ARGGGGGGGGH!!!!!!!!

I've got a topper (it's very cute b.t.w lol), and it's got some of those gadgety racing things on it, but now you can get centre mains and a new sail...

how do they improve a topper??! Do they actually make it go faster??!

If so...im buying some hehe!!

Jim,

Do you know of any studies that show the potential imapct of gadgety racing things? If so where can I get some from?

Originally posted by neilw Do you know of any studies that show the potential imapct of gadgety racing things? If so where can I get some from?

Nope. I'm not aware of any trials of anything to do with racing dinghy performance in the UK which you could say produced much in the way of meeaningful data. The nearest is probably the aforesaid Topper eval which is really only valid for moderate wind and flat water...Doing this sort of thing is very time consuming and demanding, and most folk can't be bothered. They'd rather go racing!

There's a simple reason why the Bethwaite SMODs are an order of magnitude better than all the others - the Bethwaites are the only people who do proper R&D... It would for instance be very interesting to tow test or even tank test (they're about the sams size as tank test models!) a representative selection of Cherub and National 12 hull shapes and see what you could learn.

Edited by JimC

No hang on a sec!!!

Right on a topper there is many different types of race rig and all of these are slightly different.

Many people have the worlds race rig which is the best and gives the maximum purchase the class allows which means that you can put more force onto a certain part of the sail in order to change its sail shape.

If you go to any Topper opens/nats/worlds you will see that not ONE person has a boat which isnt race riggred, this is because if you want to race competitively, you want to be able to accurately adjust the shape of the sail to suit the conditions.

If you are only oging to muck about in 'normal' sailing conditions e.g. force 2/3 you are probably all right not being 'race rigged. As the conditions get harder you do really need the race rig becuase non race rigged topprs are very hard to depower and this means you will not be able to egt the boat flying at its full potential and it will do annoying things like roundning up because the centre of effort is too far back in the sail. Having the race rig means things like this are much easier to control therefore making the boat more pleasant to sail in stronger AND very light conditions.

There you go hope this makes sense if not PM me!!

ALso me and harry are race rigged so it must be good

 

 

That data on the centre main shows nothing significant. Did they weigh the boats?

Also long as you have the ability to set and trin the sail with ease the thing that will impact your speed is the flexible link between the tiller, mainsheet and boat i.e. the helm.

Copy the top guys set ups and get out an pratice - you can't buy success in the Topper - that is one reason it's such a great boat.

Rick