The Pico Dinghy

The Laser Pico dinghy is a small sailboat designed by Jo Richards in the mid-1990s and used primarily for training and day sailing. It can be crewed by one or two children or an adult. Current models come equipped with both a mainsail and a jib. The hull is of thermoplastic sandwich construction, providing strength, stiffness, and built-in buoyancy. The cockpit is self-draining. The boat comes equipped with an aluminum two-piece mast, an aluminum boom, a daggerboard, and a lifting rudder. For the more racy type, the pico can have a battened race sail attached instead of the cruising main. This sail is made of mylar and is much tougher and more powerful than its cruising counterpart. Laser has sold over 10,000 of these boats.

The Topper Dinghy

The Topper was designed by Ian Proctor in 1977. The Topper was originally designed to be built out of glass reinforced plastic. Sales of this early version of the Topper were not numerous. In the early 1980s the boat was re-engineered to be made of injection moulded polypropylene and sales soared. The polypropylene hull was much more damage resistant than the original glass fibre hulls and proved immensely popular in sailing schools in the UK. The Topper rigged construction and low maintenance costs made the boat popular with sailing schools. At one point in the boats lifetime the Topper was the largest injection moulded mass production plastic component in the world. At 11' the Topper is designed to be car toppable and the mast splits into two sections, allowing the spars to be stored and transported.

Optimist Dinghy

The Optimist was designed in 1947 by Clark Mills. The design was slightly modified and introduced to Europe by the Dane, Axel Damsgaard, and spread outwards across Europe from Scandinavia. The design was standardized in 1960 and became a strict one-design in 1995.

The International Optimist is sailed in over 100 countries by over 160,000 skippers and it is the ONLY Dinghy approved by the International Sailing Federation exclusively for sailors under 16. Quite simply, it's the dinghy in which the world learns to sail. It's worth noting that at the Beijing Olympics, 85% of medal winning skippers were former Optimist dinghy sailors. The International Optimist is the ideal introduction to sailing. It enables sailors to easily and quickly gain confidence on the water, whilst developing the essential sailing skills and techniques for the future. The Optimist is safe, unsinkable, easy & fun to sail, and readily transportable on car roof racks. The Optimist is a true International One Design class, with identical boats made of a durable GRP Hull, which means minimal maintenance, and may be purchased complete with sail and "dolly", a small trailor made specifically for the Optimist. The Optimist is the perfect sailing package for sailors under 16!