As in previous years, we are planning to offer coaching support at the 2013 Topper World Championships in Loctudy, France. If you are NOT in the RYA National or Intermeduate Squads and are interested in coaching support at the Worlds please email sally©thebuddens.com expressing an interest.

Support will include:
Vital Pre-Event information on the venue etc from the Head Coach;
One day Pre-Event coaching in Loctudy - probably Saturday 20th July;
Daily pre-race and post-race briefings;
On the water support every day.

Once we have an indication of numbers we can work out the costing and book coaches.

Please email your interest by 31st May. 

Hoodies are now available to order for the Sailing Solutions Topper 4.2 National Championships that are being held at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club on 15/16 June 2013. If you would like one please can you get your order in by Friday 7th June so that the Hoodies can be printed in time for the event. You can order yours by clicking on this link:

Order Topper 4.2 National Championships Hoodie

The International Topper Class Association are seeking an International Secretary to help promote and communicate the Topper vision, develop, encourage and support its international community whilst providing the international administrative lead and support.  Please see the ITCA World website -http://www.itcaworld.org/vacancies

There are some great photos from February's Virtual Rigger Winter Regatta on the Virtual Rigger Facebook page here:

Virtual Rigger Facebook Page 

Have you thought about what you might be sailing next year? If you're considering moving on from Toppers, why not try a 29er? The 29er family offers a range of routes and a wealth of opportunities:

• Join their Facebook page (29er UK), talk to real sailors, find out answers to your questions , make new friends
• They can put you in touch with your nearest 29er hub, anywhere in the country
• They offer Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced training – and routes into the RYA 29er Youth Squads
• They can arrange for you to try out a demonstration boat
• There is always help on hand
• Superb exciting racing with big start lines 

To find out more see the links on our Youth Transition page or contact Angie Alloway at the 29er Class Association ([email protected]).

The RYA has now published the final version of the Topper Squads Notice of Selection for 2013-14. These tell you who is eligible for selection, and what events are used as indicators for the squad selection team. Whether you are just starting out in a Topper or are already in one of the Zone or National squads, it's worth having a look and noting down the dates of key events in your diaries. Click on the Race Coaching and Squads menu item for more details.

For selection to the 2013/14 and later squads the intension is that only the current Topper sail (blue,red and white) will be permissible as an entry requirement and that sailors will undertake to use this sail in training and events. The reason for this is to provide better coaching and racing in what is a one design class. The older Hyde sails (three fingered clew) which have been out of production for a number of years require very different sail settings and provide for inconsistent coaching across the squad. 

A total of 150 boats attended the Winter Regatta at Weymouth over the weekend of  9^th/10^th February making a great start to the 2013 Topper season.  On arrival, early on Saturday morning  we did not know what to expect with the wind as there were different forecasts, although we knew we were going to have to get well kitted up.It was really great to see so many friends again and race against them because I had not seen many of them for since well before Christmas.

We eventually launched after a short postponement, it was quite windy and I was looking forward to a breezy and exciting day.  Three very good races were held on the Saturday and a further 4^th race held on Sunday, after which the Race Officer took the sensible decision of abandoning sailing due to some squally weather coming through which  did make it quite exciting sailing back in. Congratulations go to Crispin Beaumont for winning the Winter Regatta overall and for everyone who came and made it a great event.  Also many thanks to the Race Officer, safety boat crews and everyone else who worked hard and made the Winter Regatta such a great weekend.  I would definitely recommend that as many people as possible try to attend the next one at Datchet Water in April.  

Thomas Wallwork (Topper 47303, Championship No. 396)

Each year the four GBR nations of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, come together to fight for the Home Nations Trophy. This comprises teams of Lasers and Toppers from each nation competing against each other over a weekend.

This year the event took place over the weekend of 2-3 February. It was the turn of Scotland to act as hosts, with the teams competing at Largs Sailing Club, Ayrshire, which is the same venue as the upcoming Youth National Championship (held at Easter). 

After an exciting weekend's racing in challenging conditions, England finished as overall winners, followed by Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. You can read a full race report here:

Home Nations Trophy 2013 - Race Report

Well done to all who took part, and particularly to the winning Topper team of Callum Escritt, Chloe Barr, Harriet Ward, Joseph Mullan, Rhiannon Flack, and William Birch-Tomlinson. 

The International Topper Class is pleased to announce that we have launched our new web site.  Still the same address, but a new look and feel. The new website contains all the details for the 2013 Topper World Championships, with information about the venue, offers on ferry bookings, etc, as well as some great video links and background as to how the Topper has journeyed from it's beginnings to a top class racing dinghy.

Just in case you have forgotten the address, you can find it here:

www.itcaworld.org 

Membership subscriptions for 2013 are now due for renewal. Our Membership Fees for 2013 are:

Individual and Family Members are people who own or sail Toppers, and Family Members are all normally resident at the same address; Associate and Overseas Members are members who don't sail in ITCA (GBR) restricted events; and Group Members are organisations such as sailing clubs.

Our fees for 2013 represent a small increase on last year's fees. We are almost entirely run by volunteers who have worked hard to keep the increase to a minimum. We hope you will agree that our Topper Class Association continues to provide excellent value via our racing and training events, our Topper Times magazine, our area organisations, and our representation of our members' interests at national and international levels. 

We do hope you have enjoyed your membership for the last year, and that you will renew for the year ahead. If you have any suggestions as to how we can improve what we do please feel free to contact your Area Representative or email me via the class secretary (secretary at gbrtopper.co.uk) at any time. 

We will be sending emails to all members over the next few days explaining how you can renew your membership for 2013.

Tom Dixon, Chairman. 

AFerryGroups are offering a 5% discount for competitors traveling to this years Worlds in Loctudy. Decide when you want to travel and where from and also check what you expect to pay (as there might be some other deals out there). Then if you are interested contact them on 0844 576 8845 and quote reference 'ITCA 2013'.
The discounts have been primarily set-up for Brittany Ferries but they can also offer the same discount on other operators.

Terms and conditions

Bookings are subject to the terms and conditions of the operators regarding the dimensions and type of vehicle/trailer travelling. AFerryGroups will obviously advise the association member accordingly at the time of booking and assist with the appropriate advise if any issues arise.

When the association member calls and quotes the agreed reference, they will process payment for the booking via debit or credit card (2% fee for credit card payments) and send the booking and payment confirmation to the member via email. Members will then be able to quote their booking reference at the port where their tickets are issued for them. All the relevant contact details for amendments will be on the confirmation.

Our 2013 Annual General Meeting will be held at Grafham Water Sailing Club on Saturday 4th May. The meeting will start after sailing has finished in the Crewsaver 5.3 5.3 Inland Championships and the Sailing Solutions 4.2 National Series 3. An Agenda will be published in due course.

Topper Times is looking for some good photographs of the Olympic or Paralympic Sailing. If you have taken any, please can you forward them to the Topper Times editor (tteditor at gbrtopper.co.uk)?

Also, we are looking to update the photos that we use on the news items of our website. If anyone has any good photos from any of this year's major events that they don't mind being displayed against our news items from time to time please can you send them to webmaster at gbrtopper.co.uk (ideally less than 500kb for the website).

Thanks.