Pico versus Topper

Toppers are very flexy, it's like sailing Tupperware, also very narrow and too small for adults, personally I really dislike them and reckon they only survive in the UK because topper got them adopted as an official youth class.

My kids much preferred picos so we bought one. Picos are stiffer and more responsive to their controls ( the rudder doesn't stall out for one thing) But Picos are heavy and you can't get parts for them. Double handing picos is indeed a bit lame but, unlike a topper, you can and my twin sons enjoyed it aged 9 or 10.

You can also (sometimes) get battened "race" sails for picos which transform them into "nearly" a radial .. they go up wind properly.

At my club we use picos for adult single handed training and kids double handers training. We have Toppers for kids wanting to single hand who have moved up from oppies ( which I also hate with a vengeance btw)

I'm 175cm and 78kg and kept sailing our pico for years ( in F5+ only mind ). Certainly does plane ( good wind, bear away, shift weight back) makes a lot of splash when doing so and driven hard down wind the nose will go under water, followed by the whole boat which then stalls and pops back up again .. managed to pitch pole mine just the once. Great high wind toy ... but I have a contender for that now :-)

Edited by NickA - 24 Jun 22 at 8:53pm

Picos are from the Laser Performance Europe stable owned by the infamous Rastegar who had the Laser build rights taken away. 

Originally posted by ColPrice2002 Hi, Couple of thoughts for you... 1) Toppers are polypropylene hull & decks. It's difficult to weld any hull damage - however it's a light weight hull. 2) Picos are significantly heavier. 3) Parts for Picos (UK) are expensive - there probably isn't much saving to be made in parts. 4)While a pico can be rigged  to double handed, it's cramped for teenagers - the jib doesn't haven't any tension in the luff (simple hook into the unstayed mast) so it doesn't really help performance. 5) You can get a Topper to plane - I've had a Pico out in 30+ knots and it just carves a trough in the water! Colin

We've used Oppis, Toppers and Picos at the club for training and club boat use for years. They all  seem pretty tough and with a few exceptions seem to stand up well to hard use over several years. Personally as a large male adult I find all these boats uncomfortable, but I'm not the target market. As others have said Toppers are lighter and will suit lighter/younger people once they move out of Oppis. As to the Pico and a jib - yes we're done that but the jib is tiny and the cockpit is cramped so I'm not sure of the value of that other than with small crews. But you've covered all the usual junior classes, ie Oppis, Toppers, Picos, and Laser 4.7. These all have their merits, I sailed Lasers for years but I mistakenly put one of my daughters into a 4.7 way too early - even with the smaller sail they are still tippy and with hindsight she should have stayed in Toppers for another couple of seasons. Horses for courses really, I'd suggest thinking about the potential age range of helms you might get as that will help with your decision making.