YCC Laser rigging & usage

Pictures are courtesy of Luigi Gallerani.

The YCC lasers are presently located next to the new RS500 “Rocket Science”. For the moment the two trolleys are stacked, a rack will be mounted soon which will host the two lasers. Instructions will be updated.

The boats are equipped with the three XD power packs, the final rigging is a merge of the official rigging guides:

All the equipment is on the laser on the top, since the trolley is quite heavy it is a good recommendation to remove all the equipment before unstacking the lasers. Three people are needed to take down the upper trolley with the laser even without equipment on it.

In the upper laser you will find:

  • 2 bags, in each you can find: the centerboard, the rudder, rudder bar + tiller, outhaul pulley, vang
  • 2 masts: every mast is composed by an upper and a lower part
  • 2 booms
  • you might also find paddles and life jackets
  • plus the rest of the equipment which remains attached to the boat after its usage

The image below shows what you will find on the upper laser:

The bag:

All the equipment can be takend down carefully and then you should proceed as follow.
Check that the cunningham is placed correctly and place the loop over the mast hole.

Then you can proceed with the main sail, take it out from the bag and open it, on the grass please!
You can also notice from the picture below that the sail MUST be rolled parallel to the battens.

Check that the sail number corresponds to the serial number of the boat. The serial number can be found in a sticker in the cockpit of the hull.

In the bag you can find a small pulley with a loop, it is needed by the outhaul. In order to proceed to assemble the mast you should put the outhaul pulley on the lower part of the mast. Then you can proceed assembling the mast as in the picture, always match the two red arrows.

Insert the mast in the main sail keeping the boom pin aligned with the sail.

Then you have to put the mast with the main sail on the boat, check that you can balance it properly before going around risking of hurting someone else and yourself. After that you placed the mast on the boat passing it through the cunningham loop which we placed before pass the cunningham endpoint (with a bowline) through the hole (toward port side) in the main sail and place it as in picture.

Next step is the vang, detach the pin and it’s ring and mount it as in the next picture, notice that the vang holds the cunningham bowline and the yellow string which will prevent from the mast to turn in front of the boat.

After having mounted the vang you can mount the boom on the mast and attach the vang to the boom through the metal hook.
As next step attach the main sail to the boom with the white velcro, insert the longer velcro string from starboard side, pass it through the metal ring and block it with the shorter velcro string. Finally attach the outhaul hook as in the picture below, if you do not find the hook on the outhaul just make a tight bowline on the main sail hole. Take the loose point of the outhaul, take it along the boom up to the mast, pass it through the pulley that you inserted previously in the bottom part of the mast, down to the small pulley in the hull and finally to the cleat where the cunningham also ends.

Take the main sheet and mount it as follow:

  • attach it to the black pulley on the stern side of the boom with a bowline knot
  • pass it through the traveller
  • up to the black pulley again
  • pass it along the mast through the dark grey boom’s bracelet
  • through the black pulley in the bow side of the boom
  • down to the black pulley in the cockpit
  • finally knot it to the strap with a bowline just to prevent to loose it during sailing.
Mount the rudder and lock it with the pin attached to the white string. Next, take the rudder bar and the tiller (which you should find attached) and insert it in the rudder as in the next picture. Secure the rudder to the rudder bar with the vectran and make a safety knot as in picture in order to prevent to the rudder bar to come out. Carbon fiber rudder and tiller do not float so you MUST do it!!!!

Place the centerboard in the cockpit and attach it to the elastic which is attached in the bow of the boat. Notice that you have another rope attached to the bow of the boat, you will use it to more the boat when you will go into the water.

At this point you should be ready to get into the water, you should be able to do all the procedure alone, a procedure has been defined in order to avoid to break the boats. Take the boat into the water with it’s trolley, leave the trolley and attach the boat to one of the two first mooring buoy in the channel pointing the bow to the wind, check that the boat does not move too much and then take the trolley back to the shore.

Come back to the boat, insert the centerboard in it’s place but not all the way down but below the boom, the elastic will help to keep it half way. Put down the rudder if the water level is enough and in case secure it as described before and in the picture above.

Detach the boat from the buoy and at this point you should proceed as you do with the other dinghies, do couple of steps, get on the boat, place down the centerboard, put down the rudder, lock it, check your main sail battens, take in the main sheet and enjoy!!!

Thanks also to Alessandro Thea which shows us how to capsize and right a laser in this video ;-)

Good wind!