The Optimist
Facts and figures
The Optimist is a standard class designed by Clark Mills in 1947 for regatta sports for children and teenagers up to 15 years of age. Ideally this ship should steer a child with a body weight between 30 and 50kg, but also lighter children can confidently start their sailing career in the Optimist and heavier children have already been successful in the Opti. The buckling bulkhead fuselage was originally built of plywood which has since been replaced by glass fibre gelcoat constructions. Optimists are flat at the front, 2.30m long, 1.13m wide, 0.4m high and have a draught of 0.65m with sword and rudder. Equipped with a mast of 2.35m and a sail area of 3.5m², the Optimist weighs in at a ready-to-sail total weight of approx. 45kg. The fuselage alone is limited to 35kg downwards. The sail is rigged with a spriet-tackle system, which makes it very easy to adjust the sail to the different wind conditions. Smaller, lighter children can thus take a lot of pressure out of the sail in strong winds with one hand.
German Hall of Fame
If you want to start into a regatta career with the Optimist, you need to report to the German umbrella association for Optisegeln, the DODV ("Deutsche Opti Dinghy Vereinigung"). Here you will receive a registration with your sailing number and you are entitled to participate in the regattas of the Optiligen or the Opti B ranking list within a very short time. If you have sailed enough regattas in Opti B, the change to Opti A will take place. In this league, the German championship and the top place in the rankings will be sailed and the cracks can finally qualify for world and European championships. This was also achieved by a number of young athletes, who were even able to win the big titles in the end. Tina Lutz became world champion in 2005, Julian Autenrieth did the same in 2006, Paulina Rothlauf won the European championship in 2008 and Mewes Wieduwild sailed the same title in 2016. But also almost all other greats in German regatta sport started their career more or less successfully in the optimist and learned their craft there.