Orange Sails in the Sunset

For today's Throwback Thursday, I give you … orange Laser sails.

The photo is shamelessly stolen from an article in the 2014 summer issue of the newsletter of the North American Laser Class by Andy Roy, the chairman of the North American class.  Andy discusses many differences between Laser sailing "then" and "now" and includes this picture of himself sailing in the 1980 Laser Worlds.



Aaah!

Orange Laser sails.

My first Laser (bought in the early 1980s) had a sail like this.

And there were other brightly colored Lasers sails like this back in the day. Green and blue and purple and god knows what else.

Now we just have boring white sails. I heard the colored sails died out because it was difficult to ensure consistency between sails with the different dyes. Shame!



My first boat had an orange hull too.

And there were other brightly colored hulls like that back in the day. Blue and red and yellow and green and teal and god knows what else. Even purple.

Now we just have boring white hulls. I heard the colored hulls died out because sailors wanted anonymous white hulls so they couldn't be spotted being OCS on the start line. Shame!



There's a lot of other good stuff in this latest issue of The Laser Sailor.

Maybe I'll write a blog post about all the good stuff.

But, for now, check this out. Also from Andy Roy's article…

Wow!

El supremo of the North American Laser Class agrees with me about Mommy Boats.

Perhaps I should start a campaign for the return of orange sails and purple hulls?

Although not necessarily in combination…