Recent content by squeakywaffle

I have no experience with the pico... however, I know a couple of people who have Bytes. I have never gotten the chance to sail one hard and I prefer my laser, anyway (I am heavy enough to take advantage of all the sail), but the Byte has a smaller sail area and a much larger cockpit than the...

So what do you mean... I don't have to carry any lights at all if I don't want to? I am going to light my boat before I sail at night again, but it would be great if I could just focus on visibility, as opposed to following some protocol dictating that certain colors have to be pointing...

;) thanks for the replies guys, this is all great info.

hey guys- Yesterday I went sailing with a friend for a couple of hours... I took her back to her house (on the lake) and I was cold and hungry so I stayed until around midnight. I sailed the couple of tacks back to where I keep my boat in total darkness, and it was totally awesome. The wind...

I too use little cunningham (actually I usually just leave it off in light-medium air). I actually found that some cunningham makes my Intensity sail point a little better, though, so I started using it more. My efforts to point better with the Intensity sail were actually almost completely...

I found it unsuitable for pretty much anything at all besides setting it on shore and forgetting about it. Probably some people have a technique for adjusting them, but I found that to get any sort of decent tension in the vang I had to bodily pull the boom down while I was adjusting it, which...

I guess I should not have said that... I made sure I was not in their dirty air when I made this judgment. I have also compared my pointing ability to boats below me, above me, behind me, and across the course from me. They all point significantly better, even when they are in my dirty air...

Thanks for all the replies guys, I'm about to go try some of this stuff out. I'm also getting out my old and busted class sail to see if it makes any difference.

This is interesting, I guess I will try going block-to-block next time. I find it strange that nobody else around me is doing it, though.

I don't think reefing the main is generally recommended on the laser. I've never done it personally, though... How much do you weigh?

I love to sail in heavy air but these races seem to happen only in light to medium air, and I have never been overpowered (I weigh ~190 lbs). I was under the impression that sheeting block to block flattens the sail and depowers it, which is not what I need, although it does allow me to point a...

hey guys I have been teaching myself to sail over the past three years in a laser, and this summer I have been participating in a weekly race down at my local sailing place. I have found that my skills are decent and my boat is performing well, except in one area... pointing. I find that other...

so... forgive me if I ask stupid questions, my sailing knowledge is pretty much only based on my knowledge of the physical principles involved because I have never had any kind of teaching. Also I tried to search but couldn't find a very good answer to my question. So, I have heard that in high...

I am a newbie to lasers and sailing... I bought an '84 over the summer and had a great time, but eventually I ran into a problem that is both minor and really annoying. The fairlead on the end of my boom (outhaul fairlead) is cracking around the aft rivet. The plastic is missing about 1/3 of the...

you are going to be growing in the next few years, and you will probably end up weighing enough for the full rig, so don't get the byte...