Change of Boat for Endeavour Trophy 2014 29 Oct 2014

The big news for this year’s Championship, held over the weekend 1st and 2nd November, is a change of boat – from the Topper Xenon which has been used for the last eight years, to the Topper Argo, both Rob White designs.

Topper will supply twenty new boats for the event and like the Xenon, the Argo has no class championship, which means there is no class national champion to gain an unfair advantage.

Given the diverse entry of the Topper Endeavour Trophy Championship, which includes singlehanded, doublehanded, heavy and lightweight crews from a range of different dinghy classes, finding a suitable strict one-design to ensure the racing is as fair as possible, is always a challenge for the event organisers. Rob White comments, “The Argo is lighter, stiffer, has slightly less sail area, and is generally more stable, which is exactly what is needed for an event like the Topper Endeavour Trophy.”

Simon Potts, former Endeavour Champion crew, added: “This boat will provide level, competitive sailing, and should be extremely reliable, which is important for this event. The fact that this new design is 40kg lighter than the Xenon, should make a difference and give some of the lighter crews a bit more a chance in the windier conditions.”

To date we have 20 entries. Nick Craig, last year’s champion is unavailable, but there are many who will welcome the opportunity to win this year’s title. We look forward to a visiting past Otter, Caroline Edwards, who crews Paul Kameen representing the Firefly Class and we have younger members representing the Cadet, Mirror, 29er and RS Feva Class. This year Toby Lewis will crew for Matt Burge, representing the Osprey Class.

This is always a spectacular event, if you are in the vicinity come down and watch the launching – better still, if you can get on the river, come and watch some of the racing!