Origin // History
The Optimist was designed in 1947 by American Clark Mills. The design was slightly modified and introduced to Europe by the Dane, Axel Damsgaard, and spread outwards across Europe from Scandinavia. The design was standardized in 1960 and became a strict one-design in 1995. The International Optimist is sailed in over 100 countries by over 160,000 skippers and it is the only yac
ht approved by the International Sailing Federation exclusively for sailors under 16. At the Beijing Olympics, 85% of medal winning skippers were former Optimist dinghy sailors. The Optimist is an International One Design class, with identical boats made of a durable GRP Hull, which means minimal maintenance, and may be purchased complete with sail and "dolly", a small trailer made specifically for the Optimist. Sail
An Optimist dinghy on the beach, rigged and ready to get out there. The single sail of the Optimist is sprit-rigged. It is secured evenly with ties along the luff to the mast and along the foot to the boom, pulled down tightly by a vang. The light, slim third spar, the sprit, extends through a loop at the peak of the sail; the bottom rests in the eye of a short cable or string which hangs along the front edge of the mast. Raising and lowering the sprit and adjusting the boom vang allow for adaptation of sail trim to a range of wind conditions. As well as this, huge adjustments can be made to sail shape, due to all of the ties running along the mast and boom. A monograph-style "IO" insignia (after IODA - the International Optimist Dinghy Association) on the sail is a registered trade-mark and may only be used under licence from the International Optimist Association. Optimists also have a national sail number using the Olympic abbreviation of their country and a sequential numbers
Hull
The Optimist has a pram hull, originally formed primarily from five pieces of plywood. It was the biggest hull Clark Mills could make from two 4 ft by 8 ft sheets. Just in front of a bulkhead, which partitions the boat nearly in half, is the daggerboard case. Right behind it on the centerline of the hull floor are attached a pulley and ratchet block. These anchor the sheet and its pulley on the boom directly above. At the bow resides a thwart to support the mast which passes through a hole in its centre to the mast step mounted on the centre line of the boat. The painter, a rope used for securing a boat like a mooring line, is usually tied around the mast step. Buoyancy bags are installed inboard along each side in the front half of the boat and at the stern to add buoyancy in the event of capsizing. Two straps, known as Toe Straps, run lengthwise along the floor from bulkhead to stern. These and a tiller extension allow a sailor to hang off the side for weight distribution—commonly called "hiking out". This can be crucial to maintaining the boat in near horizontal disposition during heavy air, allowing greater speed through the water and more manouverability. The vast majority of hulls today are made of glass-reinforced plastic, although it is still possible to make and buy wooden hulls. Club boats can be found made of straight plastic but are not designed for racing as they weigh considerably more than a GRP or wooden boat. Most hulls are around 5mm thick, reinforced by the thwart and bulkhead. There is also ribbing on the deck in the cockpit of wooden boats. the gunwales mounted around the top of the hull are designed for keeping water out of the boat and to allow the sailor to hike out over the edge of the boat.
[edit]Performance
As Optimist sailors can be as light as 25 kilograms they have quite a small sail, therefore bigger sailors (40 kg and over) may find Optimist Sailing slow boring in light winds, bigger sailors will move on to dinghy's such as the Splash or the Laser 4.7 after racing in Optimist, in New Zealand it is common for sailors to progress to the locally designed P class and Starling dinghy's. The other problem with Optimists is that they don't have any self drainage system and their open cockpit makes it easy to fill up with water, in strong winds and large waves, sailors have to careful to keep their back so not take on too much water but will still have to do a lot of bailing to keep the boat dry.
