Changing Perspectives at the Canadian Optimist Class?
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| Excerpt of International Teams page of CODA website |
Canada, unlike most countries, is sending sailors to many IODA events, including the Worlds, Europeans, North Americans, South Americans and the Asian and Oceanian championships. Some sailors will attend, one, two, three or even four such events. Others will just attend one or two. And yes, there are sailors, including very good ones, not attending any IODA events - for example because parents don’t want to get involved into the complexities of preparing for such events, or because of the high costs of participation.
With the recent change in the directorship of the organization, there may be a bit of a change of tone. Indeed, the CODA website now refers to the high level of racing at IODA events, the possible high winds and seas that can be encountered, the long Optimist experience of most competitors, and the cost of attending. (see except of International Teams page in box)
One can now read on the CODA website that « sometime a clinic or high end open event can be more meaningful to a sailor's progression than an IODA regatta. » Still pretty far from what should be told to sailors and parents, this clealry goes in the right direction.
Now, how many sailors should Canada send to IODA events? The general picture of Optimist sailing in Canada is, except for a very few sailors, one of weakness on international standards. Moreover, contrary to any other country, the qualifiers by the CODA rely only on one event, that takes place about one full year prior to the key IODA events. The North Americans will take place in October 2019. The Worlds will take place in early July 2019. Yet CODA organized its qualifier in August 2018, even prior to the 2018 IODA Worlds! In most, if not all other countries, qualifiers are typically organized in the spring, i.e. just a few months prior to the events, and involve several regattas to reduce the chance factor and at the same time to prepare the sailors for the international events.
One does not need to go very low on the list published by the CODA to find sailors who are unlikely to be prepared for prime time. There are sailors pretty high on that list who did not even perform well at the provincial level or at a regatta such as CORK International - the main Optimist event in the country. Even with such results, CODA will offer such sailors the possibility to attend the Worlds or other IODA events. The list is the list, and it is pretty long, when contrasted with the general quality of Optimist sailing in the country. As discussed elsewhere in this blog, sailors cannot attend both the Worlds and the Europeans, but Canadian sailors can combine other IODA events, as long as the parents can support the cost.
As a reminder, because of the harsh winter, there is essentially no sailing in Canada during 6 months, from the end of October till the end of April, except in some locations in British Columbia where year round sailing is possible. Apart from a possible one or two weeks of sailing in the South during the winter, which is limited because of school obligations, most sailors resume sailing in May, and then the month of June is typically devoted to school, as it’s exams time. There are then just a few days up to the Optimist Worlds, starting July 6 in Antigua. So from the end of the sailing season in October, there is very little time to actually improve prior to the Worlds. For the North Americans, taking place in 2019 in October in the Bahamas, it’s a bit different, as the sailor, IF training hard during the whole summer and participating in a range of high level regattas, could possibly be significantly improved for this event (which unfortunately is scheduled during school time).
What probably is wishful thinking is to believe that either the coaches or CODA board members will dissuade any sailors to participate. Coaches typically love IODA events - it brings them coaching fees, it allows them to see their colleagues, it allows them to travel to nice places, and there is a bit of a badge of honor to be the official coach for a national team, especially at the Worlds. It's good for the resumé. And « managing parents’ expectations, » so that weak results are accepted by both parents and sailors, is accordingly part of the playbook of some coaches.
As for CODA board members, there are several reasons they are unlikely to actually dissuade sailors to participate. First, let’s not forget that the raison d’être of the CODA is to select sailors for IODA events. That’s what their bylaws are all about: to deliver sailors for IODA events. It’s highly unlikely CODA will seek to only send just very few sailors, after all the trouble it goes through: running the corporation (yes CODA is incorporated), having meetings and teleconferences, organizing the selection, etc. Second, board members usually have a child in contention for one or several IODA events, or have friends with a child in contention, and are therefore typically, to various extents, in conflict of interest. Dissuading a sailor or parent to participate in one event frees a spot and can therefore happen for the wrong reasons too, as then the next name on the list is offered the spot.
So despite the apparent understanding by CODA that IODA events are not for everyone, and that appearing on the International Teams list does not mean that sailors are really prepared for such event and will benefit from it, it's unlikely that CODA and the Opti coaches, will dissuade any sailors to participate in those IODA events. Most parents are not really understanding what is going on. And when they do, their sailor is usually on his/her way out of the Optimist. So the system, which makes so little sense, continues year after year.
Interestingly, while Canada usually sends sailors to numerous IODA events all around the world - Europeans, North Americans, South Americans, etc. - many countries are much more constrained. This does not make them less successful, on the contrary. For example Italy placed its 5 sailors in the Gold Fleet at the Worlds, which were won by one of their sailors - Marco Gradoni - his second world championship title. The Europeans were also won by an Italian. The top sailors in Italy typically attend only one IODA event per year, and they are doing extremely well. Canada would be much better off at looking at how countries such as Italy are producing so many world class sailors, and should only send to IODA events those sailors who are ready for prime time.
As also discussed in this blog, there are fortunately many amazing non-IODA Optimist regattas, that are real world class events, yet considerably more affordable than IODA events and that are open, meaning that there are no qualifiers and that participation is large, and while the top of the fleet may be extremely competitive, the general level of the fleet is more in tune with the level of most Canadian Optimist sailors. So it’s actually a better learning environment and sailors, or club or provincial Optimist teams, can easily decide to participate with many sailors, as there are no restrictions. Such events include Palamos Trophy (Spain), Optimist Spring Regatta (Netherlands), Nieuwpoort Week (Belgium), Coupe Internationale d’Été (France), Ora Cup Ora (Italy), and are discussed in this blog post.
Against this background, as argued previously in this blog, it’s high time for the Optimist class to be integrated into the mainstream of youth sailing in Canada, and for Sail Canada to take over the governance of the class. In its current approach to youth sailing, Sail Canada unfortunately relies on the Optimist to produce sailors for the other classes (see graph below). It actually delegates a substantial part of the sailors' development to the Optimist class, as it is presently barely involved into youth sailing between age 7 and 15, which is obviously critical if youth sailing is to be successful in the country. The current system is not working — it produces an extremely limited number of high performance sailors per year. It's a clear impediment to youth sailing development in the country.
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See CODA international teams page: http://www.optican.org/international-teams
(revised version of October 22)
