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...

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...

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

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

Here are a few notes following the Ora Cup Ora, organized by Circolo Vela Arco - one of those big Summer high level European Optimist regattas that just concluded on Garda Lake, Italy. - this is a world level regatta, attended by many of the very best Optimist sailors in the world, including World Champion Marco Gradoni and European Champion Alex Demurtas, both from Italy. - there was a large number of participants - 540, while nearly 600 registered - in two fleets Juniors (U16) and Cadetti (U12). There were 167 sailors in the cadetti fleet, and 382 sailors in the juniors fleet. - there were big fleets from a number of countries: Italy, France, Germany, Netherlands, Croatia, Slovenia, Spain, Monaco, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Malta, etc. - many teams were travelling without parents, in vans for 8 to 10 sailors, and large trailers for 8 to 10 hulls and a coach boat - unlike with IODA regattas, the registration fees are kept very affordable: 60 euros for 3 days regatta - acc...

Optimist World Champion Marco Gradoni will defend his title at the 2018 Ora Cup Ora, to take place on August 11-13 on Garda Lake.  He indeed won the event in 2017. (sail # 8925 in video) This is another one of those amazing Optimist events taking place in Europe this summer. There are already over 350 registrations! This includes large contingents from Germany, France, Monaco, Hungary, Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland, and of course Italy.  So, like in 2017, it promises to be a HUGE event.  Not as huge as the Spring Garda meeting, which gathered some 1,400 boats earlier this year, yet a huge event indeed. If you decide to join, you can also participate in the Lombardi Trophy, that also takes place on Garda Lake a few days earlier. See the video of the last day of racing in 2017.  Regatta Link: http://www.circolovelaarco.it/regate-icagenda-menu/41-23-ora-cup-ora

Like last year, several of the best US sailors will attend Optimist CORK in Kingston on August 9-12. Among them, none other than North American, South American and USA champion - Stephan Baker (see picture) Stephan Baker is one of the favorites for the Optimist Worlds to be held in Cyprus shortly after, along with the reigning Optimist World Champion Marco Gradoni from Italy. In 2017, Stephan Baker won Optimist CORK in front of three other US sailors: Peter Foley, Liam O'Keefe and Sara Shuman. 5th and first Canadian was Jackson Macaulay out of Halifax. There was a total of 128 competitors in the championship fleets. http://www.cork.org/past-results/results2017/optimist/optimist_results.htm

Marco Gradoni (Italy), the 2017 Optimist World Champion, wins the 2018 Garda meeting, in front of Davide Nuccorini (Italy) and Martins Atilla (Latvia). First girl is Cosima Schlüter, from Germany, who placed 5th overall. Only 6 races were raced during the 3 day meeting, which is the largest Optimist and actually sailing event in the world, with about 1300 participants. You can watch many excerpts of the racing here: https://www.facebook.com/FragliaVelaRiva/videos   See the full results here: http://www.fragliavelariva.it/regatta/2437/view