Most of my blog entries originate as emails that took a lot of time or effort to write that I think other people might also appreciate. This one was going out to a list of Laser sailors who have been coming out for casual training on Sundays in Victoria this winter. Other than John, I think I am the only one with a Mark II sail and carbon top section, so I thought I would give them a review in case they were thinking of new gear for Christmas, especially because Fillah Karim, a local West Vancouver Canadian Olympic hopeful is selling off a bunch of lightly used Mk II sails.
I don’t think anyone sells Mark One (Mk I) (classic style) fullrig sails anymore so the change IS coming/has come (although I do still have one lightly used Mk I if someone doesn’t like he new design). Comparing Mark Two (Mk II) to the old sails: the fabric is heavier and the clew is much reenforced, which goes a long way to making the sail last longer - not amazingly longer but significantly longer. The window is much bigger and the panels are now cut radially. In terms of rigging, the only difference is that you may need an extra cunningham purchase because the heavier fabric and reenforced clew takes more tension for a similar depowering change in sail shape. Bob thinks the cut gives MK II more power. I’m not sure, could be. The feel and shape of Mark II is significantly different. Until you get used to it, it is not faster, it feels and looks weird, but once you dial it in, it might be a bit faster than the Mk I. The down sides are: they use different (tapered) battens of three different lengths which is an unnecessary expense and so far I don’t think you can buy individual battens when you lose one. Tapered battens in general are a cool high performance trick but the premise of the sail was that it would not be faster than the Mk I, so why?... At least the batten pockets are improved with high quality Velcro. I thought this would make batten tension come into play, but so far we think that loose batten tension is best. Another slight downside is that the luff of the sail looks very bad on the downwind. I think you just have to forget about it and focus on your leech tension which is much more important downwind by the lee. Also the Mk II is more sensitive to a bent mast on the upwind. If you have a normal aluminum mast (as opposed to the new carbon one) for the best performance you need to straighten your aluminum mast whenever it gets a slight bend. Also if the bottom caps fit loosely in the bottom section it is a bit more important to tape them snug than it was win the Mk I. The consequence of not straightening or taping your top section with the Mark II sail is that it makes an ugly crease in the sail, though it isn’t really that much slower, it just looks bad. In heavy wind some people actually try to create this crease to dramatically open the leach. Crease or no crease, the difference between a Mk II, a Mk I or a Mk I intensity sail are smaller than the difference between a new and an old sail. On the topic of Intensity sails, beware of Mark II Intensity sails. They may be fine and my sample of 1 may just have been a lemon on a bent mast, but last year Rob Douglas up in Comox bought a Mk II Intensity sail and the crease was very bad in all conditions and we couldn’t get rid of it without stretching the sail much more than you wanted to for speed. It was so bad that it was discouraging, so a used class legal Mk II sail may be the way to go on a budget unless other people know of good Mk II knockoffs.
Having mentioned the carbon top section, I might as well throw in my two cents about that too. The Laser Carbon top sections are nice because they never get even a slight permanent bend in them so they mesh nicely with the Mark II sails. They are NOT lighter than the aluminum masts which is hilarious, but they wanted it not to be an advantage which makes sense from a Laser point of view. The only other difference is that hey feel a bit springier which might be an advantage in kinetics or wavy conditions. The biggest difference in my opinion is that if it was very windy and then the wind died off, people with aluminum sections would all have a slight bend but the carbon ones pop straight as soon as you release the Cunningham and vang. The biggest downside is that they are super expensive for what they are: a simple tube with the same old fittings. Other downsides: they are more delicate because carbon doesn’t like impacts, though mine has stood up well for a few years now. Also Laser made the carbon top sections exactly the same way as the aluminum ones riveting into them with aluminum rivets. In the first generation masts there was only one rivet in the top section bottom cap and sailing put too much stress on that rivet and it has damaged the carbon. I tried to epoxy it back in place but it as cracked loose again. Apparently they now sell carbon top sections with two rivets in the bottom cap and it looks like they may have improved the finish on the carbon at the bottom of the mast, so that problem may be fixed, but the fact remains that aluminum rivets in carbon might not last as long and stay as tight as they did in the aluminum ones. So far (years) no problem with the rivets in the carbon top section collar... we will see.
So for the carbon section I don’t recommend buying one if you are on a budget unless you are heavy for the boat like me. I was tired of straightening my aluminum top section after every session in over 13 knots and wondering when it will eventually snap and when I should end to end it. Now I don’t have to worry about the aluminum fatiguing from all the bending and straightening at its critical point. If you are a big sailor who bends their mast, the carbon section is great. It is also worthwhile if you are campaigning and you want every possible advantage like springiness in choppy conditions.
In this strange new world where the second best, most accessible big-fleet racing boat in the world has it’s olympic status under review (Opti would be the best, Laser and Radial would be the second best) I wanted to give the new equipment a tardy but fair review. I’m happy with both my new (ish) sail and new top section and I am planning on bringing my newly legal digital compass into play in the new year!
I’m looking forward to the new rudders coming soon which are supposed to be more balanced but I really want a carbon bottom section because I tend to bend that too in medium and heavy wind, but that is just me. Very few other people seem to suffer from perpetually bent bottom sections...
Happy sailing or dreaming of sailing this winter.
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