Optimist, Open Skiff, Youth & Olympic Sailing Blog

Caption: Marco Gradoni after Winning his First World Title in 2017. Last year, after the qualifying series at the 2018 Optimist Worlds in Cyprus, we looked at which countries were particularly present in the gold fleet. The Optimist class allows for 5 competitors per country at the worlds. So this compilation provides a good idea of the level / quality of Optimist sailing in the various countries. Last year, the three dominant countries were Italy, Israel and Thailand. So let’s look at what are the numbers for this year. No country placed its 5 boats in the gold fleet. Placing 4 boats this year Italy, with USA and Spain. This is big improvement for Spain. Last year, USA had 3 boats in the gold fleet, and its 4 boats this year indicates a continued strengthening of the Opti class in the US. It's a notable decline for both Thailand and Israel. Italy remains at the top of Optimist sailing with its substantial presence in the Gold Fleet -- 4 boats in 2019, 5 boats...

Excerpt of International Teams page of CODA website The Canadian Optimist class published a list of some 42 sailors eligible to attend IODA events in 2019. The so called “International Teams” list produced on October 11, draws from the unique qualifier organized by the class - the Canadian nationals - held on August 17-23 2018 in British Columbia. 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 COD...

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 ...

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...

Optimists in Squamish in Smoke with Level 5 Health Risk on Aug 19 - Level 10 Health Risk projected for Aug. 20. The scene is unreal. Youth sailors in the Optimist dinghy - typically aged 10 to 15 - are competing in an area of British Columbia, Canada, subject to an official smoke warning by Health Canada. The smoke is a consequence of intense forest fires present in British Columbia. « Smoky skies will continue across most of the province for the next few days. Local smoke levels may vary based on wind direction and fire characteristics but, until a significant change in the provincial weather pattern occurs, widespread air quality improvements are not expected. » says the Statement by Weather Canada. https://weather.gc.ca/warnings/report_e.html?bc41 While the health risk was considered moderate on the first day of racing (Level 5 on a scale of 10, on August 19), it is projected to be high today. (Level 10 - see graph) http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/epd/bcairquality/r...

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, ...

This is an excellent contribution about planning one’s season for success, through an Annual Training Plan (ATP), by Justin Norton. « At the core of the ATP we are looking at the events that matter the most. This could be the Olympics or a club championship and requires some thought when determining what your most important regatta is. We will refer to these as “A” events, and we can only realistically select two of these in a season. The reason for this is because they require a high level o f freshness as well as a build and taper period leading into them. Typically the events will be spaced within 1-2 months of each other. » https://internationalsailingacademy.com/2017/09/creating-annual-training-plan/ NOTE: the Canadian Optimist class has not really integrated that into their thinking. They are expecting the top sailors to participate in both the Canadian championships and the Worlds, which are just about 1-2 DAYS apart (if you exclude travel time) and are … 10 ...

With the Canadian Optimist Dinghy Association having decided to run the trials for 2019 IODA events, including the 2019 Worlds, just days before the 2018 Worlds - and doing that 10 time zones away, the issue of jet lag came to the forefront. Jet lag is a very serious issue for athletic performance and is essentially incompatible with it. "Common symptoms involve fatigue, confusion and lack of awareness. Imagine those symptoms lasting for days as you grapple with the mental and emotional adjustment to your new surroundings" -- according to "The Truth About Jet Lag and How to Overcome It,"  https://lifehacker.com/the-truth-about-jet-lag-and-how-to-overcome-it-1575151287 As a parent, why should I subject my kid to such an ordeal - of having to compete in two major regattas, just separated by a few days, which is already inappropropriate, but in addition being separated by 10 time zones? In this particular case, the events are the Worlds - on August 27 - Sept ...