Measurement Q & A
Fake Laser equipment
Caveat Emptor! - Buyer Beware!
A sailor at Stokes Bay SC recently swapped some Laser parts for what he thought was a genuine new Laser Radial sail. The patch at the tack said 'Laser', so it wasn't a replica sail. He therefore thought it was a genuine Laser sail.
On closer inspection he saw that it did not have a Laser button at the tack, and the blue patches weren't quite right.
So he asked me. Knowing that Laser has sometimes had issues with suppliers, or spec changes might not have been communicated effectively, I checked with ILCA. Suddenly this looked like a fake. And it is. Judge for yourself:
- The blue patches look too pale (though this may be the photo), and are on the port side of the sail. (They may also be on the Starboard side, but a genuine Radial sail has blue patches only on the Starboard side.)
- The cunningham and clew cringles/eyelets have a blue lining; the genuine articles have a red lining.
- There is no ILCA button.
- There are circular reinforcement patches on the batten-pockets.
- It is unlikely to have a '5.7' symbol in the window.
Please be aware that there are more Laser fake sails about. A fake Standard-rig sail was recently reported in with the same batten-pocket reinforcements, so there may even be a few dodgy 4.7 sails too. Please report any instances to me in the first place, or to the UKLA office.
If you are approached by someone offering to buy/swap a genuine sail, please try to find out who the seller is before you commit yourself.
