Yngling Class

www.yngling.org	The Yngling (pronounced "ING-Ling") is a 21 foot three person keelboat that was designed as a smaller training platform for the very popular Soling.

HISTORY ~ Jan Herman Linge
The initial idea was to design and build a small keelboat for my son, Øyvin, who at that time was 14 days old. Hence the name "Yngling," which means youngster! This was in 1967, ... shortly after the Soling had been through the IYRU trials in Keil and Travemunde. Therefore the same philosophy of design, although the Yngling is not a "scaled-down" version of the Soling as many people seem to believe.

The Yngling has quite different proportions with relatively more beam, higher freeboard with more sheer, fuller body-lines, etc., but she is a nice "little sister" of the Olympic class Soling.

By retaining most of the characteristics the intention was to create a smaller, lighter, and more easily handled boat, which could be a one-design keelboat for juniors as well as a suitable recruiting boat for the Soling. ...

The class rules were right from the beginning made very restrictive as regards equipment and sails. Furthermore, to enforce the one-design principle, all production moulds etc. were to be delivered from one single source of supply.

Plugs and moulds were built at Bringsværd's yard during the winter 67/68, and the first 7 boats sailed in the 1968 season. Five of these took part in our main national regatta, and they made such a good impression that orders started coming in at Bringsværd's yard.

I lent our own Y-N to Paul Elvstrøm, who evaluated the boat during the autumn and winter, and he introduced the boat to Danish sailors.

Before the 1969 season 55 more Ynglings were built, and the class was established in Norway. ...

In 1971 I was honored by receiving the Design Prize for the Yngling from the Norwegian Design Council. The International Yngling Association was founded in 1971 and the first World Cup Race was arranged in Holland the same year. ...

IYRU [now ISAF] granted the Yngling [International] status in ... May 1979. ... IYRU status has given the Yngling class many positive things. The class rules are under constant surveyance and have improved to near perfection. The status of official World Championship makes those events more important, and we have seen and increase in entries and a higher standard of racing than ever before. I believe the Yngling class is attractive to good sailors, not only because it is a good boat, but also because they meet good competition and also the friendly atmosphere they find under the wings of IYA.

~ Jan Herman Linge

Laser Class

Specifications	Laser
Length overall	4.23M
Length waterline	3.81M
Beam	1.37M
Hull weight	58Kg
Sail area	7.06sqM
Suggested crew weight	65 plus Kg
	Laser Radial
Sail area	5.76 sq.M.
Suggested crew weight	55 to 65 Kg
	Laser 4.7
Sail area	4.7 sq.M.
Suggested crew weight	35 to 55 Kg.

International Laser Class Association

ILCA Executive Secretary Jeff Martin, 22 April 2004

We have recently passed another landmark in Laser history. We have just issued building plaque number 180000. Laser has come a long way since its humble beginning as an "off the beach fun boat".

We have recently passed another landmark in Laser history. We have just issued building plaque number 180000. Laser has come a long way since its humble beginning as an "off the beach fun boat". In the seventies ISAF wanted the Laser as an Olympic class and we said no because at that time we felt the pressures would be too big on what was then a new concept - "take your boat out of the box, don't change anything, just go sailing."

The original concept was the result of a telephone conversation between the first builder, Ian Bruce, and designer Bruce Kirby. During that conversation Kirby sketched the lines on a scrap of paper which were very similar to the final production boat.

Like a number of good ideas the project sat in a drawer until early in 1970 when a sailing magazine decided to hold a competition for low cost sail boats. The drawing was revived and Ian Bruce built a boat. For the competition the boat was called "Weekender" and sail maker, Hans Fogh, stitched "TGIF" (Thank God It's Friday) on the sail. Fogh completed the first sail without seeing the mast, just in time to meet with Ian Bruce and the boat on the way to the regatta!

Fogh sailed the boat for the first time on the Saturday and finished second in class. He made a few alterations to the sail overnight and went out and won the next race. The rest is history!


The original concept of an "off the beach fun boat" is as valid now as it was 35 years ago. Yet the same hull, mast and sail now also provide some of the most demanding and intense Olympic sailing competition.

All the Lasers in the world could support 174 jumbo jets.

For fun I asked our Technical Officer, Adam French, to number crunch some figures into unusual statistics which I hope will amuse you and provide the opportunity for challenging questions in the clubhouse:

. If you put the masts of all the Lasers ever built (not including spares and replacements) end to end, they would reach from London to Copenhagen and take two hours to fly from one end to the other (in a jumbo jet).
. Over 2.5 million m2 of Laser sails have been made, enough to cover 500 football pitches.
. If packed into standard 40 ft. containers, you would need over 9,000 trucks and the truck convoy would be over 270 km long.
. If you built a raft of all the Lasers ever built, it would be able to support the weight of 174 jumbo jets.
. If all the Lasers ever built started on a single start line (2 boat widths per boat) the line would be nearly 500 km long, so starters at each end would have to cover about 350 km before they crossed, taking about three days in medium breeze!