Shame the field is so weak; No Estaugh, Pinnell, Carveth, Howarth ... no Fireball, 49er, RS800, RS400 and so on ...

Did they not have 30 boats available if so why is there only 24 being used?

And that Laser sailor, what's he ever done, eh?

But I'd have to agree there are a number of great classes not represented. From my point of view, odd to see no Firefly rep, but maybe they have chosen to race Fireflies at Spinnaker this weekend!

One of the guys that I know wanted to go and represent his class but the powers that be could not be bothered  to reply to any of the emails he sent to them.

I thought the endevour was for classes with more than 50 boats at there nationals. They must be desperate

>>  thought the endevour was for classes with more than 50 boats at there nationals. They must be desperate

Is that a new thing or an old thing.. I cant find any reference for how many boats you have to have at the champs to be represented.. But the cherubs will be there..

Won the Europeans!

Oh come on a Spinnaker pole should not break just because you heated the boat up when it was windy! Not a very good advert for the boat in my opinion.

Looking at the overall results, it is no surprise which a RS400 sailor is dominating again...

Do you think it is acceptable to have two spinnaker poles break in the same day with brand new kit?

I have NEVER had a pole break simply because I heated a boat up when it was windy!

(The only time I have ever had a pole break is when someone sailed into it doing around 15 knots!)

Looking at the calibur of the sailors do you honestly think there would be an issue with the setting/rigging?

In my experience novice sailors are far more likely to break things than experienced sailors...

Oh, dear, does humour have to be spelled out even clearer on this site for some people? Yes, I know who he is and what he has done - the fact that he appeared in a list which had been dismissed as poor quality amused me...

I thought the boats were OK, better than I expected in fact.  They have not been designed or marketed as a high performance boat, but rather as an affordable, 'stick a cover on and forget-about-it' club racer.  I think viewed in that way they are pretty good.  It is easy to see where compromises have been made, the boat is a bit heavy, a bit flexible and some of the components are a bit 'cheap', but that does mean that Topper can sell them for just over £5100 (I believe) which I am sure many potential owners will feel is a fair trade-off. 

There are many good aspects to the design too.  The cockpit is sufficiently deep to be comfortable. The sails were big enough to provide a few exciting moments in Saturday's gusting F4 conditions and the racing was as tight as any I have enjoyed for a long time.

The spinnaker pole is the sort of initial production problem that you would expect Topper to address.  I believe the Endeavour was the first time that the Xenons had been raced in any significant wind and at least 4 spinnaker poles snapped, which is not great, but there are very few SMODs that have not had to make small tweaks to the design after the initial launch.  If I was buying one I would ask when they were going to beef up the pole.

I can't compare to the Vision or Laser 2000 as I have not sailed them, but in summay, the Xenon seemed like a good deal.

Rick,

Thats very dismissive of those class representatives who won the right to go by actually winning their own Championship. While all those you list are great sailors, some of them didn't win a championship this year and it is after all the 'Champion of Champions' event not the 'best around at the time'.

As for it being a weak field - I doubt any of them are 'weak' and in any case part of the attraction of the event is the potential for an unexpected result. If you only invited the usual suspects from the supposed superior classes, that would never happen. For instance, the Cadets have won at least twice and I seem to recall that Geoff Carveth first won representing the (then) unfashionable Solo class.