Optimist, Open Skiff, Youth & Olympic Sailing Blog

A Surprisingly French Scene in Toronto: Techno 293 Windsurfs & a Diam 24. Here is a quick post following a 10 day stay in Toronto, which enabled me to have a look at the sailing scene, and now to contrast it with the situation in Montreal. First impression was that, in addition to the youth sailing, which is pretty strong in several clubs, I saw two active fleets: (master) Lasers and Albacores. The latter was pretty impressive, sailing most evenings during the week. Many boats are apparently in good condition and have quality sails. The quality of sailing was pretty good. Lots of the sailing takes place on club-owned boats. For their part, the Laser master sailors form an amazing group, sailing mostly from the Water Rats club. The club has as members several of the best Laser master sailors in Csnada and the world, and they train regularly.  Albacores mostly sail from another nearby community sailing club. In Toronto, big clubs such as the Royal Canadian Yacht Club ...

Diam 24 Multihull in Action If you bring in new events, new equipments to the Olympics, those should be proven both to provide amazing sailing and to be amazing to watch, so as to be the best choices possible both for the sailing community and the general public. Very fortunately, our sport already offers such options, which would attract the world’s best sailors, and thanks to advances in filming sailing events, would offer the best olympic sailing show ever. Sadly, the events and equipments in Submission M36, which was voted by the Events Committee on May 12, are very unlikely to deliver the best the sport can offer, both for the sailing community and the general public. Hopefully, it's still time for World Sailing to reconsider and to do much better. Here are videos of 4 types of events/equipments that would be perfectly feasible to bring into the Olympics. They would attract the best sailors, and they would generate massive interest and excitement for the sport. WATCH ...

Diam 24 in action -- the One Design Trimaran used for the Tour de France à la Voile Note: this is an indicative playlist - it's not a formal suggestion/recommendation ; the idea is just to help broadening the consideration of options for equipments and events, in light of what is currently available. Although one event by type of boat is presented, there would be male, female and mixed events in the lineup. MY 2024 SAILING OLYMPICS -- YOUTUBE PLAYLIST: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcE83K79ViuLDhgI2xmfutTCgQhoTWhRN The lineup is as follows: - high pace coastal raid in a multi-hull - Diam 24 or equivalent - match racing - in strict one design identical keel boats - that could be with smaller teams of say 4 or 5 sailors - foiling dinghy - either Open or 2 events, one for men, one for women, in an affordable one design class such as the Wazsp or equivalent - foiling windsurf - in a one design class to be determined - 49er - which could be made a mixed event i...