Wednesday 17 April 2013

Considering the Laser 28 Keel Shape.

You have to say that the foils on a Laser 28 are what makes her a great boat to sail. The distinct lack of keel means that she flies off the wind and will plane given enough puff. A perceived shortness in the rudder will give you a problem of it stalling out and the boat crashes, exhilirating but not fast. One boat (Leda I think) has a Mumm 30 rudder.

The key to upwind performance is keeping her flat and getting that bit of lead to dig in. Don't do it and you've got leeway and you'll never point. As you build speed then your ability to point will increase you can then "feather" up into the wind to gain height in the gusts whilst not letting the speed drop. This is the kind of thing that makes her interesting and challenging to sail but it also means you'll need 5 or more bulky mates on a breezy day and you might be asking them to stay in the bar in the light stuff.

So...rewind to the Round the Island Race last summer. There we all are with a proper race crew and we're chasing down the RF290 "Red Fox". The RF was built from the Laser 28 moulds and is to all intents and purposes a Laser 28, apart from it doesn't have a keel stub and the keel fits into a socket. This particular boat is sailed by people who know what they're doing so no surprises that they could stay in front of the likes of us; but...they did not seem to be exhibiting the heel with the lack of people they had on the rail. This started my mind whirring.

It's an old story but the only time we made gains on them (in about 25 knots of breeze) was a close reach as they had white sail, genoa and we had an old SB3 asymmetric kite up - until we blew the kite to pieces.

As we returned from the race, we short tacked along the beautiful Dorset jurassic coast whilst Red Fox were inshore gunning the hell out of their little engine heading west. They must have bailed out because she was later alongside in the cove at Weymouth. I considered having a dive to have a look underneath, but you see I'd spent a long time on that freezing, soaking rail considering it: they'd stayed in front and we'd had a lot of spinnaker time round the back of the Island. This had to mean that there wasn't a bulb under the keel, surely the drag from one of those would have meant that we'd have walked all over them (broaches aside!)? It had to be something else, was it the Mark Mills keel? Was this the same shape as could be seen on Shasa from Jersey (now Encore)when she was sold?

When we look at the difference between that and FarrOut's standard (Bruce Farr) keel
So off to the Sailing Anarchy forums and I find a photo of the Mark Mills keel Surely this is Shasa parked in the same place in a previous year?
Well it looked like a nice solution to the upwind = weight on the rail vs downwind = lots of smiles connundrum should you sail in a place where you've got some water depth (we do!). I asked Mark Mills, who replied pretty quickly giving me the email of the guy who had the keel changed on Red Fox. He was very helpful and told me that it had been produced by Iron Brothers foundry so they would have the designs, he also confirmed that the Shasa photo was the type of keel he put on Red Fox . I tried an email enquiry to Iron Brothers to work out how much they would charge for a new keel. They were good enough not to answer...really if we're looking at changing the keel on our lovely 26 year old boat perhaps we should be looking for a different boat! Maybe not just the Farr 30 rudder but the rest of the boat as well.

But it looks as if Red Fox does have a Mills keel unless it's been changed back. I'm kinda guessing it hasn't! If only I'd taken that swim...

3 comments:

  1. Jeez, I am new owner of Laser 28 with tandem keel Warwick Collins design. In future I think about change keel and rudder. I am looking for plans of Mark Meels keel. Can You help me ?
    Best regards Marek Lewenstein Szczecin- Poland

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    Replies
    1. Hi Marek, sorry for the delay in reply. Maybe you've sorted it out ny now? Mark Mills doesn't have the design. If it's anywhere it's with Iron Brothers but I haven't got any further than that. www.ironbrothers.com. Good luck with your new purchase.

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  2. Hello sailors,

    Do you know a Laser 28 that is still for sale? I am from the Netherlands so the UK is fine.

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