International Topper World Championships 2026 at St Pierre Quiberon, France - Overall
by John Heyes 3 Aug 04:39 PDT
27-31 July 2026
Thursday's planned start at 12.00 noon had to be delayed until the wind built over the bay and became stable, reaching 8-9 knots on the race course at 14.00, allowing the PRO Olivier de Turkheim to set his course around a 275° axis.
As ever, the Topper 4.2 championship fleet were first to start Race 7 on their slightly shorter course. A popular moment in the Topper Worlds daily briefing,after the awards of generous spot prizes, is the issue of the three leading podium position bibs. Design to both reward a sailor's performance and also gradually introduce them to the pressures of leading the fleet. Wearing the red bib must have inspired overnight bronze medal position Isabelle Simpson, (GBR 038) who led the fleet to mark 1, ahead of the yellow (gold) bib of Freddie Smallwood (GBR 588)
On the second upwind of the trapezoid course, the fleet split, with the sailors that took the port side leading,with Martha Shorter (GBR 639) and James Murphy (GBR 090) closely overlapped, Murphy just getting the inside berth to round first, with Shorter second, Sam Taylor (GBR 654) in 3rd while Freddie Smallwood was hanging on, in 4th.
Smallwood attacked on the final run, finding enough pressure on the left to lift him into first, ahead of Rui Liu (CHN 821) and Sam Taylor in third.
In Race 8 of the 4.2 Championship, Freddie Smallwood set up to win the pin, but was squeezed out and forced to gybe around and start seconds late. The fact that he went on to win the race is proof of his form this week, but he was pushed hard by Sam Taylor, who banked a second to his overall score.
By the time the 5.3 Gold fleet started Race 5 after a general recall the wind had built to 9 knots. Under a Black flag, Hari Clark again deployed his signature pin end start, whilst others at the Committee boat tacked immediately, to work the opposite side of the course. The left was side clearly favoured as Hari Clark rounded first, and went on to record his fifth successive bullet - a powerful performance in any fleet. Amy Whyte (IRL 729) pulled off a gutsy port tack mark rounding, just in front of Phileas Rousselle (GBR 619) to round ahead.
A close battle ensued on the long reach across to Mark 2, between Rousselle and Joe Hulse. Hari Clark used his superior off-wind speed to carve out a 30m lead from Hulse and Rousselle, the latter then fell victim to the Black Flag. These two had a real battle, using every ounce of effort fighting for second spot, as the wind strengthened.
At the start of race 6 the afternoon breeze was up to a tasty 12 knots. By now most of both the 4.2 and 5.3 fleets had picked up that the left side of the beat was paying dividends, resulting in the majority trying to start near the pin. Several casualties were blocked or forced out early and had to gybe round the pin to start. In the 5.3 Gold fleet, Hari Clark was not seen to make his usual clear lane start and rounded deep at mark 1, but used his off-wind pace to recover to 7th at the finish, the first time in the finals series he had not won.
On the Friday's final day of racing, the Toppers were sent afloat for a 12.00 start, but the westerly breeze failed to build as forecast until 14.00, when it stabilised enough to lay a course to a wind at 265°.
In the 5.3 gold fleet, it was all about who was going to claim the silver and bronze podium positions, as Hari Clark had an unassailable lead, but Aurele Dion, (FRA 346), Leo West-Hurst, (IRL 473) and Jo Hulse, (GBR 181) were close on points and had everything to play for.
First around the windward mark was Harry Durrant (GBR 333), who opened up a 5m lead across the top reach, ahead of Leo Bolton (GBR 197) and Alex Murray (GBR 526) plus Amy Whyte, (IRL 729) who passed Murray on exiting the mark.
The wind soon built to 12 knots, allowing some of the bigger and more powerful sailors to show their form. All eyes were on where Hari Clark was, but after a difficult first beat he recovered on the top reach to 10th, and finally finished 5th, to prove he could cope with the strong winds as well as the beefier crews. Harry Durrant was clearing enjoying the fresher breeze, held his lead to the finish to record his beat result of the week, as did Leo Bolton in second.
In the battle for the podium places, Jo Hulse held it together to score an 8th that propelled him into Silver, whilst Leo West-Hurst and Aurele Dion both took their discards. Ultimately, it was a 15th in Race 6 that cost the dual nationality IRL/FRA Aurele Dion the bronze medal, as Leo West-Hurst claimed it for Ireland by a four point margin.
In the 5.3 Silver Fleet, Leander Koutsoudis-Bhuller held his nerve scoring a 12th to secure a 6 point margin over silver medallist Jiazhi Yu (CHN 837), and Tom Moriarty (GBR 315).
Sayon Bonnici, (MLT 801) was delighted to take the final silver fleet race win, proving a great progression over recent Topper Worlds results, finishing in 8th overall.
Bobby Sheridan (IRL 477) dominated the bronze fleet, with a string of four bullets, 10 points clear of Euan Pickard (GBR 666) in silver and Whisper of the Wind SC's Yuze Li (CHN 871) taking the bronze.
For the 42 boats contesting the International Topper 4.2 Championship, the 10 races completed constituted the championships, with 2 discards. Overall winner Freddie Smallwood was grateful for the two discards, using both to drop heavy 30's scores to post an otherwise highly impressive series of 5,2,2,1,6,1,1,2, to take the World Championship by a huge 21 point margin. The battle for silver was a lot closer, with Jake Day's (GBR 355) 8th in the final race enough to hold off a strong challenge from Isabelle Simpson, (GBR 038), whose 7 top ten results were not quite sufficient to cut the 4 point margin between her and Jake Day.
The PRO Olivier de Turkheim wisely decided there was not enough time to fit in an additional race, so the fleets were sent ashore to honour the winners and enjoy an impressive prize-giving ceremony, with plenty of great trophies and prizes from Rooster Sailing, Ronstan and Optimum Time awarded deep down the results sheet. A new innovation for the 2026 Worlds was the gift of an impressive finisher's medal for every sailor as they came ashore, supplied by Haven Knox-Johnston, that was very well received and valued by all competitors as a great souvenir of a highly successful Topper Worlds in St Pierre Quiberon.
At the end of the final ceremony, ITCA World Commodore Bill Brassington invited everyone to enter for the Topper European Championships, hosted by Weymouth & Portland Sailing Academy, from 27-29 October and announced the International Topper World Championships 2027 to be held at Plas Heli, North Wales from the 31st July to the 6th August.
Overall Results: