Courtown Sailing Club

We chose the Topaz for a number of reasons. We felt it was relatively tough – a single piece of plastic, had good quality robust but simple component set-up, easy to rig and sail, had enough sail area for adults, easy to get back into after capsize (open transom), less abrasive to wet suits than some other plastic boats, and was available in large numbers secondhand in the UK.
While the Topaz can be changed around with different rigs, we were careful to promote just the Topaz Uno Plus as the one-design (two-piece mast, no spreaders, main and jib). If the rig needs to be changed in the future to accommodate a spinnaker, then that can be done in due course. We had interest from six people and sourced boats in the UK for about €2500. The word spread and before we knew it we had 23 potential owners looking for boats! We brought in a container-load and started sailing.

We subsequently sourced more boats in the UK and club members bought new boats over the last two years. We now have approximately 40 Topaz Uno Plus’s in the club, a sizeable one-design class in a relatively small club. We have moved from about 15 boats out racing at the weekend to a regular fleet of 30-40 or more, every week from May to September. We have found them to be very tough with very few breakages of any kind. The fleet has introduced many people to sailing, juniors and adults alike. They are relatively easy to sail and quickly promote confidence in the sailor. They are also relatively easy to rig and are tough enough to transport on less than the perfect trailer. They have enough sail area for adults and have a boom that is high enough to get under! We have found them very suitable for team racing – tough, and easy for those visitors who haven’t sailed them before. Some of our sailors have moved on to other higher performance classes, and are doing quite well, having learned to sail in a Topaz. Boats have changed hands in the club in the past year and have held their value well.

Courtown Sailing Club