Optimist, Open Skiff, Youth & Olympic Sailing Blog

Blue flight leaders arriving at the gate in the last race of the 2018 New England Optimist Championships The New England Optimist Championships were held on October 6-8 at Sail Newport, in Newport Rhodes Island. This was a substantial event, with over 200 participants in the championship fleet, and with several sailors from the Virgin Islands, Canada, Germany, Bermuda and various parts of the continental US. The New Englands are one of the regional « team trial qualifiers » organized by the US Optimist Dinghy Association (USODA), aimed at ultimately selecting sailors for IODA events - Worlds, North Americans, etc. The weather conditions were not optimal for this event - and only 5 races were completed, out of the 9 that were scheduled. Among those 5 races, the first and the last one were sailed in light, uneven wind conditions. The races were carried out just near the Newport Bridge, where significant tidal current prevails, which made the racing pretty complex. The s...

The following sailors have qualified to represent the U.S.A. at the 2018 Optimist North American Championship in Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit, Mexico. They will be coached by Pepe Bettini, Joakim Karlsen, and Cristian Noe. Congratulations! Stephan Baker Peter Barnard Blake Behrens Wyatt Bischoff Carter Cox Griggs Diemar Katharine Doble Peter Foley Kate Gibbons Griffin Gigliotti Benjamin Honig Michael Kirkman Scott Mather Lucy Meagher Clark Morris Cody Roe Sara Schumann Leopold Seuss Sheridan Shaw Jonathan Siegel Tony Slowik III Anna Vasilieva Samara Walshe John Wood IV See full list of registrants -- http://2018northamericans.optiworld.org/en/default/races/race-inscriptions Source: https://www.usoda.org/

The US Team Trials were held on Key Biscayne on April 26-29. Maybe that would have been a great location for such trials to be held for the Canadian team, which is selected way too early and sometimes, as discussed elsewhere in this blog, at a totally innappropriate time. In 2017, the Canadian Team was selected for 2018, between 10 and 13 months prior to the actual IODA events. Most countries perform such selections months before the event - and even if the Canadian climate is obviously not helping, trials could easily take place in Florida or another place that can easily be reached from Canada. And in 2018, the Canadian sailors will be selected for the 2019 IODA events during the Canadian championships, in a blatant scheduling conflict with the 2018 Worlds. Find the results on this page. http://www.kbyc.org/Waterfront-Activities/Optimist_Team_Trials.aspx