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Specifications Under Current Rules
Number of Crew	1
LOA	2.3m 7ft 7in
LWL	7ft
Beam	1.69m 3ft 7in
Draft
Hull weight (with fittings)	35kg 77lbs
Main Area	3.76m2 (35 sq. ft)

The Optimist is a small, single-crew sailing dinghy.

Contents 1 Origin 1.1 History 2 Description 2.1 Sail 2.2 Hull 3 Introductory sailboat 4 Manufacture 5 Pictures 6 External links

It was designed in 1947 by Clark Mills. The design was introduced to Europe by Dane, Axel Damsgaard, and spread outwards from Scandinavia.

The Optimist is a pram, meaning a boat with a flat bow. It is essentially designed to be a contoured box made of glass-reinforced plastic or plywood. Although the optimist breaks many of the principles of good boat design, it still has surprisingly good handling characteristics. Mills built the boat on a commission from the local Optimist Club as a boat which a youngster could build himself. Mills claimed that it was the largest possible usable sailboat that could be built from two 4ftx8ft sheets of plywood.

The single sail of the Optimist is sprit-rigged. Two battens stiffen the leech. 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 (sometimes referred to as the snotter) 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.

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 number.

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 center.

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 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.

Optimists are among the only boats well-suited for complete beginners to intermediate sailors between the ages of 7 and 15. Very small children are sometimes "doubled up" in Optimists but in general the boats should be regarded as single-handers - it is in this mode that children gain the most in terms of confidence and improved skills. Most sailing schools have a number of them and they are the first boat most beginners will sail.

First-timer classes offered teach the rudiments of sailing technique in a variety of conditions depending on regional weather patterns but many also offer immediate immersion into competition within the topography of a standard race course.

Optimists are also the main training ground for future Olympic sailors. Over 60% start in the boat and over 40% of them are already international competitors by the age of 13-15. By December of the year in which they turn 15, Optimist racers are said to "age out"; that is, they become too old to continue racing.

The Optimist is the biggest and most competitive 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 700 sailors a year. Many thousands more take part in international and national regattas. Many of the top world Optimist sailors immediately become world-class Laser Radial or 4.7 sailors after they "age-out", and even average Optimist racers later do well in the "more advanced" classes including 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, and Argentina and Peru have ever since been the best team-racing countries in the world (the two together having won 12 team racing championships (IODA Challenge Cup) since 1990). Since the turn of the millennium there has been no single dominant country, with medallists from countries such as Trinidad, Bermuda and Malaysia.

Optimist Specifications:

LOA: 7' 9"

LWL: 7'

Beam: 3' 8"

Draft: 5" (up), 2' 9" (down)

Displacement: 77 lbs.

Rig: Cat

Sail Area: 35 sq. ft. Optimist Construction:

Hull: FRP, wood or wood/epoxy, hard chine, flat bottom.

Keel: Daggerboard

Spars: Wood or aluminum.

Mast Height: 7' 5"

Over 4,000 boats a year are produced by nearly 40 builders worldwide. A list of them is available at www.optiworld.org/ioda-builders.html

Field of Optimists

typical storing

Rigging on shore and relations of measures

• optimist Class Sailing Race Results Website
• Optimist Class Association
• Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association
• Ecuador Optimist Association
• Optimist parts
• McLaughlin Optimist
• Vanguard Sailboats Optimist website
• Optimist Class Association, South Africa
• Optimist Class Norway
• Far-East-Optimist
• Optimist Valencia Children's Club of Sailing
• Optimist Children's Club of Sailing in Valencia
• McLaughlin Optimist, Australia
• Optimist Dinghy Association, Australia
• Optimist Class Sailing Race Results Website