The story
Background
On a phone call between Canadians Bruce Kirby and Ian Bruce in 1969, the pair discussed the possibility of a car-topped dinghy (a boat small enough to be carried on a roof rack of a typical car) for a line of camping equipment. Kirby resultantly sketched out what would be known as "the million dollar doodle." Following his "doodle" Kirby developed working drawings that Ian Bruce used to develop the Laser.
The plans stayed with Kirby and Bruce until 1970 when One Design and Offshore Yachtsman magazine held a regatta for boats under $1000, called "America's Teacup." After a few sail modifications, the Laser easily won its class.
The prototype was originally named the "Weekender"; the sail held the letters TGIF, a common American abbreviation for "Thank God It's Friday." Ian Bruce renamed the boat the "Laser" (after the scientific mechanism), and officially unveiled at the New York Boat Show in 1971.
The first world championship was held in 1974 in Bermuda. The Laser became a men's Olympic-class boat at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, with a special Olympic edition of the boat released that year in commemoration. A version with a smaller sail, the Laser Radial, was first sailed as a women's Olympic-class boat at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Followed by a youth version known as the 4.7.
History
Neither Bruce nor Kirby had the financial or manufacturing capability to mass-produce and market the boat, and so sold a series of manufacturing licenses to existing boat manufacturers, each with an exclusive geographic sales region:
Europe: Performance Sailcraft based in Long Buckby, Northampton, England
North America: Vanguard Sailboats of Portsmouth, RI
Australia and Oceania: Performance Sailcraft Australia
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Each was licensed to manufacture the basic craft, under strict one design rules. Each builder produced the Laser 1 and 2 but it was LaserPerformance Europe which diluted the brand most by introducing boats such as the Laser 2000, Laser 4000, Laser 5000, Laser Bahia, Laser SB3. The company was also responsible for the Dart Catamaran brand, and a range of rotomoulded plastic dinghies.
In 2007 Performance Sailcraft Europe and Vanguard merged to create LaserPerformance.
From Wikipedia’s article on LaserPerformance, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4