Too Little, Too Late

The newish Laser
SB3 hasn’t gotten a lot of love in these pages. We’re not going
to rehash the reasons why in this article, because we finally got a
chance to sail one, thanks to the Chicago dealer, Scott Diamond. After
day 2 of the Bennie 36.7 NA’s was called for too much wind, I laid a
challenge out for Diamond on his voicemail. “If you want a chance
to change our minds about the boat, you probably couldn’t ask for better
conditions than today,” I said after the beep.

To his credit, Scott called back right away and told me to come on
over to the club. With winds in the teens and a sea state that Beneteau
PRO Wayne Bretsch called “possibly dangerous,” I wanted
to make sure that we’d be able to really run the little Laser through
her paces. “You’re not going to tell us that we can’t use the
spinnaker, are you?” I asked. “We’ve been out all morning,
and the kite’s ready to go,” he answered without a pause.