ILCA acquires rights to secure future

The Laser sailboat was officially unveiled at the New York Boat Show in 1971, and has gone on to become the world’s most popular adult and youth racing sailboat. But behind the scenes, the boat has a complicated history between the Designer, Class Association, and builders.

As it has also been Olympic equipment since 1996, updated regulation by World Sailing required a change in who could build the boat, leading to a name change from Laser to ILCA, with the sunburst sail insignia replaced with the new class name. Again, complicated.

But through all the disruption, the International Laser Class Association has fought to secure its future, with this update from Class President Tracy Usher reflecting recent work toward that goal:

I am extremely pleased to announce that ILCA has completed a deal to acquire control of all the royalty and legacy builder rights held by Global Sailing (GS) and Performance Sailcraft (PSA), effective immediately.

The rights held by PSA and GS have developed over many years and include royalty payment rights created as part of the legacy builder agreements in 2019, the Kirby rights purchased by GS from Bruce Kirby in the early 2000s, and the legacy builder Build Manual rights held by PSA.

The deal now undertaken by the ILCA provides an opportunity for the Class Association to secure the future of the class. It recognizes the benefits for all current and future ILCA sailors of having the class more directly control its destiny.

In the face of an ever-changing world and international sailing environment, ILCA will in future benefit from a greater proportion of the income generated from the manufacture and sale of the ILCA dinghy and from greater control of the class build manual.

ILCA would like to acknowledge the support of several ILCA sailors who have helped make this deal possible. Performance Sailcraft Japan is now the only remaining legacy builder, and is fully supportive of the deal and is supportive of the class moving towards a self-determination model.

I would like to conclude by thanking the team at ILCA and the Spencer family for all the hard work that has gone into making this exciting opportunity for ILCA a reality. I am confident that this will help to ensure the ongoing success of our class and secure its preeminent position in the dinghy sailing world.