Topcat sailing professional#

'New sailors traditionally start with the optimist, dingy or the topper and as they improve they want something faster - something like the Topcat which is more a more challenging and exciting boat to race. But they began to encourage competition and raised the level of Topcat sailing, which was good for the sport,' he explains.

Topcat sailing professional#

'Initially there was a fear that too many professional sailors were taking to Topcat sailing, because the boat was faster than a hobie cat or a tornado.

But the boat we created was very good and became very popular even with professional sailors who had been sailing tornadoes, hobie cats or optimists. 'The primary idea was to create a family boat, one that can be assembled easily and carried on the roof of a car. 'It's nice to sell more boats,' said Breymann. Today there are over 15,000 Topcats being raced around the world. Topcat sales escalated around Europe, in parts of America and the Far East. Two years later the International Topcat Class Association (ITCA) was born and the first official European Championships took place. 'So its no commercialism, no Olympics, for the time being.' Breymann, together with boat builder Klaus Enzmann, founded Topcat sailing back in 1977 with a vision of creating the ideal regatta catamaran.Д«y 1981 they found themselves sailing together in the German Topcat Class Association. Too much development will mean too much money and that can be bad. We are quite happy to stay in the second row.

Should it outgrow its popularity then obviously problems will creep in. 'On a small scale it can be controlled and managed better. A leisure sport that is fun but at the same time competitive,' he says. 'Topcat sailing was always intended to be a family sport business. In response to the obvious question: 'Any plans on it becoming an Olympic sport?' Breymann replies with a firm no. There's a big danger of it losing it's appeal.' 'We would not like it to get too commercialised. 'We want to keep it small,' he said during th1e second Topcat World Championships in Dubai. And it's growing fast as well В– something which does not appeal to it's founder German Bernd Breymann. But the impact Topcat sailing has made over the past couple of years suggests that watersport has unearthed a novelty item that has tremendous potential. Making a mark in world sport is probably the roughest and toughest part.