The Laser is 35 years old, and stronger than ever

David Hazlehurst on Friday March 10, 2006 08:39AM

The Laser had it's 35th birthday recently and the Winter issue of the class magazine is loaded with happy memories of it's early days and reports on antics that famous names like Carl Buchan and Gary Jobsonwere involved in. Current hull numbers are in the mid 180,000 range and both the full and the radial rigs will be seen in the Beijing Oplympics. While most of the medalists in the mens event in recent years have been from outside the US there are two US women in contention for the US Olympic team, Paige Railey and Anna Tunniclife. Paige is in High School in Florida while Anna sailed out of Old Dominion University so she may be the local favorite. An article on current ISAF rankings for all Olympic classes follows.

Observations on the rankings which follow can be seen on the www.sailing.org link. It's interesting to note that Ben Ainley who won a silver medal in Atlanta Games, and a gold in Sydney follwed by a gold in the Finn in Sydney is falling in the rankings, as is Robert Scheidt, an Olympic gold medallist and seven time world Laser champion, because they are competing less. They are still sailing but Ainsley has been involved in Americas Cup racing while Scheidt is sailing, and winning, in the Star class.

ISAF RANKINGS As the Olympic Classes gear up for the start of the European season, Spain is the big winner in this release of the ISAF World Sailing Rankings, with New Zealand also maintaining their success from the start of the year, but Great Britain losing two of its top spots. The Brits have long been the dominant force on the Rankings, and still have more crews than any other nation in the top three spots. However with Bryony Shaw (GBR) losing out in the chopping and change of the formative RS:X Rankings, and Ben Ainslie (GBR) dropping down to fourth place after a long period of inactivity in the Finn, suddenly 49er sailors Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks (GBR) are their sole remaining representatives at the top.

The USA have also made big strides, with Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) joining Paige Railey (USA) in the top three of the Laser Radial Rankings and George Szabo and Eric Monroe (USA) moving up in the Star class to third place. Sally Barkow (USA) holds the fourth spot on the Yngling rankings while Canadas Lisa Ross is now the fifth ranked Laser Radial sailor. ~ Full story: http://www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j62Fh/~qB

The Laser is 35 years old, and stronger than ever

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