I keep running into great daysailing videos featuring adults enjoying the English Topper scow. Normally used as a transition singlehander in England for the juniors coming out of the Opti programs, it seems adults who are not racers, enjoy kicking around in this plastic boat. (In the U.S.A. I would vote the Sunfish more than the Laser as the one adults more enjoy as a kick-around singlehander.)
Topper on Oulton Broad from John Fielding on Vimeo.
I like the music. Anyone know the name of the group? - Ahh! Found It! Ben Howard with the song "Promise".
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12 hours ago
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Nice. Looks like fun and the music is good too. I am perplexed by the line winding around the main sheet. I must be ignorant of some important fact relating to that. Can anyone explain it to me?
That looks to be the tail of the boom vang. This Topper is sheeted directly from the stern (I think they have since allowed them to route the mainsheet along the boom and down to block aft of the daggerboard, like on a Laser). My first boat was a Topper - not very common here in the States, but it was great for learning on. No battens in the sail meant easy reefing and the steering was great with the deep rudder.
Was a very popular boat in England when I sailed there and I think it still is. I never heard it called a scow in England though. I think they now have the option to have a center mainsheet too, like the Laser.
Thanks Anon. I see that is the boom bang now.
Did I just type "boom bnag"? Boom VANG is what I meant of course. Boom Bang, Pow. Sounds like a Batman comic!
So why not Toppers for kids instead of Opti's ?
Sunfish are great but a bit powerful and pointy at the front for teaching beginners. It would seem that the Topper is perefct at least until it's blowing hard. I bet they reef by rolling the main around the mast.
My club used them for several years but once we switched from trying to teach kids just to sail, to actively trying to get them racing, the Opti was seen as the way to do it - no other clubs in the Pacific NW (U.S.) had Toppers... to race against kids from other clubs you had to have Optis. And once the kids outgrew Optis, they wanted to make the jump to full rig Lasers (this was before Radials were really established in the area) - "oh yeah, I can handle a Laser..."
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