Release date – 23 May 2011
The daunting task of building 300 brand new Lasers for the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships is well underway in a factory 3000 kilometres away on the central coast north of Sydney in New South Wales.
The competition boats for the Men’s and Women’s world titles are an essential part of the Laser competition, which as a supplied equipment class, requires athletes to lease brand new, identical boats for the Championships.
The Lasers for Perth 2011 are being built by Performance Sailcraft Limited which has been producing Lasers under licence since 1973. Instead of its usual annual production of about 250 boats a year, Performance Sailcraft is expecting to build 600 ahead of the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Perth.
“The completed boats make a pretty impressive sight as they stack up in all our available storage space at the factory,” Performance Sailcraft’s General Manager Chris Caldecoat says. “They will travel to Fremantle by sea on a container ship rather than the long overland trip by road.”
The Lasers for the World Championships come ready to sail, complete with spars, foils and sail.
“The competition boats – all 300 of them – will be on the beach in Perth, brand new and never been sailed – measured and certified ahead of the world championships”, Caldecoat says. “The athletes will draw lots for them, ensuring that their leased boat has been allocated fairly, despite the fact that they are carbon copies.”
Perth 2011 Event Director John Longley described the production run of Lasers for the World Championships as an impressive undertaking by the Australian firm. “We’re looking forward to seeing the first of the boats arrive later this year. It’s yet another reminder of just how big and complex a task it is to bring together ten world championships in an isolated city like Perth.”
In addition to the 300 competition boats, Performance Sailcraft is also building another 150 Lasers which it expects to sell to individual athletes wanting boats to train in as they arrive in Australia ahead of the World Championships.
For further information please contact Richard Palfreyman at Perth 2011.