The Optimist is THE sailing development class for kids. There is hardly any other alternative in Canada. But what after the Opti? This is an extremely important question, as many, too many, Optimist sailors give up sailing after the Opti, in large part because of an inadquate path of transition towards young adult and adult dinghies such as the Laser, the 420, the 49er, etc. On the basis of various discussions with the most experienced coaches and a number of opti parents, here are key elements to consider. your opti sailor can stay in the opti class until age 15, but may want to leave earlier because being too heavy, or too tall, or thinking of being so - what is key here is the weight, and indeed, while the ideal weight for Opti sailing is around 90 to 110 lbs (there is much discussion about this, so this is indicative), many Opti sailors continue to sail the Opti with a weight of 120lbs or even more ; height is less of an issue, even though some sailors will need to...
