Topaz sailboats: one British builder's range across two hull types
Topaz is not an independent boatbuilder — it is the sailboat range built by Topper International Ltd, the British dinghy manufacturer that trades as Topper Sailboats. The range does something unusual for a single marque: it spans two genuinely different hull types under one name, from monohull dinghies to beach catamarans built for twin-trapeze speed.
Origins and ownership
Topper International's better-known product is the Topper itself, the single-handed one-design dinghy designed by Ian Proctor — whose other work includes the Wayfarer — and launched in 1976; roughly 50,000 have been built from a single mould. The Topper is a sibling product from the same builder, not a Topaz.
In January 2016, Topper International announced that East Coast Sailboats, Inc. and its owner, Hardy Peters, would become the exclusive US distributor of Topaz Sailboats. East Coast Sailboats, based on North Carolina's Outer Banks, took on US sales and distribution for the brand alongside its own sailing school for youth and adults. Topper's sales director, Rick Reading, described the announcement as handing the Topaz and Topper distributorship to a dedicated operator, and the company committed to supporting East Coast Sailboats' efforts to grow the brand in the US market.
The designers
Design credit for Topaz has a tangled catalog history worth untangling directly: records elsewhere have combined "Ian Howlett and Rob White" into a single joint credit. No source shows the two men designing together, and the evidence splits cleanly along hull type instead.
The monohull dinghies are Howlett's work. The Classic and Vintage Racing Dinghy Association's designer archive lists the Topaz among the dinghies designed, built, or otherwise connected with Ian Howlett for Topper Sailboats, and does not mention Rob White. Howlett's dinghies for the company drew on Australian skiff practice — the multiple trapezes, wings and racks, and gennakers that style brought with it — and he often worked with a design partner, John Craig.
The catamarans are a separate design lineage, credited to Rob White and Yves Loday. Reviewing the Topaz 14 CX for its Best Boats 2012 awards, SAIL Magazine credited the boat to White and Loday — "top European multihull sailors" — with no mention of Howlett. The split runs cleanly: Howlett, working with Craig, designed the dinghies; White and Loday designed the catamarans.
Construction through the eras
Topaz hulls are built in TRILAM, a three-layer rota-moulded sandwich that Topper Sailboats markets as unmatched among rota-moulded sailboats for strength, rigidity and durability. The company describes the layup as a lightweight, extra-strength honeycomb core wrapped in Metalicene outer and inner skins, adding toughness without adding hull weight, and states that the construction tests 41 percent stiffer and 25 percent tougher than standard polyethylene. Topper also states that its boats, Topaz included, are fully UV stabilised.
The technique has a longer history than the marketing copy suggests: in 2023, Topper International switched its original Topper dinghy from injection moulding to the rota-moulding process already used across the Topaz range — confirming that Topaz's rota-moulded construction was established well before that changeover.
Lines and generations
The range's two lines follow its two design lineages: monohull dinghies from Howlett and Craig, and beach catamarans from White and Loday. The catamaran line's best-documented entry is the Topaz 14 CX, the SAIL Magazine Best Boats 2012 selection built with a choice of rigs.
Who Topaz is for
Topaz really covers two audiences under one name. The dinghy line carries Howlett's skiff-influenced design language — multiple trapezes, wings or racks, and gennakers — features aimed at performance-minded single- and multi-handed sailors rather than simple daysailing. The catamaran line, credited to White and Loday, is built for the faster end of beach-cat sailing; the 14 CX's range of rigs, spanning a beginner-friendly singlehander to a full twin-trapeze racing setup, shows how much room that line leaves within a single hull.
