Sailboat designer helmed beloved Laser dinghy
Harrison Smith, The Washington Post
July 26, 2021
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Bruce Kirby, designer of the Laser sailboat.Marius Bugge.
Doodling on a yellow legal pad in 1969, Bruce Kirby designed one of the most beloved sailboats in history, a low-slung fiberglass dinghy that became known as the Laser.
Light enough to be fastened to the roof of a car, stable and speedy enough to be used by weekend hobbyists as well as Olympic racers, the boat became a fixture of international competitions and local yacht clubs.
Its popularity established Kirby as one of the world's preeminent sailboat designers and enabled him to quit his day job as editor of a yachting magazine to practice design full-time. He had no formal training but went on to create such influential sailboats as the San Juan 24 and the Sonar, a 23-foot keelboat now used in Paralympic competitions.