Laser EPS - A Racked-Up Single-hander

The EPS might have hit the target but if so, it was the wrong target

The Laser EPS stemmed from a concept originally proposed by French Tornado Olympic Gold Medallist, Yves Loday. But the actual boat was a long time coming. It would appear that more development has been done on the EPS than any other boat Laser has ever produced. Working with a small team, including veteran dinghy expert and Olympic Coach Derek Clarke, Laser have refined Loday’s original concept. The EPS is now selling in numbers, in fact Laser advised us that over 300 have been sold. The boat joins the busy race circuit along side the other Laser family members, in their Audi Quattro Cup Series. This has a good number of open meetings in Europe and the UK.

The test was done on a winter's day and, despite freezing weather and a 20 knot wind, Peter Bentley managed to have a bit of fun before his hands got too cold to hold the mainsheet.

At first glance the EPS is an unusual looking boat - a 'laser with wings' single-hander, and you either love it or hate it. The combination of a slightly hard-edged deck design with smooth sculptural wings makes for a strange appearance. This grows on you with time - or not - as the case may be. A highlight of the design concept is the weight equalisation system. Both the width of the wings and the size of the rig can be adjusted. Below a crew weight of 70 kg you get a small rig. For those above 75 kg there is a slightly longer, lower mast section, and a little more roach to add power. Between 70 and 75 kg the rig size is optional. As the crew weight goes up the wings come in, according to a predetermined table. Overall, the system works reasonably well.

The fully battened sail matched with this hull form sails and feels more like a modern skiff than a traditional single-hander. Upwind, it sails in displacement mode, but once borne away downwind the EPS accelerates rapidly and surfs easily. But lacking the righting moment to power up, the EPS still needs to be sailed deep - in classic Finn style - for maximum downwind VMG.

In our MFS review, the Laser EPS came out a shade over average. The plus points included the light and precise steering. Even just sitting on the side, not trying to hike too hard, the performance is impressive. But to get the best out of the boat upwind, mighty hiking is required. Sails and sail control does most for the overall score. The Hyde sails are made largely from a Mylar laminate, with four full length battens and two shorter intermediate ones to ensure excellent stability. Longevity should not be a problem. Sail shape is excellent and with the right combination of outhaul, cunningham and vang, controllability is superb.

On the downside, tacking proved a weak spot in a short chop. Going in with plenty of speed and giving it lots of rudder will get you round, but a timid turn will see you firmly in irons. Rigging proves more complicated than of the conventional Laser, with two shrouds and forestay to attach. The wing structure is heavy and complex, and the boat is not as easy to sail as would be expected. The EPS is undoubtedly built tough, although this might compromise performance.

Overall, the design of the Laser EPS has achieved what appear to be its original objectives. Unfortunately, the game has moved on in the meantime.

Rants Not a pretty boat
Raves Nice sails

Photo by Peter Bentley

The Nitty Gritty

Ease of Sailing

Initial impressions on jumping aboard were of a stable hull shape, even at rest. The boat has a bigger, more secure feeling than expected. The wings are higher above the hull than they look and the space in between really does form something of a cockpit. Heeled, the wings also provide some reserve buoyancy, offering plenty of stability when she’s tipped over. Like any high performance boat, maximum dynamic input from the helmsman will reap rewards in the form of ultimate speed, but with her wide wings and forgiving hull form, the EPS is also easy to sail at less than 100%.

The steering is a joy with just enough feel to make the tiller come to life, yet never enough weight to require more than just fingertip control. It’s easy to think the boat has a jib, and pull the main far too far towards the centreline. Better, if rapid progress is your goal, to adjust the leach tension with the vang and use the sheet to control the speed and pointing angle. Especially in a chop, the secret seemed to be to keep the EPS moving fast and let the pointing look after itself. Tacking proved the boat’s one weak spot in a short chop. Given plenty of speed and a positive approach with plenty of rudder, things work out just fine. Don’t be timid though, as the speed comes off very quickly and one badly timed wave will see you stuck in irons.

Pushing down hard in steep waves it pays to get the weight well back. The wings remain comfortably shaped, even when one sits on the back of them rather than the side. There is an initially disconcerting feeling as you drop down. But in reality you remain locked in and secure, riding the waves to excellent effect. But sailing hard in these conditions without sufficient respect for the need to get the weight back, and it’s perfectly possible to put the bow under. But surprisingly, even this didn’t prove a disaster. The boat simply slows, the cockpit fills with water and, once sufficient speed has been shed, the bow pops up and off you go again. Full of water, steering remains positive and the two big drain tubes in the transom clear the water very quickly.

Systems and Layout

Moving around the boat is easy, with the upside down vang taking the place of a conventional kicking strap above the boom. Though we never had light enough winds to put it to the test, it should be possible to tack or gybe forward of the main sheet in these conditions. The moulded non-slip is excellent - if a tiny bit on the aggressive side - while the lack of fittings leaves virtually nothing to trip over. Such control lines as there are even have tidy systems to keep the decks clear. And while hiking will never be described as a truly comfortable activity, the sculptured wings on the EPS do go a long way towards making it bearable. The toe straps are adjustable both for length and position (though only ashore) and it should be possible to get a setting to suit all the likely crew sizes that will sail the boat.

Among the most interesting aspects of the EPS is the rig. Essentially unstayed, the mast heel sits directly on the deck with a single set of shrouds providing support at gooseneck level. Rather than fixing rigidly to the mast, the shrouds connect to an outer ring which in turn supports the mast via a ball bearing collar. This allows the mast and boom to rotate together. Rig tension comes via a simple tackle in the forestay, while rake can be controlled using conventional pin-hole adjusters. Further aft, the sail is fitted with a second ‘reefing’ clew cringle to lift the boom up when raked right back. Rigging proves slightly more complicated than with a conventional unstayed rig. In practice it seems easiest for one person to hold the mast, while another attaches the shrouds. But the mast is light enough that with practice one person ought to be able to accomplish the job alone. The sail hoists on a simple halyard, with a cleat at the top of the mast to secure it.

The mast itself is made in two parts which simply slot together. Both pieces are high-tech carbon. The lower section is a parallel pultrusion and the upper one a tapered tube. Both sections are nicely finished with an adhesive-fixed plastic track. Hydes have - as always - done an excellent job with the sails, and with the right combination of outhaul, cunningham and kicker, the controllability is superb.

Like most of the latest generation Laser boats, the EPS has been designed from the outset to allow weight equalisation between helms of different sizes. In the EPS both the width of the wings and the size of the rig can be changed, as described above. The attractions of the weight equalisation system have been well proven in the double-handed Laser classes, so there seems no reason why it should not work with a single-hander.

Capsizing the boat, the wide wings do conspire to turn the EPS upside down in quite short order. And then make it quite stable in this configuration. But they also provide plenty of leverage for getting it back up again. The boat floats low enough to allow one to climb onto the centreboard easily. From here, the route around the front of the wings is an easy one as she springs upright.

Performance

Watching the boat sailing from the RIB, it was clear that the EPS was fast and frisky. One of the biggest problems with all the new generation of sitting-out boats is their relative lack of performance upwind. The EPS, and many of her cousins, are not slow to windward, but compared to the downwind performance, things do seem a bit pedestrian. That said, the EPS puts her fine entry and 4.3 meter overall length to good effect and still provides a very satisfying ride to windward.

Gust response from the all carbon rig is excellent and it is perfectly possible to sail the boat like a Europe or Finn - with the sheet cleated and the rig looking after itself. It is not strictly necessary from a performance point of view, but the soft Dacron panel in the front of the sail does make steering very much easier than it might be with an all-Mylar sail.

Build Quality

The hull construction follows standard Laser practice, with a carbon reinforced, glass and polyester laminate over a foam core. Given the complexities of the structure, with two wings and their associated tracks, Laser have done well to keep the hull weight down to 62.5 kg (with wings). The two boats looked at during an admittedly short test, were both well finished and carefully fitted out. The foils are the well-proven Laser moulded foam, and though they certainly both hummed a bit during our test they felt strong if slightly heavy.

EPS has been through a more rigorous refinement process than many so called development classes see in their lifetime. Even at a late stage, the hull shape was changed to make it more controllable downwind. Derek Clark, the driving force behind the prototype work, was forced to admit that he had lost track of how many masts they had gone through before arriving at the final destination.

Expected Durability

Well-built and solid, there is no reason to anticipate any serious problems. But the weight equalization is a difficult piece of engineering to make reliable over a long period of time.

Quality of Race Circuit

Laser’s success in getting a regatta series up and running is unsurpassed, but even they are struggling to get big numbers of EPS’s out on the water.

Value for Money

As a beach boat it’s thrills all the way. But the turnouts on the race circuit don’t indicate that this Laser single-hander will be around quite as long as the first.