topper sailing

Sit really far forward in the boat, heel the boat to leeward a bit and flatten the sails a bit using the kicker and outhaul (sounds weird but flat sails are faster in light wind). Try and steer the boat via bodyweight with minimal use of the rudder. You need to concentrate very hard on spotting wind shifts and reacting quickly to headers and lifts. Try and sail towards areas where there is wind too, look at the water and the areas where it is slightly rougher is where there is more wind. Watch other boats too, see how well they are sailing in their current location.

I sail a topper, have almost 0 down haul on and only enough kicker to stop you boom rising up, do not sail block to block, sit in front of the center board casing and under the kicker, a heal to leeward to hold the sail in shape sit very still, big role tacks, they gain so much ground, however you must keep everything smooth, use little rudder, steer on any lifts or headers by healing the boat and get in a sneeky pump whenever you can without getting seen, outhaul have about a hand with between the boom and stay focused, the start is everything and even if you have a cr*p start just tack into clean air, there is nothing worse than being stuck behind every one in dirty wind, do not get into a luffing battle or a tack of or you will only get slow right down.

If you have one of the new (last couple of years) red/white/blue topper sails, you need more than a bit of kicker, in fact quite a lot which seems "wrong" in light winds, however the sail is far too full and it is necessary to flatten it right off in this way.