The international Optimist’s tag line “How the worlds junior sailors learn to sail” gives you an idea of the class right away. With hundreds of thousands of boats worldwide, and hundreds of active fleets, especially in youth programs throughout the country, it is hard to argue that the Optimist isn’t the most popular one-design boat going.
The boat is really an ideal training platform; simple, stable, easy to rig and transport. Best of all, there are fleets and regattas virtually wherever there is water and a sailing program.
The Optimist was designed in 1947 by American Clark Mills at the request of the Clearwater Florida Optimist service club following a proposal by Major Clifford McKay to offer low-cost sailing for young people. He designed a simple pram that could be built from three sheets of plywood, and donated the plan to the Optimists. The design was slightly modified and introduced to Europe by the Dane, Axel Damgaard, and spread outwards across Europe from Scandinavia. The design was standardized in 1960 and became a strictOne-Design in 1995.
The Optimist is sailed in over 120 countries and it is one of only two yachts approved by the International Sailing Federation exclusively for sailors under 16. At the London Olympics, 80% of all boat skippers were former dinghy sailors, most of them having reached international level in the Class.
Optimists are used for beginners, but most sailors continue to race them up to 13 or 14 years of age. The age limit is 15. Very small children are sometimes “doubled up” but usually the boats are single-handers. In this mode children gain confidence and improved skills: “The small boats train the champs”. Many sailing schools and yacht clubs own a number of them and they are the first boat most beginners will sail.
The Optimist is the biggest youth racing class in the world. As well as the annual world championship the class also has six continental championships, attended by a total of over 850 sailors a year. Many of the top world Optimist sailors immediately become world-classLaser Radial or 4.7 sailors after they “age-out” but many also excel in double-handers such as the 420 and 29er.
Optimists provide real international competition because they are manufactured to the same specification by dozens of builders.
The first World Championships were held in Great Britain in 1962, and they have since been arranged annually. For the first 20 years, the class was dominated by sailors from the Scandinavian countries, with 13 world champions. In the 1990s Argentina was by far the dominant country but since the turn of the millennium there has been no single dominant country, with the 33 medallists coming from 20 countries on five continents.
loa 7’7”
beam 3’7”
sail area 35 ft²
spinnaker area n/a
hull weight 77 lbs.
crew 1
# of boats built
active US fleets New England, FL, CA, MA, CT, RI, VA, NY
For more information please visit this class associations website: http://www.optiworld.org/
http://www.usoda.org/
Read Emma White’s article on the Opti!
https://www.sail1design.com/airwaves-sailing-news/one-design-classes/1223-optimist-dinghy
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