Design
As a one-design class of sailboat, all Lasers are built to the same specifications. The hull is 4.23 metres (13 ft 10.5 in) long, with a waterline length of 3.81 m (12.5 ft). The hull weight is 56.7 kg (130 lb), which makes the boat light enough to lift onto a car-top rack.
The various sizes of Laser are all Cat-rigged; they have only a main sail. The Laser Standard sail has sail area of 7.06 m² (76 ft²) and, especially in higher winds (15 knots and over), is most competitive when sailed by a very fit, agile and muscular person weighing no less than 80 kg (175 lb).
The Laser uses a Portsmouth Yardstick of 1085 for racing involving other classes. The equivalent yardstick in North America is the D-PN, which is 91.1 for a Laser.
Read more about this topic: Laser (dinghy)
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—Freeman Dyson (b. 1923)
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“You can make as good a design out of an American turkey as a Japanese out of his native stork.”
—For the State of Illinois, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)