ABW Dec 2019 -1

A Laser Sailor
Isurvived seven years of boring Singapore, or ’Singabore’
as I sometimes call it because I could sail my Laser every
Saturday in a competitive field of 10-15 peer senior
Laser Standard sailors. My ’Sexy Lexy’, a light-green
Australian built boat, imported new into Thailand in 1999,
had followed me untouched to USA, France, Switzerland in a
crate and had come out to see daylight and sea waves again
only in 2012 on the Singapore
Strait. For seven years she kept
me sane.
This year I moved, a fresh
’retirado’ to the Philippines and
of course my loyal fiberglas
heartthrob followed me. I
looked at many locations to
resume my addictive Laser
racing but couldn’t find any -
not close enough or without
a racing fleet.
Words by THOM KLEISS
Photographs by ROY ESPIRITU
Thom hiking upwind on a Goose
After a visit I fell in love
(again, as I knew the place
since 1996) with the Taal Lake
Yacht Club (TLYC), an easily accessible
location, accommodating staff and a great
sailing venue - unfortunately, no Laser racing,
however a thriving and very active site for
a fleet of racing Oz Goose dinghies, a dinghy
I had never heard of before, with an unusual
spartan design (no BS, rather boxy, wood
only, straight
September, I joined
in a TLYC-organised
regular race in a
rented Oz Goose
and was immediately
hooked on the
incredible challenge.
lines, with a
classic lug rig with the
boom and yard staying
on one side of the
mast) but apparently
attractive enough to
have created quite an
active participation in
Lake Taal and in other
places in the Philippines.
September, I joined in a TLYC-organised regular race in
a rented Oz Goose and was immediately hooked on the
incredible challenge and fun it was to sail these basic
beautiful boats.
As a thirty-year-plus Laser aficionado it was of course
impossible not to compare the Oz Goose characteristics with
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