The 2014 College Nationals, just around the corner, will feature this year for the first time, the all-new LaserPerformance Z-420. This boat is a more modern and thoughtful upgrade from the club 420, adding new ideas to a boat originally designed in, gulp, 1959. Time will tell if this boat can meet the reliability and durability bars set by its predecessor, but most reports so far indicate the boat is far livelier and more responsive. It seems the development of this boat offers more than just a college dinghy; trapeze, spinnaker, mast ram, all point to a new one-design class.
In fact, since all college national championships must now be sailed in LaserPerformance boats, the institutional future seems “Z”, at least on the 420 side. Many top colleges have wasted no time, and already have in their boathouses, or have ordered, new z 420 fleets. See earlier article on this exclusive ICSA-LP agreement. To date, 134 Z-420’s have been built, with many more on order. Here’s the list:
- Wayzata Community Sailing Center
- Dartmouth
- Jacksonville
- Stanford
- St Mary’s College
- Tabor Academy
- Yale
- Navy
Schools with confirmed purchase orders:
- Roger Williams,
- Boston College
- Brown
- USF
- LPEU
- Washington College
From the manufacturer:
The z420 has been designed to insure the future success of collegiate sailing through the collaborative efforts of many college coaches as well as sailing industry designers, experts and racers.
The results are distinctly evident when you sail the z420. The team was able to reduce nearly 50 lbs from the weight of the existing c420 scv and still make the hull 40% stiffer– so the levels of performance have completely jumped off the charts.
