Bruce Kirby CMThe Laser dinghy, known as the ILCA from 2020 The Laser and the ILCA are, legally, in line with the 2019 Frand Agreement between the EU, World Sailing and ILCA should be dimensionally identical dinghies.
About The ILCA/ The Laser
Over the past 30 years, the Laser and, from 2020, named the ILCA, has become synonymous with Olympic sailing success, serving as the pathway for generations of athletes competing at the very highest level of the sport. From emerging youth sailors through to Olympic medallists, the class remains one of the most important and accessible development platforms in world sailing. Its historic one-class design ethos, based since 1970 on the dinghy design of Bruce Kirby, ensures that sailors compete in identical dinghies, and the results are down to the sailors' skills.
Performance Sailcraft is a heritage builder that owns original moulds and tooling, contractually authenticated by Bruce Kirby. This guarantees that the dinghies it manufactures today are identical to the dinghy that Ben Ainslie secured his Olympic Gold medal in Sydney in 2000. To celebrate the class and our long history, PSA uniquely build heritage editions of the Laser and ILCA and is a dedicated ambassador of the original one-class design.
Source Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_(dinghy)The Kirby Laser 30 – a highly exclusive limited-edition ILCA dinghy celebrating 30 years of Laser sailing as an Olympic class. From the sale of each dinghy, and plaque set a donation will be made to the Lupus Foundation, a charity chosen by Margo Kirby, in memory of their late daughter, Kelly, and her late husband Bruce.
Timed to mark the anniversary of the Atlanta Olympic Games in July, the launch celebrates three decades of Olympic competition in one of the most influential and widely sailed classes in the history of the sport, with the Laser having featured in seven consecutive Olympic Games.
The Kirby Laser 30 stands as both a celebration of the one class design heritage and a tribute to performance excellence, created in recognition of the late Bruce Kirby, whose original Laser design transformed global dinghy sailing by establishing one of the most successful one-design classes ever built.
Each Kirby Laser 30 is individually produced using authentic Performance Sailcraft tooling and is fully certified as a genuine Bruce Kirby design, carrying a World Sailing plaque for full competition compliance under current ILCA class rules.
In a unique tribute to the class’s origins, each boat features Bruce Kirby’s signature, supplied by his wife Margo, alongside insignia representing the Olympic colours and the names of all the medalists, highlighting the authenticity and commemorative significance of the edition.
The Kirby Laser 30 is not a display piece - it is a fully race-ready ILCA dinghy available across ILCA 4, ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 configurations, supporting sailors from youth development through to elite competition. Each boat is supplied with two complete sail sets; an original-style Starburst Laser sail, reflecting the original heritage of the class, and an ILCA-compliant racing sail, fully compatible with current international competition standards.
Kirby Laser 30 dinghies will be on display at the following sailing clubs:
The Kirby Laser 30 decal pack is also available to order, as an upgrade to all existing dinghies. Each pack celebrates the Olympic heritage of the class, and a contribution from the sale of every pack goes to Margo Kirby's charity choice.
Charitable proceeds from the Kirby Laser 30 will be donated to the Lupus Foundation the charity chosen by Margo Kirby, reinforcing the wider purpose of the initiative by combining sailing heritage and supporting those affected by autoimmune diseases.
Visit Lupus.org online
The Heritage 55 is a celebration of a unique dinghy design tied to our historic builder experience of over 70 years of boat building.
PSA has been building Laser dinghies for the past 55 years, and the Heritage "55", which is only being manufactured as a limited edition, is a celebration of our boat-building history with the laser class. The PSA Heritage "55" is a tribute to the fact that over 200,000 Bruce Kirby designed lasers have been built and sailed worldwide.
The Heritage “55” is available to order in a choice and combination of deck or hull colours, and a choice of rigs either as the ILCA 4,6 or 7 rigs and an original Laser starburst sail. Each dinghy comes with unique Heritage "55" branding and certificate.
To enquire about availability and pricing for your Heritage “55”, contact us by clicking here.
In 1967, Ian Bruce and his friend Bruce Kirby were working as industrial designers in Montreal. Ian realised that the cost of regatta sailing was beyond most people including himself. He decided to form a company called Performance Sailcraft and built the inexpensive International 14 boat using Ian's boat as a mold. However, after two years of work there was no success due to the sophisticated and expensive design.
Before giving up, in 1969, Ian phoned his old friend and they met in a yacht club in Ottawa. Ian asked him if he could make a new design. Later, during a phone call, Kirby was doodling as always. While discussing the possibility of a car-topped dinghy (a boat small enough to be carried on a roof rack of a typical car) for a line of camping equipment he went completely quiet. Ian asked him "Are you still there?" which he responded "Yes I'm here. I've got a design." This sketch would be known as "the million dollar doodle".
The work on the prototype has begun. Designer incorporated Bruce Kirby Inc. as the company for his boat designs. They wanted to complete the prototype before 1970 "America's Teacup", a regatta for boats under $1000 held by One-Design and Offshore Yachtsman magazine. The prototype was originally named the "Weekender", the sail held the letters TGIF, a common American abbreviation for "Thank God it's Friday". In the summer of 1970 Hans Fogh made the sail and helmed the prototype in the regatta. At the first day it placed in the top 3. Hans was not satisfied about the performance, so he recut the sail during the night. The next day Laser won all two races. That is when the design drew attention. In December 1970 Dave Balfour, a McGill University engineering student, suggested the name Laser and contributed the Laser sunburst sail insignia. The Laser sailboat was officially unveiled at the New York Boat Show in 1971 where many orders were placed.[2][3]
Bruce and Kirby agreed to put the boat into production with Bruce manufacturing the craft and Kirby receiving royalties on each unit. As world-wide demand grew, they realized that regional licensing the manufacturing would deliver boats more economically than exporting them from Canada. These new builders were granted a license to the confidential construction manual, which describes the technical specifications about how to build the boat, and also the rights to use the LASER trademark in certain territories.[4][5]
In 1972, the International Laser Class Association (ILCA) was established.
In 1974, The National Film Board of Canada produced a 28-minute documentary directed by Andy Thomson called "The Boat that Ian Built".
In the early 1980s Performance Sailcraft International went bankrupt. Since then the construction manual came under the joint control of ILCA, Bruce Kirby, and the licensed manufacturers that existed at that time. Each of the licensed manufacturers were allowed to acquire ownership of the LASER trademark in its territory.
In 1998, Performance Sailcraft Europe granted ILCA certain rights to use the Laser Trademark for its activities pursuant to an intellectual property license in the 1998 agreement.
In 2008, Kirby decided to sell his rights in Laser boat design and obligations under Builder Agreements to a Global Sailing Limited. However Bruce Kirby Inc. did not sell the "Bruce Kirby" trademark, but at that point GSL, Laser Performance Europe and Quarter Moon stopped paying royalties.
In 2010, Kirby requested that ILCA stop issue licence plaquets to LPE I QMI and the Builder Agreement was terminated, however manufacturers kept selling boats with his name as before.
This situation led to a lawsuit filed in March 2013 against LPE and QMI which ended compensation for trademark infringement and name misappropriating. ILCA and World Sailing eliminated requirement to have Builder Agreement. Since then neither LPE nor QMI sold Lasers with plaques that bore the Kirby's name. Opposing to this action Global Sailing created a separate class called Kirby Torch, which lasted to 2014.
In the late 2010s, the European Commission along with several manufacturers pressured World Sailing and ILCA to implement antitrust review policy.
In 2018, Laser Performance was seeking a renewal of the 1998 Agreement and refusing to seek new manufacturers in their territory without consent. They accused Performance Sailcraft Australia of illegally importing their products into LP operational territory. At the end of the year LP refused to have ILCA undertake an inspection due to ILCA refusing to renew its license under the 1998 Agreement. This led to revoking of license as of 27 March 2019.[6] As a result, LP created the Laser Class in opposition to ILCA, which lasted to 2024.
Due to trademark agreement expiration and antimonopoly policies (i.e. FRAND), since 2019 all new class legal boats, sails and equipment is sold under ILCA name. The design also appears to have changed as boats now are up to 40mm shorter than the 220,000 boats in existence. Important to note, the FRAND vote was a name change but it appears there is a design change too.
In 2019, Laser Performance introduced ARC1 and ARC2 rigs designed by Scott Ferguson and sails by Robbie Doyle, the ARC Rigs.
In 2025, Performance Sailcraft Australia's licence was cancelled on 48 hours' notice for questioning the dimensions of the new ILCA-issued moulds. Two days later, ILCA confirmed to PSA that its licence had not been cancelled but declined to advise the class of their error. ILCA then claimed that the agreement entered into with PSA, concurrent with the Global Sailing agreement, had been cancelled. PSA asked ILCA in November 2024 to explain why their moulds did not match the dinghies that PSA had been manufacturing since the early 1970's. ILCA have continually refused to respond or explain the changes which breach the terms of the 2005 Construction manual and the rights held by Global Sailing and PSA until 2024. The PSA question had no commercial motive; it was simply to ensure that the original Bruce Kirby one-class design was maintained, so identical dinghies were manufactured, guaranteeing that the sailors' skill would determine the race result.
In 2025 Performance Sailcraft Australia secured a High Court ruling in New Zealand that reinstated their builders' license. Concurrently, World Sailing issued a report that was produced to the New Zealand High Court by ILCA that highlighted a number of ILCA governance issues.