Update 03/07/09: The Notice of Race is now available to download here and the Supplementary Sailing Instructions can be downloaded here.

Update 29/06/09: Additional maps indicating trailer, boat and rib parking at the club along with changing facilities and car parking have been added to the previous document of arrangements for this event. The revised document can be downloaded here.

Update 25/06/09: Please note that entries for this event should be made on-line before Saturday 27th June, otherwise the late entry fee will apply.

The Craftinsure National Series 3 will be taking place at Parkstone Yacht Club on the 11th and 12th July.

Parkstone Yacht Club is looking forward to hosting the Toppers and a team of members will be on hand on Friday evening and Saturday morning to help direct the traffic and get boats unloaded as soon as possible.  The office will be open all weekend to answer any queries - 01202 743610.

A document with further details of food, parking, ribs etc. is available to download here.

Update 01/07/09: The Notice of Race for the National Championships is now available here.

On-line entry is now open for the 2009 Magic Marine Topper National Championships taking place at Pwllheli Sailing Club on the 2nd - 7th August.

The sailing waters around Pwllheli are amongst the best in the U.K. In Cardigan Bay tidal streams are weak, winds are stable and the scenery is superb. Snowdon and the Welsh mountains providing a magnificent backdrop. This promises to be a superb National Championships, so don't delay in entering.

Entry fee is £140 with a reduced sibling/parent fee of £115. Entries made later than 19th July will be subject to a late entry fee. There will be a main fleet and a regatta fleet - use the appropriate entry option from the Enter Events menu.

Please note that the allocation of spaces for motorhomes for the National Champinships at the Pwllheli Sailing Club site is now full and no more reservations are being taken. The Pwllheli SC site has alternatives listed and through this website other arrangements can be found as well.

Over 200 Topper sailors took their parents, guardians and friends to the northern venue of Derwent Reservoir Sailing Club over the weekend of 20th/21st June 2009 to take part in the second of the Craftinsure sponsored Topper National series.
 
The scene that everyone was greeted by on the Saturday morning was extremely organised with the now famous and seemingly ever increasing Motorhome Village that was set up amongst the tents in the large camping field to the rear of the site.

Toppers were being rigged adjacent to the car park with trailers neatly stored alongside and yet there was still more than sufficient room in the car park for many more cars – it’s an impressive facility at DRSC.

Read the full report here and click here for the results.

Please note that support craft visiting Ebensee for the World Championships NEED to register their boat as soon as possible and in any case no later than 10 days prior to commencement.

The local authorities apply a driving ban for all private motor boats on the lake during July and August with the exception of event boats that will be issued with a security flag. 

Please register your boat with your name and its number with Peter Steinkogier peter@welldone.cc AND Hans Bertl jbertl@tele2.at

Thank you - Helen Evans

Update 13/06/09: The following documents for this event are now available and can be downloaded by clicking on the following links: Notice of Race; Supplementary Sailing Instructions; Course Card. The latest Standard Sailing instructions for National events are always available under the Class Rules menu.

Update 09/06/09: Entries for this event now stand at over 180. In order to help the galley run the food side more smoothly, Derwent Reservoir SC has asked for your help in identifying what food you would like to purchase over the weekend - breakfasts, lunches and dinner. There is a form that can be downloaded here and which can be completed and returned by e-mail to the club. The club would be very grateful if as many families as possible could complete this so that they can be as well prepared as possible for the event.

Update 02/06/09: From this Saturday, 6th June the late entry fee for this event becomes payable and so if you would like to enter the event, then best to do so before the weekend.

Update 12/05/09: Derwent Reservoir SC has kindly supplied an information document that can be downloaded here regarding the up and coming National Series event.

The second of the Craftinsure National Traveller Series takes place on the 20th and 21st of June at Derwent Reservoir Sailing Club. On-line entry is now open for this event. The entry fee is £30, but after the 6th June a late entry fee will apply.

Camping is available at Derwent for motor homes and tents. Toilet/shower facilities will be available all night in the clubhouse. There is NO NEED to pre-book as there is plenty of space available for all. If you require more information please call Richard Startup on 01207 520233.

Entries are now open online for the 2009 RYA Volvo Zone and Home Countries Championships on the weekend of 26th – 27th September.

With Volvo supporting all nine events for the first time in 2009, the Championships traditionally mark the end of the Junior racing season and the start of a hard winter’s training. They are a key event for any young sailor wishing to be selected for the RYA Zone and Home Country squads.

Online entry is now open for all English Zones and the Wales Home Country at www.ryaracingevents.org.uk while Scotland and Northern Ireland entries will be open soon.

The entry deadline for the six Zone Championships is 18 September 2009 - no entries will be accepted after this date.

The 2009 RYA Volvo Zone and Home Countries Championships for Toppers will be staged at the following venues:

• South Zone – Poole Yacht Club, Dorset
• South West Zone – Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, Dorset
• South East Zone – Datchet Water Sailing Club, Berkshire
• East Zone – Grafham Water Sailing Club, Cambridgeshire
• West – Draycote Water Sailing Club, Warwickshire
• North – Burton Sailing Club, Derbyshire
• Wales – Pwllheli Sailing Club
• Scotland – Largs Sailing Club
• Northern Ireland – East Antrim Boat Club

All sailors wishing to be considered for a National Junior Squad OR a Zone Squad place are also requested to complete an online application form. This can also be found at www.ryaracingevents.org.uk and following the links to Junior Squad applications.

The date to enter the GUL Topper World Championships in Ebensee, Austria is by the 20th June, after which an additional entry fee of 25 euros will apply.

Entry to the World Championships (including on-line entry) and all other information including how to make payment, NoR and event timetable is via the Ebensee Sailing Club website, www.scebensee.at, where you should follow the link "Regatten" and then "GUL Topper World Championships 2009"

If you have any questions please contact Helen Evans at topperworld@dsl.pipex.com who will do what she can to help.

Now that the sailing season is in full swing again, if you want to keep up with the latest Topper news, you can use the recently created Topper RSS Feeds. These are on the left of the screen just below the Fixtures/Results menu box.

If you are in the News page (this page) you can subscribe to the RSS News feed to receive the news stories as they are posted. If you go to the Downloads page you can also subscribe to the RSS Downloads feed and this will alert of any new downloads that are loaded onto the website.

Most recent e-mail clients on a variety of platforms have the ability to aggregate RSS feeds. There are three formats to choose from for Topper News - RSS1 will feed headlines, RSS2 the full story including any photos and there is also RDF format and ATOM format. You will need to choose the one best suited to your needs and RSS reader / aggregator.

The Classified Ads section has its own RSS feeds - go to Classified Ads and then subscribe using the appropriate RSS feed at the foot of that page.

Ali Young is a supporter of the Parkinson's Disease Society and through an auction of promises she offers you the opportunity to win a sailing lesson with her at Weymouth, the venue for sailing at the 2012 Olympics. Young, who is a member of Skandia Team GBR in the Laser Radial Class and was previously on the Topper National Squad in 2002, presents this unique opportunity to support a worthwhile cause and improve your sailing skills.

Her father, who has Parkinson's disease, is organising a fund-raising dinner with an auction of promises at the Chateau Impney Hotel, Droitwich on June 19th.  If you cannot attend the auction but would still like to take advantage of this opportunity then you can place a bid by contacting Mary Long (0121-212-5500) at the auctioneers, Fellows & Sons, Birmingham, where a confidential bid can be held for you. For more information on this opportunity you can also contact Ali directly on 07854 763 490.

Please note that Alex Storrar, Meditrans Ltd, will be closing bookings on the 1st June for transport of Toppers to the World Championships in Austria. If you would like to discuss booking transport, please contact Alex on 07718 533824 without delay.

On the 5th and 6th September, there will be a special event at Northampton Sailing Club for all past Topper sailors who are over the age of 16.

The Ian Proctor Memorial Challenge Trophy is open to all past Topper sailors now sailing in any centreboard dinghy - double or single handed. This is a great chance for a reunion and catch up with old friends.

There will be class handicap racing on the Saturday followed by an evening buffet/barbeque and dancing. On Sunday there will be a pursuit race.

The entry fee is £25 for single handers and £35 for double handers and the evening meal is £10 per head. All net proceeds will go to the Island Trust, which is dedicated to getting children with learning and behavioural difficulties into sailing in order to order to offer then inspiration and help.

To see more click here and to enter the event, click here and follow the instructions.

World Championships Notice of Race 3 - Eligibility and Entry.

Any members who have either already entered or are considering entering the Topper Worlds, can you please make sure that you identify yourselves if you are hoping to sail a 4.2 in Austria. The club should be putting up a special entry form for these sailors, however ITCA ask that if you have already entered that you identify yourself now.

That is all for now, arrangements are progressing but if anyone has any queries then please contact Helen Evans at topperworld@dsl.pipex.com and she will do what she can to help. 

The more perceptive visitors to the website may have noticed a new menu recently - Image Gallery. This is a new application to host photographs from various events. There are currently four top level galleries as follows:

Area Galleries - under this there is a Gallery for each of the Areas and then folders for the various area events
National Event Galleries - with folders for various National events
Squad Training Galleries - with folders for various squad training events
World Event Galleries - with folders for various World events

The Committee and Area Representatives can create new Galleries and folders and upload images as needed. Other Members can submit images to be moderated and if suitable these will be loaded into a relevent gallery. If anyone has a lot of photos, then the webmaster can bulk load these on your behalf.

Saturday 2nd May 2009 - 275 sailors from all around the UK had entered for the Magic Marine Topper Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club and the morning was taken up with preparing their boats for action on this fine sailing water. At the 10:30am competitor briefing the Commodore, Hilary Talbot, was pleased to welcome the Topper fraternity for the 22nd time at Grafham and the Principal Race Officer, John Smalley was introduced to warm applause. John spoke of the need the know the numeral pennants which were used to indicate the number of laps/beats to be sailed, he also said that he would be whistling at sailors who were on the line between 2 and 3 minutes before the start, he hoped to avoid the blackflag. The class judge was introduced; he would be on the water to ensure fair play, to watch for rule infringements and to help the fleet to improve their knowledge of the rules. Once the briefing was over it was evident that the light 5/6mph forecast was missing and an indefinite postponement was called before the planned 12noon start, this gave the sailors some time to socialise, play football, tune their boats and  rest in readiness for the sailing. At 1:25pm the tannoy announced for crews to man the committee and rescue boats, the PRO had spotted some wisps of breeze and wanted to be ready to use them if they developed into anything decent. The regatta fleet launched first and managed to get a race started with barely enough wind to move. 
 
The main fleet launched in similar light conditions and when the wind fixed its direction and strength to an acceptable level the first set of flights managed to get a start to Race 1 at 3:25pm with the second set of flights shortly afterwards. The wind remained fickle in strength and wandered in direction through this race but Finn Lynch took the win from Felicity Foulds and Lucy Jackson in the first flight with Alexander Alcock taking the second flight from Henry Wetherell and James Wilson. The wind decided not to play ball and this was the only race that got started on day 1, the forecast for Sunday was much improved so the fleet headed for shore to a series of barbecues, plenty more socialising and the legendary Topper Auction that was taking place to raise funds for training. Topper International had donated a brand new boat, many other supporters of the Topper class also supplied valued items - the Sunday Briefing was to be at 9:15am.
 
Sunday - "a different day" was the description of Charles Glover, Topper Class Chairman in the morning briefing. He was referring to the wind that had arrived overnight in abundance, the local forecast was for 20 - 25mph and the white horses indicated that the breeze certainly was up - he continued to say that there is no shame in reefing for the smaller helms and three back to back races would be held. The previous evenings class auction raised £2,332 for training funds and the sailors were told that one member of the class had contacted Jonathan Ross on his Saturday morning radio show and chatted about the event for 8 minutes on air!!
 
The fleet launched on time with the aid of the parental support crew, many of whom were in drysuits under the supervision of the beachmaster Martin Pavey. The committee boat recorded a steady wind of 14 - 22mph with occasional stronger gusts throughout the race period and the PRO reported excellent fleet starting. Only three boats were logged OCS in all three races and no black flag was required, John mentioned that the fleet was making good use of the whistle between the 3 & 2 minutes, they would come up to the line when there was an evident sag and use the whistle as an audible aid to get a transit - this is a fleet that learns fast. The wind held steady until after the first flight had started Race 3, a short postponement was needed whilst the line angle was adjusted prior to the last start of the day. The wind remained strong enough to sort out the pack with the rescue boats being used to mop up the occasional boat that needed assistance. There were race wins for Youth Squad sailor Peter Newbery (2), Alexander Alcock, Christopher Eames, Michael Beckett and Alex Benbow. With an additional 2nd place the event was won by Peter Newbery 1 point clear of Alexander Alcock with Christopher Eames 3rd in some fascinating, close races. This is the 1st win of a major event by a Youth Squad sailor under head coach Ian Patience who was a very proud man that evening.
 
At the prize giving Charles Glover thanked the many helpers that make these events happen, he particularly thanked John Smalley for making the best of the wind that appeared, John in turn thanked the sailors for coming to the committee boat to have a chat about the way the racing was going, he remarked that this enforces the claim that the Topper Class is the friendly class. Dave Cockerill remarked after the event that the quality of the sailors in the Topper fleet has always been high but he is noticing that there is now a difference, the quality of the racing is becoming very high further down the fleet, not just at the top end - these guys are now good racers.
 
The 15 strong Regatta fleet, which is where many of the main fleet sailors cut their racing teeth, was won by Elliot Kuzyk from Luke Berry 2nd and Cathryn Brady 3rd. It has to be noted that one member of this fleet has been in a supporting role at Topper events for quite some time, she finally took to the water and had her best race when she forgot about her mobile phone that was left onshore - she worked out that texting would best done on the downwind leg - nice one Carol!!

Results: Main Fleet, Regatta Fleet

The 2009 Sailing Solutions Topper National Championships was held over the weekend of 2nd/3rd May at Grafham Water Sailing Club. Sailors from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland arrived to take place with nearly as many girl entries as boys. After a light wind race on Saturday that was won by Dan Venables from Rory Humphries and Laura Gilmore the fleet went ashore to await the following days forecast higher winds.
 
Sunday was different, this was definitely 4.2 weather as the wind blew 14 - 22 mph, the 4.2 is a great sail for the smaller helm as it lets them take part in competitive racing when the larger rig would be too powerful. The fleet headed out with smiling faces for the racing that was held on the same course as the Topper Inland Championships - the startline was made a little shorter than that needed for the main 130 boat flights. Dan had a bit of a wake up call  by coming 3rd in the first race of the day but he managed a bullet in the next race and came ashore for a little gear repair before going back out to take the win in the last race. This ensured that Dan Venables became Topper 4.2 National Champion, a strong performance by Laura Gilmore in 2nd and Joanne Foster in 3rd but it was to be a boys win for a change, girls have been successful in the last two Nationals.
 
Dan was presented with the magnificent Sailing Solutions National Championship trophy which I can vouch for weighing nearly as much as he does, he also received the rather generous prize of a new full size sail from the kind folk at Sailing Solutions.
 
Results