Review of Laser 13

Laser 13.

Basic specs.

The Laser 13 is a small dinghy designed by the Canadian maritime architect Bruce Kirby.

Looking for a new boat? Find a Laser 13 or similar boat for sale

Hull

The hull is made of fibreglass. Generally, a hull made of fibreglass requires only a minimum of maintenance during the sailing season. And outside the sailing season, just bottom cleaning and perhaps anti-fouling painting once a year - a few hours of work, that's all.

Rig

Rig of Laser 13.

Keel

The Laser 13 is equipped with a daggerboard keel. A daggerboard is a lifting keel that can be lowered and raised, allowing the boat to enter shallow waters as well.

The boat can sail close to the beach as the draft is just 0.25 - 0.35 meter (0.82 - 1.12 ft) dependent of the load. See immersion rate below.

Sailing characteristics

This section covers widely used rules of thumb to describe the sailing characteristics. Please note that even though the calculations are correct, the interpretation of the results might not be valid for extreme boats.

Immersion rate

The immersion rate is defined as the weight required to sink the boat a certain level. The immersion rate for Laser 13 is about 46 kg/cm, alternatively 261 lbs/inch.
Meaning: if you load 46 kg cargo on the boat then it will sink 1 cm. Alternatively, if you load 261 lbs cargo on the boat it will sink 1 inch.

Sailing statistics

This section is statistical comparison with similar boats of the same category. The basis of the following statistical computations is our unique database with more than 26,000 different boat types and 350,000 data points.

L/B (Length Beam Ratio)

What is L/B (Length Beam Ratio)?

The l/b ratio for Laser 13 is 2.35.

Compared with other similar dinghies it is more spacy than 79% of all other designs. It seems that the designer has chosen a significantly more spacy hull design.

Maintenance

Boat owner's ideas

This section shown boat owner's changes, improvements, etc. Here you might find inspiration for your boat.

Do you have changes/improvements you would like to share? Upload a photo and describe what to look for.

Finally

We are always looking for new photos. If you can contribute with photos for Laser 13 it would be a great help.

If you have any comments to the review, improvement suggestions, or the like, feel free to contact us. Criticism helps us to improve.

References

[Ref 1]: ISO 8666 Small craft — Principal data.
[Ref 3]: ISO 12215-5 Small craft — Hull construction and scantlings.