Crew 1 Hull weight 58.97 kg (130.0 lb) LWL 3.81 m (12 ft 6 in) | Draft 0.787 m (2 ft 7.0 in) LOA 4.2 m (13 ft 9 in) Beam 1.39 m (4 ft 7 in) | |
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The Laser Radial is a popular one-design class of small sailing dinghy, originally built by Laser Performance. It is a singlehanded boat, meaning that it is sailed by one person. The Laser Radial is a variant of the Laser Standard, with shorter mast and reduced sail area, allowing light sailors to sail in heavy winds. The International Class is recognised by the International Sailing Federation.
Contents
Background
The Laser Radial is generally sailed and raced by lighter weight sailors and is usually the choice of women Laser sailors. Men typically sail the Laser Standard which has a larger sail. The only difference between the Laser Standard and Laser Radial is the size of the sail and the length of the lower section of the mast. Everything else is the same and very tightly specified and controlled by the International Class Association to ensure competitive racing in identical boats. Lasers are single person dinghies. Most larger regattas for the Laser class will generally have separate races for the Laser Standard, Laser Radial and Laser 4.7.
The Laser Radial uses the same top section of the mast as the Laser Standard but uses a smaller bottom mast section. The sail itself is 62 square feet (5.8 m2), about 19% smaller than the full Laser Standard rig.
Although the one design Laser rig and hull was introduced in 1971, the Radial sail and mast was created in the 1980s. In 1988 the Laser Women's World Championship began using the Laser Radial. They are a good training aid to start learning to sail a Laser but the Laser Radial is a good racing boat in its own right and some sailors (generally women) progress to become professional Radial sailors.
The desired weight for sailing a Radial is 60–65 kilograms (132–143 lb).
Olympics
The Laser Radial was chosen for singlehanded women discipline at the Summer Olympic starting with the 2008 summer games regatta in Qingdao, China.