How much of a difference does a topping lift make?

[Laminar Flow]

I would not be without a topping lift on a cruising boat. Apart from easing the sail handling and reefing, it fulfills multiple other functions on a cruising boat as well.

It allows you to cock up the boom much higher than you could with a strut. On my current ketch, the mizzen boom extends some 4' past the stern and moored stern to I have to raise it to stop people from walking into it on the dock

With a TL, I can swing the boom outboard to avoid shading the solar panels, or to hang a bucket/flopperstopper off it to arrest the rolling.

A TL turns your boom into a crane/derrick for lifting dinghies, engines, bodies from the water, etc and on my previous boat I used it to lift a small motorcycle on an off.

Many years ago, some chap told me that as a racer he would never have a topping lift on a boat - too much windage. When he showed me his boat I noted that his hatch & coach roof were trashed from his crew dropping the boom on them. Judging by the damage, this appeared to have been a common occurrence.

 

[anoccasionalyachtsman]

I've done it regularly on one boat I crewed on, it was useful for mooring under sail in a lot of tide.
But it doesn't work if your kicker has limited range, which tends to be the case with most racing boats.
Doesn't help when the wind is opposing the tide.

It often seems to imply that an RYA instructor is loose and other vessels would be well advised to keep clear.....

It's probably the hassle of freeing the kicker that has stopped me bothering trying it. Thus far I've got by deciding which way I'll need to be wrt the wind, and if it's slightly downwind dropping the main and going in with just the jib. If we need a bit more power due to tide then dropping the main at the appropriate moment generally works.

(Present boat has no topping lift or strut so making sure that the tiller isn't under the boom and sail is normally at the forefront of the mind - getting that wrong often precludes any arrival, let alone a tidy one).

 

[geem]

You can't scandalise the main without a topping lift and it's the easiest way to de-power it in extremis.

Not on all boats. We just drop it. Sail on jib and mizzen. Ot relevant to OP but we dont have a topping lift. Solid kicker works for us and has done since 1980?