After winning the 1967
International 14 World Championship, Ian Bruce realised that the cost of regatta sailing was beyond the reach of most people, including himself. He founded a company called Performance Sailcraft to produce inexpensive
International 14 dinghy using his boat as a mold because of its successful design. The boat had been designed by his friend and coworker Bruce Kirby. However, after two years, the project failed because of the sophisticated and expensive design od International 14. 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. 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. In 1972, the International Laser Class Association (ILCA) was established. In 1974 the first world championship was held in Bermuda. The same year
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 the late 1980s, a smaller sailing rig was developed for the Laser class. In 1992, 5.7 m2 radial rig was officially recognized as a second class-legal rig. In 1993 Laser was chosen for the
1996 Summer Olympics in
Atlanta becoming a men's Olympic-class boat. From 1997, an even smaller rig was developed in England. In 2001, 4.7 m2 rig was officially approved as third class-legal rig. 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. At the
2008 Summer Olympics in
Beijing Laser Radial became a women's
Olympic-class boat. In 2008, Kirby decided to sell his rights in Laser boat design and obligations under Builder Agreements to Global Sailing Limited. However Bruce Kirby Inc. did not sell the "Bruce Kirby" trademark, but at that point GS, 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 existed until 2014. In the late 2010s, the European Commission along with several manufacturers pressured World Sailing and ILCA to implement antitrust review policy. In 2016 ILCA announced release of a class-legal composite top mast section, which began to be used in 2017. At the beginning of 2018 ILCA allowed the use of electronic digital compasses and boat or body mounted cameras. 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. In opposition to ILCA, LP created "The Laser Class", which operated until 2024. Due to trademark agreement expiration and antimonopoly policies (i.e. FRAND), In April 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 with spars designed by Scott Ferguson and sails by Robbie Doyle. In response ILCA issued a statement about new rigs development progress, especially the "C-rigs" which were in development since 2015. In 2024 International Laser Class Association acquired control of all the royalty and legacy builder rights previously held by Global Sailing and Performance Sailcraft. In 2025, Performance Sailcraft Australia license was revoked after refusing to use new ILCA issued molds. As they do not match the original design which would mean 220,000 boats would become obsolete as opposed to the 8,000 ILCAs made incorrectly. ==Production==