Optimist, Open Skiff, Youth & Olympic Sailing Blog

2018 Ora Cup Ora Podium, with Marco Gradoni (ITA, 2017 & 2018 World Champion, Richard Shulteis (Malta, 4th at 2018 Worlds) and Alex Demurtas (ITA, 2018 European Champion) UPDATED ON DEC 11 2018 WITH DATES OF ALL THE LISTED EVENTS  There are many regattas for Optimist sailors. It’s not obvious to figure out which ones to attend. Of course, there are the official IODA regattas, but there are issues with those. Not only do they require selection by the national optimist class but they are typically expensive for parents, require lots of coordination among parents to form a national team, and they are sometimes less competitive than non-IODA events. A most obvious example is the European championships, where sailors qualified for the Worlds are not allowed to attend. That's an Optimist class regulation: the best 5 Optimist sailors in each European country are not allowed to compete for the European title! So that obviously reduces the overall level of those IODA European

Number of Sailors in Attendance at 2018 Youth Championships in 3 Juridictions - on various types of equipments - chart With the youth championships in New South Wales, Australia, starting today, with a remarkable number of 326 entries, totalling some 399 sailors, a comparison can be done with the numbers achieved at the recently completed youth provincial championships in Ontario and Québec. Interestingly, NSW, ON and QC are  juridictions with populations numbers that are not that far apart: approx 7.5 million in NSW, 13.6 million in ON and 8.2 million in QC. The three jurisdictions offer plenty of opportunities for sailing. It's also important to note that, in Canada, Ontario and Québec are traditionnally among the most dynamic jurisdictions for youth sailing, along with British Columbia and Nova Scotia. To proceed with the comparison, one has grouped some boats. The single handed Open Bic and Sabot, both absent at the QC and ON championships, are lumped together. The T

Spain is hosting two major Optimist regattas this winter, with hundreds of participants. The Trofeo Euromarina Optimist will be held on January 23-27 in Torrevieja. The event’s last edition, held in January 2018 was won by double world champion Marco Gradoni. Registration for the 2019 regatta starts September 2019. http://www.torreviejaoptitrophy.com The second event is the International Palamos Trophy, to be held in Palamos on February 13-17. The event was won earlier this year by Martin Atilla from Latvia. There are already 227 registrations for the 2019 editions, with big representations from Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland, to name just a few. Over 500 sailors are expected to participate. http://www.palamosoptimisttrophy.org

RS Feva: Endorsed by the Fédération française de voile, the Royal Yachting Association, among other sailing federations We all know about conventional youth sailing, with the Optimist, the 420, the Laser, sometimes the 29er. But we all know too that youth sailing is in trouble in many many clubs around the world. Solutions exist, and they are being tried in various locations. A key is to diversify the equipments, particularly for sailors below age 15.  It's critical to provide more opportunities, to accomodate a wide range of physiques and weights, to address the desire of some sailors to do double-handed rather than single-handed sailing, and to provide more opportunities for learning core sailing skills through the diversity of platforms. Some countries are making substantial efforts in that direction. For example, the first video features the 2018 French national championships for sailors under 15 - and the variety of equipments is significant. It includes several 

Performance of 3 Jet Lagged Canadian sailors at the 2018 Optimist Worlds during 3 First Days of Racing Canada had 5 sailors at the recent Optimist Worlds in Limassol, Cyprus. But Team Canada was split. 2 sailors arrived in Limassol about a week in advance and prepared on site for the competition. That’s the approach that was adopted by the vast majority of sailors from over 50 represented countries. Many of them participated in the pre-worlds - the mediterranean regatta - which attracted some 132 participants in its Open/Cadet fleet. Others trained on site. Some sailors had actually arrived in Cyprus as early as mid-July to train for the championship. Why did those 3 Canadian sailors arrive so late in Cyprus? Because the Canadian Optimist Dinghy Association (CODA) had decided to run its qualifiers for the 2019 Worlds on August 19-23 in Squamish, British Columbia, just before the 2018 Worlds. In Canada, the national championship serves as qualifier for all international IODA event

From Left: Jackson Macaulay, Andreas Steinitz, Noah Adler, Jean-René Kiekens Arana and Carling Davies There were 5 sailors representing Canada at the 2018 Optimist Worlds in Cyprus. Canada placed 30 out 50 at the Nations Cup, won by Thailand, in front of Italy and Brazil. See details: http://2018worlds.optiworld.org/uploaded_files/Document_12635_20180905172059_en.pdf There are clearly nations leading the way as far as Optimist racing is concerned. 11 Nations were able to place 41 sailors in the Gold Fleet of 66 sailors. See analysis https://optimist-openbic-sailing.blogspot.com/2018/09/2018-optimist-worlds-which-countries.html Regarding Team Racing, Team Canada, which never trains together, was expectedly quickly eliminated. Individually, 3 Canadian sailors qualified for the Silver Fleet, following the 3 days of qualifications, 1 qualified for the Bronze Fleet and 1 for the Emerald Fleet. Overall individual results are as follows: #115 - Noah Adler - Nova Scotia

USA is the only country with 2 sailors in the Top 10 and even in the Top 5 of the Gold Fleet While the finalists in team racing provided a good idea of which countries are strong in Optimist sailing, a look at how many boats the various countries have in the gold fleet is even more significant. The Gold Fleet is made of 66 sailors, and racing in that fleet will determine who will be the 2018 Optimist World Champion. Here are the numbers: With 5 out of 5 Sailors in Gold Fleet - Italy - Israel - Thailand With 4 out of 5 Sailors in Gold Fleet - Brazil - Switzerland With 3 out of 5 Sailors in Gold Fleet - France - Greece - Ireland - Singapore - Sweden - USA These 11 countries alone have a total of 41 out of 66 sailors in the Gold Fleet. Data:  http://2018worlds.optiworld.org For regular up to date information, join our Facebook group!  https://m.facebook.com/groups/1975892209332056?tsid=0.5012495351733612&source=result

Marco Gradoni (ITA): 2017 Optimist World Champion in the Lead with 6 bullets out of 6 races at 2018 Worlds How did the Canadians perform at the Optimist Worlds in the past 5 Years? Here is the response, drawing from the data at www.optiworld.org Reminder: the Optimist is essentially the only boat for which there is racing available for children / athletes aged 8 to 15 in Canada. 2017 Pattaya, Thailand 200 John Gogan 209 Eric Omielan 225 Noah Adler 240 Maya Heidenreich 254 Spencer Leman 2016 Villamoura, Portugal 174 Eric Omielan 236 Georgia Phillips 237 Charles Savard 239 Helen Horangic 241 Colin Davies 2015 Dziwnów, Poland 129 Eric Omielan 178 Teodora Horangic 219 Ben Ruitenberg 231 Ryan Anderson 261 Zoe Roosen 2014 San Isidro, Argentina 123 Ryan Anderson 128 David Sapp 133 William McInnes 194 Ben Ruitenberg 205 Michael Magi 2013 Riva del Garda, Italy 148 Justin Vittecoq 171 Jack Rieder 224 Eric Lyall 232 Cameron Shaw 252 Myka Auger Cyr