Optimist, Open Skiff, Youth & Olympic Sailing Blog

Sean Herbert, at a 2015 World Cup event in Australia Below are statistics of the recent 2017 worlds held in Italy, for the U17 category, which brought together some 67 competitors (there were 65 competitors in the U13 category). Italy: 23 sailors (championship held in Italy) France: 13 sailors Germany: 6 sailors Australia: 6 sailors New Zealand: 5 sailors (including the World Champion) USA: 4 sailors Spain: 3 sailors Japan: 2 sailors (including the silver medalist and first girl) Denmark: 2 sailors (including the Bronze medalist) Switzerland: 1 sailor Poland: 1 sailor Source: http://worlds2017.openbicclass.org/results Clearly, this is limited participation in the Open Bic champs, compared to the Optimist worlds, where selection for the 5 slots available for each country is very hard to achieve. Yet, competition there is in the Open Bic Class, When one checks participation in previous international events, the trend is however clear. There is increasingly high leve

Wondering what Russel Coutts was busy with lately, the surprise was significant to find out that he is now actively promoting ... the Open Bic! So, these days, Coutts is not into another America's Cup Campaign, costing millions and millions of dollars, reserved for the very rich, the professional sailors, the elite of the sport, the very few - but ... in promoting a dinghy, costing ... just some US$3000 - less than a race-ready Optimist! And he is achieving success, fast. He helped growing the junior sailing program of the Manly Sailing Club - one of the smallest clubs in the Auckland region - from a few sailors to now 90 and the number keeps growing! He may also have had some influence on the success of his own son - Mathias Coutts - who was crowned Open Bic world champion (U13) at the 2017 worlds held last August on Garda lake in Italy. ( see interview of father and son ) The Open Bic is not yet well established in Canada. But a few clubs have adopted it for their youth

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 work on

Annual Garda Lake Regatta (Italy): the Largest in the World There is a variety of international events organized for the Optimist class.  It's always possible to find a challenging event for your kid.  There are international events organized in Canada, such as the CORK regatta in Kingston. There are also top quality events in the U.S. such as the New England championships or Orange Bowl in Miami.  The Canadian championships typically attracts quality international sailors, so it can be considered as an international event too. Unfortunately, the international dimension of Optimist sailing leads to substantial costs -- international travel, accommodation, boat charter, uniforms, coaching, registration fees, etc.). So make sure to plan well, especially if you attend several events, as money IS an issue for most parents.  For most sailors, attending quality regattas in Canada and in the US is already amazingly challenging.  Yet, it's possible to go beyond that. And if y

The Canadian Optimist Dinghy Association has done some excellent work in the past years, particularly the organization of clinics, that have led to a significant improvement of the level of sailing for many young athletes. Yet, the planning of the 2018 season is very far from optimal, making it a very inappropriate schedule for many athletes. The two main Canadian events are CORK and the Canadian championships. The dates for the CORK International Optimist Regatta, held yearly in Kingston, ON, have been announced long ago - they are August 9-12 2018. After multiple changes, the dates for the Canadian championships, to be held in Squamish, BC, will be as follows: - CODA Clinic: August 13-16 2018 - Regatta: August 17-23 2018 These dates are 1 day earlier than the dates that were presented and agreed upon at the CODA General Assembly in Halifax, NS, in August 2017 - something that does not make any significant difference regarding the scheduling issues for the kids partici