Home / News / Topper Nationals - Weymouth, 10-15th August 2026

Topper Nationals - Weymouth, 10-15th August 2026

Published 09:35 on 17 Aug 2026

One of our keenest young Topper sailors Arthur PJ (now aged 13!) spent a week of the school holidays down at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA) for the UK Topper National Championships. WPNSA was the sailing and windsurfing venue for the London Olympics and is now the dedicated training base for the British Sailing Team.

So besides 160+ Topper sailors from across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales competing across three separate groups; the 5.3 fleet, the 4.2 fleet and the Regatta fleet; there was quite a stream of Olympic level ILCA, 49er and IQFoil (foiling windsurfer) sailors all jostling to use the launch ramps at any given time and providing stratospheric inspiration as they zipped across the bay at up to 35 knots!

Arthur was competing in the 4.2 fleet of 45 boats. Sailors in this fleet were a bit younger and lighter (mostly aged 11 to 13 years) and used a smaller 4.2 square metre sail versus the 5.3 square metre sail on a standard Topper rig. The 105 boats in the 5.3 fleet were mostly sailed by teenagers aged 13-16 years with an even mix of boys and girls; while the 13 boats in the Regatta fleet were sailed by kids who had not done much racing previously and this was their first taster of a longer format regatta.

For parents and other volunteers, Monday began with a Hula dance as the London & Southeast region adopted a Hawaii theme to send 160+ Toppers down the launch ramp. For the sailors, Monday was a gentle introduction with 3 races back to back in 10-15 knots of wind. Tuesday and Wednesday were very windy - with 15-25 knots and 1.5m waves making for some great downwind Topper surfing. And then for Thursday and Friday, the wind dropped off to a gentle 5-10 knots. Perfect conditions in fact across the range of wind strengths over the 5 days; with all fleets sailing a full set of 15 races, enabling competitors to discard their 3 worst results. And while Teddington was melting in a 38 degree heatwave; it was a cool 25 degrees down in Weymouth.

Overall, it was another great sailing experience. We made a bunch of new friends from across the UK and Ireland and had a wonderful holiday. Other highlights included seeing the tidal race at Portland Bill, viewing the Solar Eclipse from Chesil Beach, the drive up the Dorset coast towards Lyme Regis and a birthday dinner for Arthur at Rockfish in Weymouth; all in all a really very special week.

Next year, with the Topper Nationals at Plas Heli on Cardigan Bay in North Wales we hope to bring along a few more Tammy Junior sailors with us. If you or your kids are interested in that kind of thing, then please come along to Junior Sailing when it starts up again on Saturday 5th September. We're also expecting quite a few Tammy kids wanting to join the local London & Southeast regional Topper racing circuit at nearby lake, reservoir and seaside sailing clubs that happen throughout the Autumn and into the Spring next year.If you have any questions and want to find out more then please give myself or Joe McLaughlin a shout.

Overall results for all fleets https://gbrtopper.ourclubadmin.com/event-results.php?event=1631
TracTrac live racing https://www.tractrac.com/event-page/event_20260809_ITCAUKNobl/3477
More photos from Weymouth https://www.flickr.com/photos/196237233@N07/albums
L&SE region Topper Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/TopperSE

Race report Matt PJ