New Boats 2005

it's interesting to see the difference in the sailing scene in the uk from Canda.over here it is basicly the kids start in the opti then either move to a radial or move to a 420 then they either advance to a full rig or stick with the 420. as the teens get older then they start to generally move into 29ers. thats about all that is around here though at most major regattas it is 420s 29ers full rig and radial lasers and a few opti classes. other than that there isn't really too much of a fleet of anything else . at least in western canada. as for keelboats it's a different story. there is a million different fleets around here.

yer i no what you mean. so many class are popular for a couple of years then people just leave the class and it eventely dies out!!

the only class i think that will keep growing over the years is the laser!

I think yur right Harry but i do think that Topper are going to continu to grow because at the moment more people seem to be training for sailing and quite a few teach younger kids in Topper's and then thses kids may get more advanced in Toppers making them more popular..........

Especially as Topper is the only single hander that younger kid's can take out in Very Stronmg winds..................it also feel's fast in a blow

Its funny how much its been tried, but no-one can seem to get it right.

Even the manufactures of two big single handed classes, with big racing and training fleets, topper and laser couldnt seem to do it.  Both the pico and the topaz had big hype, but flopped dramatically when people actually sailed the boat.

What do you think makes such a good boat for fun, racing and training like the topper? and what specs / features would meet those criteria in a two man youth boat?