkley had a steady race finishing 2nd. Mike Goldsmith finished 3rd. My race laps were 2nd, 2nd 1st and 4th What happened there? Henry came home 5th but only 4½ minutes spanned the fleet after four laps of racing. Not bad!

"Dec 23rd, Race 7 - A flat and foggy day for our four entrants. Successive marks were only visible once you were halfway to them. Rob Wilder set a short P Course and kindly shortened the Lasers after 40 minutes of postponed racing. With a tight fleet most of the way round, Mike Goldsmith came in first, followed by me, and then Henry. John unfortunately got lost at Cadet and recovering from that added over 10 minutes to his race.  We still have 12 races to go, but with 10 needed to qualify there are lots of Lasers that need to get busy soon in order to do that."

Summer Series 2007

On the water 

1st       188044           Greylag              Donald Forbes           !7  points
2nd      171688           Grey Dove         Stewart Colley           25
3rd       42169             Limelight            Henry Defries            26
4th       170263           Not Yellow          Paul Jamieson          31
5th=     135612                                      Carolyne Vines          36
5th=     155933          Shooglenifty       Charlie Morgan         36
7th       39239             Sunny Buoy        Ken Baker                 41
8th       12211             Egg Flip             Steve Bartlett             43
9th       81264                                         Mike Goldsmith         47

Handicap

1st        81264                                        Mike Goldsmith          22  points
2nd       171688          Grey Dove         Stewart Colley            28
3rd=      12211            Egg Flip             Steve Bartlett             29
3rd=      170263          Not Yellow          Paul Jamieson          29
5th         188044         Greylag               Donald Forbes          36
6th=       42169           Limelight             Henry Defries            37
6th=       155933         Shooglenifty       Charlie Morgan         37
8th=       39239           Sunny Buoy        Ken Baker                 49
8th=       135612                                     Carolyne Vines         49
 

Tamesis Lasers celebrate the end of the summer season after a wet and windy race (Photo:  Stewart Colley)

Lasers in light winds at the 2007 open meeting (Photo: Viv Burchill)

A rainbow start at the 2006 open meeting (Photo:  Andy Parsons)

Lasers crossing the dogleg in light winds in April 2008 (Photo:  Stewart Colley)

For more details please contact Tamesis Laser Class Captain:  Paul Jamieson (01372 463844).

International Laser Association website:      www.laser.org.uk

Tamesis Laser points tables:              LASER WINTER POINTS 2007-2008        LASER POINTS SUMMER 2008 

Laser Points tables maintained by Paul Jamieson.