Gill Sailing Cap

Advantages: Vertually indistructable
Disadvantages: Hard to have more than one person on board unless you like getting wet

...The Topper is an excellent youth boat. It is the perfect progression towards sailing larger single handed dingys when you get older. It is now even better than when I sailed it. You can now modify it to have a centre main sheet which again aids the transfer to more powerful boats in the future. It is great for people new to the sport and can take the battering of children or the not so in control sailors. I for one have had 12 people on it at once and have ramed it into a few jetties without any damage. It is great for practicing capsize skills as it is fairly light to bring up and as I have said it can take the strains. It is both a performance boat for racing and also a brillient boat for fun. They are also readily avaliable second hand and new and there is no worry of not being able to get any replacement parts... Read review

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Advantages: Sturdy for learning in, can be fun
Disadvantages: Very little room to duck under the boom

...Overview: Urgh!!!!!! I have awful memories of these little boats. They put me off sailing for life! I will admit, they are very easy to explain to new sailers how to handle them, and there isn't that much which can go wrong with them. Also they are great because they are only a single person boat, hence you can go out on your own. How I can across these boats: When I was at secondary school I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to go to Tower Wood, based on Lake Windamere. Tower Wood itself was great. It is a residential establishment which caters for school groups often. On my trip there were a few people from different schools so I made quite a few new friends. During the days we learnt to sail, and at nights we did some orienteering, and played games etc Well, on our first day of sailing we were introduced... Read review

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Advantages: fast, fun, maneuverable
Disadvantages: Some people have difficulty putting up the sail/mast on their own.

...A topper comes a close second, and I like sailing pretty much anything so long as I can sail it single handed...course when I'm teaching I'll use something like a Bosun but they're just so cumbersome and you really have to try hard to get them over for capsize drills, or just to scare your sailing students into listening to you ::Grins evilly:: No give me a nice small boat that's easy enough to handle and I'll be happy for ages, whether I'm sailing off or onshore if I can get up a good speed and not have to rely on anyone else, preferably with no foolish people who crash into your boat whilst you are in the middle of a jibe...and being out on the water is bliss. The trusty Laser, can be a bit of a handful if you're as light as me and the wind gets up but then I learnt how to dry capsize years ago so I'm not really too bothered. I... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful