Sailing Boats

Advantages: fun, fast, great in light winds, well designed
Disadvantages: light, can be expensive, manoevrability with outboard

...have never looked back! Our Beneteau First 211 was just over a year old when we bought her. She was fitted out with many accessories e.g. spinnaker and pole, teak rails, yacht club upholstery. She is a beautiful boat with a spacious cockpit, well designed cabin (4 berths (1 double, 2 singles), small sink (no running water), small gas cylinder stove, cabin toilet under double bunk). Mainsail and furling genoa, tiller rather than wheel. She has an ...
...badly in that it was too low on the bracket and therefore was very difficult to use to manoeuvre and also got swamped very quickly. The outboard is now higher on the bracket and much easier to use. As the boat is very light (only approx 1 tonne), she gets blown around quite a bit and can be very difficult to manoeuvre on the outboard in strong winds, especially at low revs. Takes a bit of practice but we are now much more confident. Sailing wise, ... Read review

Advantages: speed and grace
Disadvantages: cost

...as the hulls of my Hobie 16 sliced through the clear blue sea leaving perfectly cut water closing in behind them. This is catamaran sailing. Exhilarating, fast and furious. Another small wave, adjust the tiller round up slightly, lean back and up we go, yes clear airtime again and crash we come back down, the lee hull submerges but pulls out in a flash and we carry on as before. As we come into the surf close to shore we ride down the wave front, ...
...sun and sailing a free Hobie 16 was daily entertainment. These catamarans are built for the surf. They are a two-man, twin-trapeze speed machine, capable of about 25 knots in ideal conditions. Designed in the sixties by a surfer, Hobie, they are simple to rig, and having a characteristic banana shaped hull they have no centre board. The rudders have a patented kick up mechanism that is robust and simple, the idea of these design characteristics ... Read review

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 help. Unlike on the Topper where my Dad has spent many days cramed under the kicker. Children can also go out together which can boost in some cases confidence. On the Topper you usually end up with one person on the nose of the boat, which can have some comical consequences of the boat nose diving as we call it, where it gets pushed under water. This in itself became a reason to want to go out on the Topper. My brother and I have managed to ... Read review

Advantages: easy way to get out on the water, 2nd hand can be picked up cheaply
Disadvantages: not really a performance boat

...up a cheap second hand topper (approx £450). The boat requires little to no maintainence and is ready to sail whenever I am nearby and the wind is blowing (hopefully not too much). It has a plastic (technical term!!) hull and deck and one sail. The boat is easily transported on top of a car and can be easily stored down the side of a house. It really is a very adaptable boat. The title calls it a junior boat--this is a little misleading as it is ...
...onto more performance boats, the topper does have its own great racing circuit for juniors. The fact that the boat is used by so many sailing schools and holiday venues really does show how versatile and useful these little boats are. Other boats have come along in recent years as competitiors to the topper and maybe for some people they are more appropriate, realistically though I can't see the topper being beaten for value for money (certainly ... Read review

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

...to attach these to the topper under instruction, and then we were given a short demonstration of how to use them, by an instructor on land. Then we had to go and practice the things which we had just been shown in our pairs before taking to the water. We were mainly practicing ducking under the boom without getting tangled up in the raopes that were attached to the sails. My experience of these boats: If you already know anything about topper you ...
...the day. For potential Topper users/buyers: If you are interested in sailing toppers but haven't done that much sailing, or any at all I would highly recommend trying it at some where like Tower Wood. I read one of the other reviews before writing mine, and saw just how expensive Toppers are. Also you will need, or at least I would highly recommend some sort of life jacket or bouyancy aid, and suitable clothing ie Wet suit (or as I myself wold ... Read review