Topper Colours

Originally posted by sargesail They sold a huge number into China a couple of years ago. Not just the worlds fleet but lots of big Centres

That's why all the boats are red!

Still big, big fleets. But it might say more about how well boats are selling in general. Or the up to dateness of the website.

Anyone who picks the colour of their Topper based on reducing the chances of being found OCS is sad indeed.

No. I don't think that's what's going on. It's not people wanting an invisibility cloak so they can cheat.

It's that people, rightly or wrongly, think a more noticeable boat may be singled out.

20 boats on a start line. 5 are OCS. If all are identical and the PRO can't identify them he either ignores it or gen recalls. A gen recall is not unfair / unsportsmanlike. (If he ignores it, that's unfair on the 15, but isn't the 5 sailors fault)

If there is a blue a yellow and a pink with a funny sail he can identify those. If the other two are reds and ahead of them he presumably will gen recall. On a black flag the yellow, blue etc may get punished. They may not even have been over on "go" but get punished. The two reds might get away with it. **That** is unfair.

If the two reds were behind them, i.e. barely over the line, wouldn't be the first time a PRO has decided to ignore them. Still unfair. And only possible because the three "different" boats were identifiable.

There is no circumstance on the start line where being identifiable is helpful.

Being yellow may be helpful or unhelpful in a protest. If you say "123456" hit a mark and didn't do turns. If you think 123456 is red but is yellow, your case is dismissed. It may be more likely that a witness will remember seeing the yellow boat do his turns. If there are only two yellow boats and the other guy says he never did turns, your witness is sound. But, there may be more chance of being protested because when they get ashore someone can work out which boat infringed because it was yellow...

Once the top end guys decide to (a) buy red to blend in (b) buy red if it's cheaper (c) invest that money in performance - red gets a reputation for speed. Coloured boats become older, more knackered, sailed by less able sailors... Perpetuating the story.

It's not people trying to cheat, it's people trying to be treated equally...

I have always had boats which blend in on the startline to avoid being called out as over the line