Food for Thought: How to Transition the Laser to New Rigs?

There is talk about new rigs for the Laser, as a way to rejuvenate the class.

The c rigs were developed in Australia for the past 5 years, in collaboration with the Laser class. The Arc rigs were developed by LaserPerformance in 2018.

There have been previous attempts to develop new rigs, having received less attention. The most successful one probably has been the 8.1 Rooster rig, developped for sailors too heavy for the Laser (say above 90 kg / 200 lbs), and with significant participation in the UK - despite the Laser class refusal to endorse the rig.

The idea now is a bit the same everywhere: to replace the aluminum spars by lighter carbon / composite ones, and to replace the dacron sails by milar ones, with more modern designs.

The Laser class leadership - just a few people in fact from just a handful of countries - but who control the class decision body - the World Council - are backing the c rigs.

There is clear interest online in the videos posted by LaserPerformance about its Arc rigs. Ideally, these should be independently evaluated and compared to the c rigs developped by Bethwaite (cf 29er, 49er, Byte CII) in Australia. But the likelihood for Arc rigs to be approved by the class is slim, because the history of the tumultuous relationship, and the continuing legal issues, between ILCA and LaserPerformance - which is not even certain to be again an approved Laser builder. Note that LaserPerformance has stated it would also develop a smaller rig (equivalent to 4.7) in addition to their 2 existing Arc rigs.

Whatever type of rig is to be chosen, what seems to have received very little attention is how to transition from the current situation to one with new rigs.

There are about 14,000 Laser class members worldwide - we are therefore talking about a big project - and a costly one too! Multiply the number of the Laser class members by the anticipated price for those rigs, and you find a figure exceeding 50 million US$ - a substantial financial operation indeed.

If there is a decision - which should be reached in theory via a membership vote and two third majority - to change rigs, how should it be implemented?

How should the transition take place?

Here is a scenario, that may look somewhat counter-intuitive, but which might be realistic and ensure a comprehensive transition.

It would probably take between 8 and 12 years to make an orderly transition, and it would need to be done in a way to minimize the wastage of equipment and to control costs to sailors, in particular to youth sailors.

There would be 4 phases involved.

Phase 1: Master Sailors. 

The first phase would be for the Master sailors. This may be the category of sailors that would be the toughest to convince to adopt the new rigs, but with leadership from the Laser class ILCA - the decision makers in the class typically are master sailors themselves - those sailors would be brought to change their rigs. We are talking here about those Master sailors who are members of the class and who participate in class events. We are not talking about the club level sailing, that is usually taking place on non-class equipment anyway, and where there is little interest beyond the standard and radial rigs. For example, the 3 c rigs - c5, c6, c8 could be used for the variety of categories of master sailing. The « legend » category, with the eldest members of the class, would use the c5 rigs. And then the c6 and c8 would be available for the other categories, from age 35 to 74 - apprentice, master, grand master, grand grand master. The c5 rigs would also be made available for Master female sailors, along with the c6, in view of increasing participation by female sailors. Such adoption of the new c rigs by master sailors could be implemented in a timeframe of 2 or 3 years. From a cutoff date, the major international regattas such as the Master World Championships would not allow any other rigs than the new rigs. With this approach, the Master sailors will find the opportunity to sell their current equipment secondhand, to the senior or the youth sailors. They will also be able to further test the equipment, so that if corrections need to be made, it will still be time to make them, before the rigs are introduced for senior sailing, and then youth sailing.

Phase 2: Senior Sailors

The next phase would be to introduce the rigs for senior Laser sailing. The idea again would be to have the international regattas by the class to be organized with the new rigs, from a certain cutoff date. There may be some transition at the local or national level, but international events would only take place with one type of equipment. For men, it would be the c6 and c8 rigs for example, as replacements to the Radial and the Standard. What would be really interesting is to have senior sailing for women in both the c5 and c6 rigs (or equivalent). From what transpires from videos of the c5, the c6 rigs may be too powerful for most women, in a similar way as the Radial rig that it is aimed to replace. So having two rigs for women - the c5 for light / medium weight women; and the c6 for medium / heavier weight women, would make sense.  Again, all the equipment that will be made obsolete for senior sailors could be sold to the benefit of youth sailors, so that there is still a way to mitigate the cost of the purchase of the new equipment. Note that the 2024 Olympic games would still be expected to take place with the regular sails - Standard and Radial - as this is the equipment that has been selected by World Sailing, and it would be unwise to disrupt that, as the new rigs behave pretty differently on the water.

Phase 3: Radial and Standard Youth Sailors (U21 / U19)

Next phase would be to move to youth sailing, where attendance is the highest. First, it would be the youth U21 and U19 youth classes, in the Standard and Radial rigs. Again, from a specified cutoff date, the world championships would be organized with one type of rig, so there is a direct transition from one year to the other to the new rigs. Consistently with what is suggested for senior sailing, a new category for light weight female athletes would be introduced, to widen the adoption of single-handed sailing by women - as for most of them, the Laser Radial rig, or its equivalent c6 rig, is way too powerful.

Phase 4: Laser 4.7 Sailors (U18)

This would be the last phase of the transition. It would target the replacement of the Laser 4.7.  For sure, those sailors will find a hard time to sell their old rigs. But still, there may be sailing schools, clubs, club level sailors, etc, who may be interested.

MANAGING THE TRANSITION

How long would that take. Between 8 to 12 years, depending if 2 or 3 years are taken for each step. A faster approach may be possible, but may be less realistic and practical.

What would be important is to move step by step, with an ad hoc committee to be formed to monitor the transitions and advice the class about the next steps. Such committee would need to be made of coaches, sailors, national Laser associations and class representatives directly involved in regatta organization.

Currently, the common thinking is for youth sailors to start with the new rigs, and then to let them progressively be adopted with senior and master sailors. That may look appealing, but it's very risky, as youth sailing has never been as successful as today in the Laser 4.7 and the Radial, and it's not the time to make a misstep. Starting with youth sailors would not only be pretty risky but also not work well towards the overall goal of transitioning all the categories of Laser sailing (youth, senior, masters).

First, it can be expected that most Master sailors would not do the transition, because they would not see any interest in doing so. They are used to the existing rig, having been used for 50 years. If this order of introduction is chosen, the new rigs would only be adopted at the senior and youth levels, and only if forced on sailors. So there would never be a complete transition from one type of rig to the other. Accordingly, starting with the Master sailing makes sense.

Second, if there are issues with the new rigs, it’s much better for them to be tested by relatively casual sailors like the Master sailors, rather than the youth and senior, highly competitive sailors, who will not tolerate transition issues. This way, the transition from one rig to the other would be further tested at the Master level, and then implemented, step by step, at the senior and youth levels. The Master sailors would show the way to the senior and the youth sailors.

Another element is that Master sailors, who compete at class events, typically are much better off financially than the youth sailors, or even the senior sailors. So starting with the Master sailors makes sense. If the transition at the Master level is successful, then it’s very realistic to move to the senior, and then the youth levels. The obsolete equipment of the Master sailors will benefit the senior and even more the youth sailors during the transition phase.

There is a need for a well thought well organized phased approach to make a transition, if such transition is obviously first approved by the membership through a proper vote.

As indicated above, we are talking about a substantial operation, costing members collectively probably well over 50 million US$.

What will be critical too will be to make the transitions affordable. Discounted pricing should be made available at the time of the transitions. This approach was successfully adopted - with a blanket 33% discount - recently by the Waszp, when it changed its foil - a dramatic, and very affordable, improvement to the Waszp that was unanimously supported by the sailors.

For the Laser, which has much wider distribution than the Waszp, it is critical that transition costs are kept as low as possible. Discounted new rigs should be made available at big regattas. And hopefully there will be several suppliers competing for price, yet supplying identical equipment.

Let’s also reiterate a key aspect. While this change of rigs may be unnecessary, it’s worth remembering that its initial rationale originated from seeking a rig more suited for female and youth sailors than the Radial rig.

So it will be important to have the c5 rig (or equivalent) to become a rig for female youth, senior and master sailing, which would become a real novelty and may attract more women of any ages to single-handed sailing. Currently, master sailing is essentially an old boys affair. Levels of participation in senior Laser sailing are also very far from gender parity. Things are a bit better with youth sailing, particularly in the Laser 4.7, with about 33% participation of girls.

As far as Olympic sailing for women, for beyond 2024, choice will need to be made to favor either the c6 or the c5. The c5 (or equivalent) would likely widen the appeal of female single-handed sailing, as demanding a more realistic body weight than the Laser Radial. (that is the rationale for the RS Aero 6 - targeting a 60 to 65 kg body weigh, instead of 68 kg + for the Radial).

But first things first. The c5 rigs should be independently tested to figure out if they are really better suited for light weight dinghy sailors - say in the range of 55 to 65 kg - than the 4.7 rig. Are these rigs really a tangible improvement? From available videos and pictures, it’s not clear.

Another aspect is also worth stressing. The designers of the c rigs claim there is a wider athlete weight range. If that is actually the case, there may be a possibility to have only 2 instead of 3 rigs for the Laser. This would need to be tested. What is the actual optimal weight range for the c6. What’s the actual weight range for the c5. Won't there be too much overlap? This need to be assessed.

The c6 and the c8 rigs should also be tested independently - as to date, the feedback has essentially originated from the strongest proponents of the new rigs such as the manufacturers and a few individuals in the Laser class. Independent views from top level coaches, from top level youth sailors, etc. are urgently needed about those new rigs.

Because the real danger is to force some 14,000 members of the class to make a major transition to new rigs, at great cost, without real benefits in terms of sailing quality.

There is also the danger of losing many members. That's what happened with the Byte - which was still vibrant as a transition class between the Opti and the Laser some 10 years ago, and which has now vanished from most sailing jurisdictions were it was well established, such as Canada.

Many observers attribute the demise of the Byte, which was used for World Sailing and Youth Olympic events, to the transition from its original rig to the CII rig (see picture).

This point is worth stressing. The Byte has been designed by the same guys as the Laser. Likewise, the CII rig was developped by the same company having developped the currently proposed c rigs for the Laser.

The last thing Laser sailors want is the same outcome as with the Byte.

And of course, introducing new rigs on the market without properly managing the transition towards those new rigs does not make any sense either. It would generate chaos and be counterproductive. Some countries would probably refrain from transitioning, and one would end up with the c rigs co-existing with the current rigs, mixed fleets, numerous fleet starts, etc. This would be totally impractical and the whole thing would likely precipitate the demise of the class.

And there is also a point of organizing some form of recycling of all the aluminum masts and booms as well as the composite top sections, made obsolete by the transition.

This is food for thought of course - feedback is welcome.

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See also the recent related articles:

The Beginning of the End of the Laser 4.7 Rig?

Le début de la fin du Laser 4.7?

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