Astbury
Photography

Omega dinghy

2006 was the year when we finally made a decision to get our first boat. It is Topaz Omega, sail number 3281, made by Topper and purchased second hand from Bosun's Locker, having been a demo and display boat. It was constructed in 2005, is 4.7m in length, hull weight of 140kg, can take a maximum crew of 5 and has an asymmetric bermudan rig. It is the sport model so has trapeze and has the option of a gennaker, giving a total sail area of 27 m².

What's unusual about the Omega

• Launched at The London Boat Show 2004, the Topaz Omega is the largest ever trilam thermoplastic sailboat.
• It features a gnav.

Racing an Omega

If racing is your primary interest then it is likely you will find more suitable boats than the Omega. However if you want to dable with a little novice racing then there should be no problem, in fact it can be surprisingly fast. There is currently no class association for the Omega. On the Portsmouth Yardstick scheme there is no published Primary Yardstick but a typical handicap value used is 1075.

Modifications

• A small racing burgee was attached to the top of the mast, this lasted about 3 months but must have been taken by strong wind, the pole was still attached but no flag so we will need to think about a replacement.
  
• Sail numbers are required if you intend to do any racing. These can be purchased direct from Topper and come in a set of 10. These are what are known as ST9 characters, essentially each one is the digit 8 which you then cut to make the digits you require, in the same way that digits are displayed on an LED clock etc. The ones from Topper are sized at a height of 255mm, width 170 and thickness 40mm. They are an adhesive backed fabric which you stick to the main sail. They should be positioned so that each digit is about 45mm apart, with the number repeated on each side of the sail, the uppermost number on the starboard side and the lower number on the port side.
  
  
• We intend to add a compass as we have now had the experience of fog coming in fast and enveloping the boat completely, such that no landmark is visible, leaving us to take an approximate direction based on wind direction only.
  

Click on the thumbnails to view the following photos (JPEG):

Our first season

Some related links

• Topper Topaz Omega.
• Port Edgar Yacht Club.
• Bosun's Locker Topper page.
• Selden, who provide the mast, boom and gnav for the Omega.
• Ronstan, who provide many of the blocks and cleats for the Omega.

Go back to more photographs

Copyright © 2008 Duncan Astbury, all rights reserved.