Åland issued in 2010 a stamp, the stamp is an action-packed photo of a boy sailing a Laser Radial yacht.
Several yacht clubs are registered in Åland, two of which are Mariehamns seglarförening r.f. (sailing club MSF) and Ålands segelsällskap r.f. (yachting club ÅSS). Both clubs are located in Mariehamn and have a long history: MSF was founded in 1917 and ÅSS in 1897.
In the stamp by photographer Daniel Eriksson we see a Laser Radial. The Laser boats come in three variants: 4.7, Radial and Standard. A Radial has the same hull as a standard but a smaller mast and sail, and is therefore better suited for young sailors. The Laser Radia is a small singlehanded dinghy with a mainsail area of 5.76 m².
Wikipedia has the following on the Laser Radial.
Hull weight 56.7 kg. Dim. 4.23 x 1.37 x 0.787 m (draught), length on the waterline 3.81 m.
Crew 1.
The Laser Radial is a popular one-design class of small sailing dinghy built worldwide by a small number of controlled licensed boat builders. It is a singlehanded boat, meaning that it is sailed by one person. The Laser Radial is a variant of the Laser Standard, with shorter mast and reduced sail area, allowing light sailors to sail in heavy winds.
The Laser Radial was chosen as the Olympic class for singlehanded women starting with the 2008 summer games regatta in Qingdao, China.
Medal winners in the series were: Gold – Anna Tunnicliffe (USA), Silver – Gintarė Volungevičiūtė (Lithuania), Bronze – Xu Lijia (People's Republic of China).
The Laser Radial is generally sailed and raced by lighter weight sailors and is usually the choice of women Laser sailors. Men typically sail the Laser Standard which has a larger sail. The only difference between the Laser Standard and Laser Radial is the size of the sail and the length of the lower section of the mast. Everything else is the same and very tightly specified and controlled by the International Class Association to ensure competitive racing in identical boats. Lasers are single person dinghies. Most larger regattas for the Laser class will generally have separate races for the Laser Standard, Laser Radial and Laser 4.7.
The Laser Radial uses the same top section of the mast as the Laser Standard but uses a smaller bottom mast section. The sail itself is 62 square feet (5.8 m2), about 18% smaller than the full Laser Standard rig.
Although the one design Laser rig and hull was introduced in 1971, the Radial sail and mast was created in the 1980s. In 1988 the Laser Women's World Championship began using the Laser Radial. They are a good training aid to start learning to sail a Laser but the Laser Radial is a good racing boat in its own right and some sailors (generally women) progress to become professional Radial sailors.
The desired weight for sailing a Radial is 135-140 lbs.
Åland 2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Radial