Trouble in Laser Land

We have gotten a couple of reports from some pissed off Laser sailors that are very unhappy with the way the class is going.We found a site www.drlaser.org that seems to be leading the charge. This is from their site, and includes a complete rundown of the alleged wrongdoings. If anybody has some insight, do not hesitate to post it in the forum. -Ed

The year 2003 saw a series of public blunders by the new leadership of the International Laser Class Association North American Region (ILCA-NA).

We saw a new leadership with admirable election platform goals and promises in late 2002 turn into an incompetent, unethical, immoral and undemocratic administration in early 2003!

Of course, these are all serious charges! Until April 2003, drLaser has first expressed its concerns privately to the ILCA-NA administration, and then publicly on the NA Mailing List and a new ILCA NA Forum, without bringing the issues to the attention of the 30,000+ readers of drLaser. ILCA NA has generally remained unresponsive to such private or public criticism. Any corrective actions taken by ILCA-NA were taken quietly, and only in response to severe public pressure.

drLaser now feels sufficiently strongly about these wrongdoings to develop, maintain and present a special "corner" here to Laser sailors world-wide.

The above timeline of events will allow you to scan the major events in 2002-2003: those that are considered by drLaser as major ILCA-NA "blunders", plus some related but administration-independent events.

On JavaScript-enabled browsers, click on each event on the timeline to see the details of that event here, including any links to related pro and con correspondence. (Events will be displayed here all together if your browser is not JavaScript enabled.)

Any corresponding visuals will be offered on the left (for JavaScript-enabled browsers only). A version of the image to left incorporating the Laser starburst logo (where noted) was originally used in drLaser to represent ILCA-NA machinery working like clockwork under the new NA leadership. After the publication of this series criticizing ILCA-NA, the use of the Laser logo by drLaser was forbidden (in North America) by Vanguard Sailboats, Inc., the North American Laser Builder and trademark owner, whose ex-Marketing Manager is now hired as the ILCA-NA Director!

In this series, a "swastika" image is occasionally used at the center of the largest gears to left to depict a caricaturized measurement of the "undemocratic" or "fascist" tendencies in some of the events of 2002-2003.

I realize the symbolism here may infuriate and alienate some who have little understanding of history or civics. drLaser would therefore appreciate suggestions of any more appropriate universal symbols that can be used here to represent the related concepts of "suppression of opposition and dissent".