Topper Spice

Good to see some agreement emerging over the past couple of pages - can it last? Not if we get onto handicaps I think  lets not go there or I'll

Anyway I learnt in minisails, sailed and raced GP's and Bosun's from 10-17(many years ago) before taking it up again with Ents after a 25 year break, then moving into Buzzes for 5 years and before finally getting 2 wiring (cos its just more fun as a helm - can't have Asymmetric crews having all the excitement at the sharp end). 

 I  all my boats for different reasons when I sailed them (even the Ents - sailing in a nationals with 100 other boats was a real learning experience) and think if you have never sailed these old classes then something is missing from your sailing education and experience - don't write them off. Try cadging a lift and experience the joys of a handling a real kite in a breeze whilst racing in a fleet.

Lot of posturing "my boat is better than your boat" going on here! Just shows that the human race is very "tribal"

I owned Spice no' 332 for 2 years and found it a great experience. As mentioned before, it was one of the earliest and affordable (for me) twin wire boats around and that is something I really wanted. I came from a RS600 before and Laser 2's before that.

It is slighly heavy compared to current whizz machines but this was the early days of Asymettrics. I don't think it was ever marketed as being the panacea to speed freaks, but it was enjoyable none the less. I've got a video of me sailing the Spice planing downwind with the kite up at Datchet. Unfortunately as I gybed, I got it all wrong and went swimming. If anyone knows where I can upload it to, I can share my embrassment (24Mb)

The Laser 4000 hit the scene and the marketing campaign by Laser and the natural migration of the huge following in Laser 2's to the 4K, plus Topper experiencing marketing problems with the ISO (remember the hulls and coming apart ) sort of had a knock on affect. The Spice was never really marketed as it could have been and consequently very few were actually produced by comparison.

Chris