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Why the Optimist?

Fifty six years ago in Clearwater, Florida a group of citizens wanted to stop their children getting bored. So they asked a local designer called Clark Mills to make a boat for kids to sail. The Optimist was born.

Fifty six years later his design is still being sailed by hun dreds of thousands of young people in over a hundred countries worldwide.

Truly this is the boat in which the young people of the world learn to sail.

It looks funny, doesn’t it? But Clark Mills knew a thing or two about kids.

It doesn’t tip over! Beginners easily learn to balance themselves, the wind and the boat.  It can’t run away with you! Let out the only rope and the boat will just sit there. The more water gets in, the less it moves. And it won’t sink.

Being alone in the boat is the quickest way to learn. Imagine trying to learn to ride a bicycle on a tandem with daddy!

You quickly learn from your own mistakes and gain that essential of sailing - and perhaps life - responsibility for your own decisions.

Why Sailing?

What is your child going to to this summer? Sit in his bedroom with his computer? Go for nice long walks? Help in the garden?

Sailing has much to offer. Sadly man’s old enemy the water is often safer than what man has made of the streets.

All sorts and sizes of people sail. You don’t have to be taller, stronger, thinner or, initially, even fitter than the average. Boys and girls have the same capability.

Sailing brings families together. Boats need to be transported and kids cannot drive. So driving to regattas at weekends becomes a family activity.

This is not an exclusive world. 40% of top sailors have parents who do not sail themselves.

IODA and the boat

Excerpts from 2004 IODA Yearbook

The objective of the Optimist Class is:

“to provide racing for young people at low cost”

If racing is to be fair and at low cost, then hulls and associated equipment must be alike, with no advantage to be gained from spending extra money. The ongoing task of IODA is to ensure that this is so.

In 2004 IODA worked hard to police and maintain this one-design principle

• Luis Miguel Horta, our prototype measurer, made several visits to builders, including measuring new prototypes from the growing number of moulds in Asia. In late 2003, following a course organised in con-junction with the Chinese Yachting Association, three new Chinese measurers were appointed and their ongoing education continues.

• At Easter in Europe Luis Miguel weighed no less than 36 boats from 16 builders. He found that 15 of these 16 were producing boats which were not only of the correct weight but varied by at most 3.5. Corrective action has been taken by the other builder.

• Scrutineering (check measurement) at the Worlds and continental championships was conducted, usually by IODA’s team of International Measurers.

• The first of the new foils, agreed in 2003 to gradually exclude some types of exotic and expensive products and to eliminate rudder shapes ideal for illegal propulsion, became available.

• Experiments with exotic sail shapes, which threatened to create an “arms race” between competing designers, were firmly rejected by our Annual Meeting.

The first thing you need to go racing is a boat!

All the same

Unlike most sailboats the Optimist is a true one-design. The boats are all the same. If you want to race a boat where money or technology make a difference, look elsewhere. Every builder is regularly inspected to ensure that his hulls conform to tight tolerances and uses similar raw materials and building techniques. But this does not mean a monopoly or a cartel. Any boatbuilder can build after he has satisfied IODA that he is compe-tent to do so. Nearly forty builders in 25 countries have approval,

Accessories

There is greater choice of spars and sails. The Optimist is used for everything from teaching 8-year olds to world-class racing by 15-year olds. This is reflected in the equipment available. But by the time a sailors needs top-level gear he or she will be addicted to their lifetime sport.

Price?

Prices vary according to markets but in Europe a new hull ready to sail with basic gear should not cost over US$1,700 + sales taxes. The “best of everything” as used at the Worlds, has a list price of around US$2,500, but ex-charter boats used for only a few days are a lot cheaper and bulk purchase can reduce the price still further.

Make it yourself

For those with some practical ability it remains possible to build your own wooden Optimist.

Racing

Excerpts from 2004 IODA Yearbook

First steps

It is a small step from sailing round a triangle to trying to do it faster than the next person. Good instructors will ensure that this step is taken under carefully controlled and, above all, safe conditions. It is only too easy to frighten the sailor at this stage.

Local travel

And it is a small step from racing in your own club to sailing at a regatta along the bay. Boats have to be transported and kids can’t drive. Parents can easily become full-time weekend chauffeurs but in many of the most successful countries this is the job of the club coach. Another idea is to alternate trips with another parent. Then you have at least two kids to look after which stops you getting obsessive about your own. And it is amazing what you will learn about your children and their friends three hours into a five hour car journey!

Parents

It is very natural to want to help your child, especially if you are a sailor yourself, and to watch and criticise his every move. It is also natural to question your daughter’s first boy-friend in great detail. We recommend that you don’t do either!

The Rules

The rules of sailing are actually quite simple and are taught as part of sailing. They should be enforced from the start.

“If you look at competition at junior level you find that rules are often bent or forgotten with the excuse that they are only children. Just when do you expect them to learn manners or rules if not at this level”

(HRH The Princess Royal Member, International Olympic Committee)

Racing is the core activity of the Optimist Class

Learning to sail may be the first step but in most countries this can be safely left to clubs and sailing schools under the direction of National Sailing Associations.

But if young people are not quickly and intelligently introduced to racing they will get bored and leave the sport.

International Racing

Other parts of the world

Parents rightly believe that experience of other countries and other cultures is a vital part of education. But it can be difficult to organise. Exchange visits and language schools are often disappointing, and we have all seen at holiday hotels and campsites bored kids just longing for some excitement and to meet new friends.

International regattas

At Optimist regattas you won’t find many bored kids. Immediately they have a common interest with the people of their own age from different parts of the world, and the excitement of using their existing skills in a new environment.

Calendar

You don’t have to travel abroad often and it is entirely possible to reach the top without doing so. But if you can there are literally hundreds of regattas worldwide to choose from, almost all of them welcoming foreign sailors of all levels of experience. At Easter thousands of young sailors in the northern hemisphere head south to begin their sailing year. In the summer those not selected for championships can find a warm welcome at national events which are almost always open.

and it’s so easy

If you can drive there, an Optimist fits easily on the roof of almost any car. And if you can’t there is a good chance of chartering or borrowing a boat when you get there - just like the one at home!

Travel sells sailing!

The function of an International Class, as stated by ISAF Regulation 26.1, is to provide international competitive sailing.

Young people today have many attractive choices and sail -ing will not keep them interested if it is confined to little regattas with the same sailors in the local club.

International travel has been the growth industry of recent years and in sailing this has led to the boom in sailing holidays in the sun.

The Optimist, with its international network, has made use of this trend to offer opportunities to the young people of the world.

IODA Championships

Excerpts from 2004 IODA Yearbook

Excerpts from 2004 IODA Yearbook