Sailing club member performing mast maintenance

Why join us?

At Tops’l, we do things differently. We’re not just a sailing club – we’re a supportive, welcoming community where you can build confidence and learn from others. And you can enjoy great sailing without the stress or cost of boat ownership.

Whatever level of sailing experience you have, you will find people ready to offer guidance and crew alongside you. There’s a strong spirit of sharing skills and experience, and the friendships that grow from that are a big part of what makes the club special.

As a member, you will have access to well-maintained yachts, flexible sailing opportunities, and a sociable group of like-minded people. Most of all, you will feel part of something special.

But don’t just take our word for it – read what new members have to say in their own words.

Read James's story

Fitting more sailing into real life
Like many, my introduction to sailing was in a Mirror dinghy aged 8, first exploring Lymington Harbour with my uncle and later sailing in Bristol Docks as a Sea Scout. There followed many years of racing dinghies, with limited success, and then a bit of a break during the early years of university, working, and starting a family.
A mid-life crisis saw me buying my own small yacht and sailing around the Solent for three years, until my wife realised that she could stay at Claridge’s for the same cost of an overnight stay in Beaulieu!
Having passed our Day Skippers saw us chartering in the Med one week per year, and I returned to racing dinghies throughout the year – still with limited success.
Sailing once per year was plenty for my family, but I was keen to increase my experience and sail more. So, I did the theory and practical for Coastal Skipper late in 2024 before discovering Tops’l in a Google search at the start of 2025.
So far, I’ve spent a weekend on Carina learning how to handle her around Port Solent and Portsmouth Harbour, and I’m booked in for a week on Jocalia in June and a cross-channel trip in July, once again on Carina.
Being a member of Tops’l is ideal for me. I get to sail more on well-maintained yachts, learn from more experienced sailors, and make new friends!
James Collett
Read Jonathan's story

Why I wish I’d found Tops’l sooner
I sailed dinghies when I was a kid and loved it, starting with a Mirror dinghy and moving on to a Laser with a junior rig for me and the full rig for my dad. But I drifted away from sailing when university called, and then work.
Then a guy at work asked if I wanted to join him and his dad on a classic wooden sailing yacht out of Ipswich for the weekend – and I remembered just how much I enjoyed it.
Soon after, I signed up to do my Day Skipper, and then followed years of sailing flotillas and charters in the Med, particularly Greece and Turkey. That makes for a very enjoyable holiday, and it’s all good experience, but it’s not the most challenging sailing.
Tidal sailing in the UK would be more interesting – but as well as being expensive, I’d always found dealing with UK charter companies a slight hassle, so we’d never done much here. Owning a boat didn’t hold much appeal, for both the work needed on it and the expense, particularly not living particularly close to the sea. I got as far as enquiring about a 1/6th yacht fraction, but the guy re-thought about selling it when Covid hit.
Then one day while idly browsing Facebook sailing groups, I saw a post about Tops’l – something I hadn’t even known existed to be able to search for it. It sounded perfect – even too good to be true – a flexible amount of sailing at significantly lower cost than wrestling with charter companies.
I signed up for a trial sail, thought about it over the winter, and signed up at the start of the next sailing season. It’s been a great fit. My partner sails, but less so than me, and it means she can come along when she wants (in the summer months!), but equally I can sail over weekends with like-minded sailors.
The first summer cruise in the Channel Islands was particularly delightful, and I’ve been able to take friends out for weekends – on a boat I can get familiar with, rather than having to learn a new boat each charter. This year, I’m doing a cross-channel weekend, and hope to work up to skippering across Channel in future, with the benefit of that experience and of the many helpful mentors in the club.
If I had known the club existed, I would have joined years ago. I think a lot of people get stuck after doing Day Skipper, wanting to get more experience, but unless you happen to know other people that sail already, it can be tricky to find the right opportunities.
Jonathan Nightingale
Read Marcus's story
My sailing journey
I had done a bit of sailing when I was younger – a few outings in a Lymington Scow and some windsurfing – and really enjoyed it, although at the time, football and girls were my main priorities.
Fast-forward to 2020-21. Whilst engaging in some life planning – as part of qualifying to include in my financial planning business – I identified a deep love for the sea. Being in, on or around water brought me great peace and deep joy, and I knew that one day I would live by the sea.
At that point, it was just a quiet acknowledgment, along with a growing desire for adventure.
Rather miraculously, a few weeks later, some friends emigrated to Canada and generously gave us their son’s small Q’ba dinghy. We had a beach hut near Lee-on-the-Solent and joined Seafarers Sailing Club, just a short walk away. My wife and I took the RYA Level 2 dinghy sailing course, and were on our way.
The Q’ba was fun, but my appetite for adventure was growing. In 2023, my wife, son, and I booked on to a Competent Crew yacht course – and that felt much more like the kind of sailing I was craving.
Later that year, I sold my Harley Davidson, and within a week or two, my wife spotted a 1970s Wayfarer for sale at the club. She was in stunning condition and perfect for longer trips. It was an easy decision to buy and start enjoying this great boat.
In 2024, with my wife’s full support, I took the RYA Day Skipper theory and practical courses and passed both. Using what I’d learned about tides, we started venturing further afield – including day sails to Yarmouth and Bembridge – and earned our club’s Cruising Trophy (which sounds more glamorous than it probably is!).
Although I had my qualifications, I knew that I needed more practice time on the water to develop my knowledge and confidence; I wasn’t yet ready to take a boat out confidently on my own. A seed was also growing in me that a grand adventure would be to cross the Channel in a yacht.
Owning a yacht was not what I wanted, nor could afford. Numerous Google searches ensued, delivering charter opportunities and boat club memberships – none of which seemed to really fulfil what I was after. They all involved a level of cost and commitment that didn’t feel right.
Then I thought more about what it was that I really wanted and needed, which included:
Low-cost, flexible access to a yacht
The ability to head out last-minute to take advantage of good weather (we live just 40 minutes from the coast)
A mentor-style setup, where someone could help me become more confident and proficient – and ideally let me know when I was truly ready
Then, what felt like the very next search, I came across Tops’l. Tops’l had not seemed to come up before and I, again, felt blessed by some sort of universal intention guiding me.
As soon as I read through the rules, something clicked. My over-riding feeling was that this was unique, extremely well thought-out, and very fair to both club and members.
I started enquiring in late 2024 and joined in February 2025. I was advised to stick to one boat initially, and Elfida felt like a natural fit – she was most similar to the Bavarias I’d trained on.
Since then, I’ve had about 12 days on Elfida in a wide range of conditions, and I’ve sailed with numerous different people and found them all a joy to be with. I have been blown away by the generosity and kindness so many have shown in giving up their time and energy to help me develop my knowledge, often putting aside their own needs to help me fulfil mine.
In less than two weeks, I’ll be sailing Elfida to Alderney with another great crew – a dream trip. Later in the summer, I am hoping to be signed off on Elfida and can then start sharing more adventures with other members, my supportive wife, and excellent friends.
I am so grateful to have found Tops’l and know that once a true desire has been identified, it is amazing what transpires to be put in one’s path. It is a combination of the force of intention, and the ability to know that when an opportunity arises, knowing that it is truly meaningful to me, helps me grasp it with both hands.
Tops’l has been everything I could have wished for, and more. Thank you to those that set it up and those that keep it going, I will be forever grateful.
Marcus Chapman
Read Phil's story

Tops’l is a remarkable cruising club
For someone like me who is hoping to progress to Yachtmaster, I can kill two birds with one stone by getting the miles and qualifying passages whilst having a holiday and some fun with other members.
Two other distinct plusses are the sheer quality and condition of the yachts (Carina was in fine fettle for the trip) and also the mentoring from longstanding members like Steve, Mike and Peter. I learnt a huge amount in the week (as indeed I did last year in Devon with Mike and Adrian S).
I have another pass out from the family to go to Largs later this year… I am very much looking forward to another great cruise with Tops’l!
Phil
Read Stephen's story

What I learned from owning, selling, and sharing boats
I grew up on a farm in the middle of North Yorkshire… it would be challenging to find a place in the UK further from the sea. But my parents met through dinghy sailing in St Andrew’s and often talked about it and how much fun it was.
So, it was entirely natural that I took to (the slightly more affordable version of sailing) windsurfing as soon as I started work in London, making the long trips down to the South Coast only to find that the wind had died or the waves were too big for my limited skills. Windsurfing remained part of my life off and on – literally and metaphorically – as work took me to Ireland and then to the continent.
While working in Hungary, my family spent their summers in Croatia. There, we sometimes chartered a yacht with a skipper for a few days and I began to learn the ropes (sorry, for the nautical metaphor!). Together with some dinghy sailing and a few outings with friends who owned or chartered yachts, that was the sum total of my yachting experience when I returned to the UK in 2014 in my mid-40s.
As we were living on the South Coast, it seemed churlish not to embrace sailing more seriously. We bought an 18ft Hurley Silhouette for about £500 and kept it on a swing mooring in Chichester Harbour, while I studied hard for my RYA Coastal Skipper qualification.
Owning my own vessel taught me some valuable lessons: sailing can be very expensive, maintaining a boat can be a lot of hard (and often unpleasant) work, and the boat spends an awful lot of time not being used – which struck me as being appallingly wasteful. But above all, I realised just how much I still had to learn about boats, and that sole ownership may be a crash course but an unnecessarily painful one!
So, we sold the Hurley and began looking for yacht share solutions on the South Coast where I could learn from others – which is how I came to join Tops’l, just as Covid was tailing off. Like most new joiners, I couldn’t quite believe that the financial model worked. But it does – I can vouch for that as I became the Finance Director of the club the following year.
I’ve had roughly 21 days sailing with the club each year since joining, which doesn’t sound like much but was many times more valuable than most other sailing experiences – given that more than 50% of it was with people far more knowledgeable and experienced than me, who were always happy to help me learn.
I’ve also participated in work days to learn about the boats, and training days to improve my handling and navigation skills. I’ve skippered in the Solent, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Scotland. I’ve crewed a shot to Alderney and the return of one of the boats from the Netherlands to Dover. This year, I’m hoping to complete my Offshore checkout.
There’s still plenty to learn, but I can’t imagine a better environment in which to do it.
Stephen Smith

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Costs

All Tops’l members are effectively part owners of the club’s assets, through the purchase of shares. As a not-for-profit organisation, we aim to keep sailing as affordable and flexible as possible with a one-time share purchase, a monthly subscription, and a pay-as-you-sail system. Read more…

Join us

As a member of Tops’l, you will have access to well-maintained yachts, flexible sailing opportunities, and a sociable group of like-minded people. Most of all, you will feel part of something special. Complete our easy enquiry form to join us…