2018 Optimist Canadians to be held in Squamish, BC

After delays and several date changes, the Canadian Optimist Dinghy Association has announced the Notice of Race for its 2018 championships, to be held in late August in Squamish, British Columbia.

The Canadian Optimist championships were held in 2015 in the same venue and attracted 57 participants, mostly local ones (as compared to some 150 participants in Halifax in 2017). In 2015, sailing was only possible in Squamish one out of the 5 days of the championships, because of bad weather.

High costs are probably a key reason for the low participation. One can also compare that past participation to Optimist CORK (in Kingston, ON), which attracted 128 participants in 2017 - even the less-attended Fall CORK regatta attracted more sailors)  Some clubs, for example in the Montreal area, presently don’t have advanced Optimist teams and are unlikely to be present.

This year, it is already known that some of the best sailors in Canada will be absent from the national championship, because its scheduling is in conflict with the 2018 Optimist Worlds in Cyprus.

As already mentioned on this blog, unlike in other countries, the national championship bizarrely serves in Canada as qualifier for the Worlds and other events organized by the International Optimist Dinghy Association IODA). IODA in turn is not at all involved in the selection process at the national level, and refuses to take any responsibility for questionable processes by its member associations. (apparently, there are flaws in the processes in a number of countries)

In 2018, the Canadian Optimist Dinghy Association will select its team for the 2019 Worlds and other IODA events, even before the 2018 Worlds are held! It may sound as a nonsense, but it's a fact.

According to certain sources, it appears that the process is not coïncidental and intends to favor local athletes from BC, who sometimes are not competitive with those from other provinces such as Ontario and Nova Scotia, and therefore don't stand a chance to qualify for the most covetted IODA events (Worlds and Europeans). For example, at the 2017 Canadians, the first athlete from BC placed at the 24th position.

Yep, it seems there is something one could call Canadian (optimist) sailing politics ...

How things are dealt within Canada obviously contrasts with what happens in most countries, where the teams for the Worlds and other IODA events are formed just months before those events.

In the USA for example, the team trials were very recently held, on April 26-29, as covered in this blog. In other countries, 2, 3 or more events count for selecting athletes for the Worlds and other IODA events.

In Canada, the sailors who attend the worlds and skip the Canadians, because of the scheduling conflict and the 10 time zone time difference between the two venues and associated massive jet lag, are excluded from the 2019 Worlds and other IODA events!

The Canadian Optimist Dinghy Association is a private, parents-run organization (although some of its committee members don't have kids in the class anylonger), that is NOT overseen by Sail Canada - the official body in charge of competitive sailing governance in Canada.

For more info about the 2018 Optimist Canadians: https://www.opticanadians2018.com/

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