Topper (dinghy)

The Topper is an 11 foot sailing dinghy designed by Ian Proctor.

Background

The Topper is a one-design boat with a large international following, it is also an International class by the ISAF and is an approved youth class of the RYA.

Design

The Topper was designed by Ian Proctor. the Topper was originally designed to be built out of glass reinforced plastic in a traditional female mould. Sales of this early version of the Topper were not numerous. In the early 1980s the boat was re-engineered to be made of injection moulded polypropylene and sales soared. The polypropelene hull was much more damage resistant than the original glass fibre hulls and proved immensely popular in sailing schools in the UK. The Topper rigged construction and low maintenance costs made the boat popular with sailing schools. At one point in the boats lifetime the Topper was the largest injection moulded mass production plastic component in the world.

At 11' the Topper is designed to be car toppable and the mast splits into two sections, allowing the spars to be stored and transported.

In 2005 a 4.2 m² sail was approved, which allows lighter helmsmen to sail in higher winds without having to reef their sails, the smaller sail is also more efficient than a larger sail that is reefed.

Although the Topper was originally rigged with an aft mainsheet, since 2004 the option to use a centre main has been allowed. The change has proved to be popular in racing, the motivation for the change was that most other dinghies, including the ones Topper sailors are likely to advance to, are rigged with centre mainsheets.

pecifications

External links

* [http://www.itcaworld.org/ International Topper Class Association]
* [http://www.irltopper.com/ Irish Topper Class Association]
* [http://www.gbrtopper.co.uk/ Great Britain Topper Class Association]