PSA response to the ILCA announcement - September 26th 2025

Why is the history of the class being re-written?

Q: Why is the history of the class being re-written?

A: PSA does not know, and it has no relevance to the real issue at hand.
ILCA has produced numerous contracts with a diagram that confirms the one class design. It’s the same diagram that has been used for the last 27+years and the dimensions are identical to the moulds that PSA owns. ILCA recently supplied moulds to PSA that do not allow the dinghy that is detailed in the contract to be built, the length, beam and centre board locations are different. When PSA queried this as a technical issue, PSA was told to ignore it and just do what the other nine new builders were doing. We declined, as we have a contractual obligation to meet the ILCA specifications and a duty of honesty to our customers. We cannot represent to our customers that the dinghy we would be selling them, manufactured from the ILCA moulds, meets the one-design specifications when the current moulds provided by ILCA do not. We asked World Sailing to intervene so that the matter could be resolved, ILCA has walked away from that discussion, and ILCA has now refused to answer any questions about why the moulds do not meet the required specifications set out in the contracts. ILCA then improperly interfered with our contractual rights by announcing to the market and our suppliers that our builder’s contract had been terminated.

Q: Are the PSA moulds class legal?

A: Yes. They meet the precise specifications defined in the 2005 Construction Manual and all approved versions since. They were inspected and re-certified by Clive Humpries in March 2021 and by Santiago Sampaio in 2022. At no time has ILCA informed us that our moulds were not class legal nor have they ever questioned their origin. They were personally and contractually approved by Bruce Kirby. Unfortunately, once PSA raised the fact that the ILCA moulds do not meet the required specifications, ILCA (in an ill-conceived attempt to silence PSA) now challenges everything PSA has ever done. ILCA is just trying to create a distraction from the real issue—the failure of its new moulds delivered to the new builders to meet the required contractual specifications. If one takes ILCA’s recent assertions as accurate, which they are not, does that mean winners of Olymic medals will have to give them up? Of course not. ILCA’s assertions are just false statements in an attempt to cover itself.

Q: Did ILCA disclose to PSA or Global sailing that the moulds (the one class design) had changed?

A: Absolutely not. At no time was this change disclosed. In the contract, ILCA required the destruction of the Bruce Kirby moulds and tooling once PSA had put the new ILCA moulds into use, with the argument that all the moulds would then come from the same source. PSA and Global Sailing had no reason to suspect that the new ILCA moulds would not build the same sized boat which is listed on the World Sailing website as the Olympic-class boat. At no point did ILCA disclose that it had changed the required specifications and dimensions of the dinghy. PSA discovered it only by comparing moulds delivered by ILCA. If PSA had destroyed its existing moulds as requested by ILCA, the changes to the original Bruce Kirby design would have been hidden and the one-design class legacy destroyed. We have refused to destroy any moulds and this position is fully supported by World Sailing.

Keep in mind that PSA has been manufacturing and selling sailboats since 1988 and everyone certifies that the boat matches Bruce Kirby’s original design.

Also troubling is the fact that in February 2025, Mark Lyttle emailed PSA and stated the ILCAs built today are not intended to be built to the specification of the original Kirby Laser. An extract from Mark Lyttle’s email is found below, suggesting there are actually now two classes of dinghies, although to PSA’ knowledge this has never been declared publicly and we believe that this has never been technically approved by World Sailing:

This is also somewhat surprising, given the fact that the name “ILCA” is comprised of the terms “International Laser Class,” and ILCA’s legal name as a Texas non-profit organization is “Laser Class Association, Inc.,” which does business as "ILCA."

Q: is there a performance difference between the original Laser and the new ILCA?

A: PSA believes there is a small difference. We have commissioned a detailed analysis of this and will publish the report in due course, irrespective of its conclusions. We will not supply this report to ILCA in advance of its publication to the class as a whole, given the experience that we have witnessed of document redaction and their refusal to agree to transparency.

Q: Has ILCA attempted to work with PSA to resolve this issue as they state in their announcement?

A: No. When PSA initially found the issues with the ILCA moulds when they arrived in November 2024, PSA and the ILCA technical staff were communicating. PSA invited ILCA technical to come and see the issues first-hand in the factory in Australia, but they declined. Through those discussions, ILCA technical staff confirmed the deck mould used by ILCA is indeed a copy of a PSA deck. This had been done without PSA’s authorisation and it begs the question of why ILCA would need to copy the PSA boat if ILCA already had its own compliant master moulds. Eric Faust then instructed ILCA technical to have no further contact with PSA. This has remained the same to this day, and has led to plaque orders being delayed together with all other requests under our builder’s licence being intentionally delayed and/or as recently demonstrated, improperly revoked.

Q: Did ILCA build new moulds for the new builders?

A: Yes. The first set of moulds that were supplied were withdrawn and replaced. Had the ILCA mould that they “discovered” complied with the terms of the 2005 agreement, those moulds would be identical to the PSA moulds. ILCA signed agreements in 2019 and 2020 with PSA to utilise moulds to support the new builders, but reneged on that agreement to supply their own copy.

Q: Does PSA have a commercial motive for this dispute?

A: No. PSA has been materially and deliberately damaged by the false and misleading statement filed by ILCA. PSA is legitimately trying to abide by contractual arrangements and specifications that have been place for decades, and remain honest to the class and its sailors, ILCA is frustrating those efforts.

Q: Has PSA commenced legal proceedings against ILCA and its officers

A. Yes. Unfortunately PSA has been forced to commence legal proceedings to redress ILCA’s conduct, and to protect its rights as an approved builder that has been producing the one design sailboat longer than any other builder using Bruce Kirby contractually approved moulds.