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Optimist (dinghy)
Encyclopedia
The Optimist is a small, single-handed sailing dinghy
intended for use by children up to the age of 15. Nowadays boats are usually made of fiber reinforced plastic, although wooden boats are still built.
It is one of the most popular sailing dinghies in the world, with over 150,000 boats officially registered with the class and many more built but never registered.
The Optimist is recognized as an International Class
by the International Sailing Federation
.
, inspired by
the Soap-box Derby program that is sponsored by Optimist International
service club to encourage father/son construction of gravity powered cars for down-hill competition. Mills home town of Clearwater, Florida has no hills so he designed a simple pram that could be built from a single sheet of plywood, and donated the plan to the Optimists. 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 120 countries by over 160,000 skippers and it is only one of two yachts 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.
of the Optimist is sprit-rigged
. Two batten
s 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 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. It is usually correct to tighten the vang and sprit in heavy winds and loosen them in light winds. As well as this, huge adjustments can be made to sail shape, due to all of the ties running along the mast and boom.
The spars may be made from aluminium or wood, but are invariably aluminium in modern boats.
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. e.g. GBR for Britain
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 manoeuvrability.
The vast majority of hulls today are made of glass-reinforced plastic
, although it is still possible to make and buy wooden hulls.
and daggerboard may be made from plywood or a composite of foam, glass fibre, and epoxy.
The Optimist is the http://www.sailing.org/boatclasses.php 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 http://www.wilkessail.net/REVIEWOF2008.doc sailors a year. Many of the top world Optimist sailors immediately become world-class Laser 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.
Dinghy sailing
Dinghy sailing is the activity of sailing small boats by using five essential controls:* the sails* the foils ....
intended for use by children up to the age of 15. Nowadays boats are usually made of fiber reinforced plastic, although wooden boats are still built.
It is one of the most popular sailing dinghies in the world, with over 150,000 boats officially registered with the class and many more built but never registered.
The Optimist is recognized as an International Class
International Class
The designation International Class may be granted by the International Sailing Federation to classes of sail boat that offer a high standard of international competitive sailing and satisfy a number of criteria regarding the number of boats of that class, their international distribution, and the...
by the International Sailing Federation
International Sailing Federation
The International Sailing Federation is recognised by the International Olympic Committee as the world governing body for the sport of sailing....
.
History
The Optimist was designed in 1947 by American Clark MillsClark Mills (boatbuilder and designer)
Clark Mills was an American designer and builder of boats.He was best known as the designer economical and practical boats such as the Optimist pram, Windmill, Com-Pac 16 and others...
, inspired by
the Soap-box Derby program that is sponsored by Optimist International
Optimist International
Optimist International is an international service club organization with 3,200 clubs and almost 100,000 members in more than 35 nations throughout the world. The international headquarters is located in St...
service club to encourage father/son construction of gravity powered cars for down-hill competition. Mills home town of Clearwater, Florida has no hills so he designed a simple pram that could be built from a single sheet of plywood, and donated the plan to the Optimists. 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 120 countries by over 160,000 skippers and it is only one of two yachts 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.
Rig
The single sailSail
A sail is any type of surface intended to move a vessel, vehicle or rotor by being placed in a wind—in essence a propulsion wing. Sails are used in sailing.-History of sails:...
of the Optimist is sprit-rigged
Spritsail
The spritsail is a form of three or four-sided, fore-aft sail and its rig. Unlike the gaff where the head hangs from a spar along its edge, this rig supports the leech of the sail by means of a spar or spars named a sprit...
. Two batten
Parts of a sail
In sailing the parts of a sail have common terminology for each corner and edge of the sail.-The corners:In a triangular sail, the upper point is known as the head; the halyard, the line which raises the sail, is attached to the head...
s stiffen the leech. It is secured evenly with ties along the luff to the mast
Mast (sailing)
The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall, vertical, or near vertical, spar, or arrangement of spars, which supports the sails. Large ships have several masts, with the size and configuration depending on the style of ship...
and along the foot to the boom
Boom (sailing)
In sailing, a boom is a spar , along the foot of a fore and aft rigged sail, that greatly improves control of the angle and shape of the sail. The primary action of the boom is to keep the foot of the sail flatter when the sail angle is away from the centerline of the boat. The boom also serves...
, pulled down tightly by a vang
Boom vang
A boom vang or kicking strap is a line or piston system on a sailboat used to exert downward force on the boom and thus control the shape of the sail. An older term is "martingale"....
. The light, slim third spar
Spar
In sailing, a spar is a pole of wood, metal or lightweight materials such as carbon fiber used on a sailing vessel. Spars of all types In sailing, a spar is a pole of wood, metal or lightweight materials such as carbon fiber used on a sailing vessel. Spars of all types In sailing, a spar is a...
, 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. It is usually correct to tighten the vang and sprit in heavy winds and loosen them in light winds. As well as this, huge adjustments can be made to sail shape, due to all of the ties running along the mast and boom.
The spars may be made from aluminium or wood, but are invariably aluminium in modern boats.
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. e.g. GBR for Britain
Hull
The Optimist has a pramPram (ship)
A pram or pramm describes a type of shallow-draught flat-bottomed ship.They were used in Europe during the 18th century, particularly in the Baltic Sea during the Great Northern War and Napoleonic Wars, as the pram's shallow draught allowed it to approach the shore. They typically carried 10-20...
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
Bulkhead (partition)
A bulkhead is an upright wall within the hull of a ship or within the fuselage of an airplane. Other kinds of partition elements within a ship are decks and deckheads.-Etymology:...
, which partitions the boat nearly in half, is the daggerboard
Daggerboard
A daggerboard is a retractable centreboard used by various sailing craft. While other types of centreboard may pivot to retract, a daggerboard slides in a casing. The shape of the daggerboard converts the forward motion into a windward lift, countering the leeward push of the...
case. Right behind it on the centerline of the hull floor are attached a pulley and ratchet block
Block (sailing)
In sailing, a block is a single or multiple pulley. One or a number of sheaves are enclosed in an assembly between cheeks or chocks. In use a block is fixed to the end of a line, to a spar or to a surface...
. These anchor the sheet
Sheet (sailing)
In sailing, a sheet is a line used to control the movable corner of a sail.- Fore-and-aft rigs:Fore-and-aft rigs comprise the vast majority of sailing vessels in use today, including effectively all dinghies and yachts. The sheet on a fore-and-aft sail controls the angle of the sail to the wind,...
and its pulley on the boom directly above. At the bow
Bow (ship)
The bow is a nautical term that refers to the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is most forward when the vessel is underway. Both of the adjectives fore and forward mean towards 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
Stern
The stern is the rear or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite of the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Originally, the term only referred to the aft port section...
. 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 manoeuvrability.
The vast majority of hulls today are made of glass-reinforced plastic
Glass-reinforced plastic
Fiberglass , is a fiber reinforced polymer made of a plastic matrix reinforced by fine fibers of glass. It is also known as GFK ....
, although it is still possible to make and buy wooden hulls.
Foils
The rudderRudder
A rudder is a device used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft or other conveyance that moves through a medium . On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw and p-factor and is not the primary control used to turn the airplane...
and daggerboard may be made from plywood or a composite of foam, glass fibre, and epoxy.
Performance
While younger lighter sailors begin in Optimists, competitive sailors usually weigh between 30 and 60 kg (or between 65 lbs. and 130 lbs.). Optimists can be sailed comfortably by people from age 8 to 15. This wide range of weights which is not typical of most dinghies is made possible by different cuts of sail. Due to its inherent stability, unstayed rig, robust construction and relatively small sail, the Optimist is often sailed in up to 30 knots (F7).Introductory sailboat
Optimists are used for beginners, but most sailors continue to race them up to 14 or 15 years of age. 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 own a number of them and they are the first boat most beginners will sail.The Optimist is the http://www.sailing.org/boatclasses.php 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 http://www.wilkessail.net/REVIEWOF2008.doc sailors a year. Many of the top world Optimist sailors immediately become world-class Laser Radial
Laser Radial
The Laser Radial is a popular one-design class of small sailing dinghy, originally built by Laser Performance. It is a singlehanded boat, meaning that it is sailed by one person. The Laser Radial is a variant of the Laser Standard, with shorter mast and reduced sail area, allowing light sailors to...
or 4.7
Laser 4.7
The Laser 4.7 is a one-design dinghy class in the Laser series and is a one-design class of sailboat. All Lasers are built to the same specifications. The Laser is 4.06 m long, with a waterline length of 3.81 m . The hull weight is 59 kg...
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.
Manufacture
In recent years over 4,000 http://www.sailing.org/21301.php boats a year have been produced by around 30 builders worldwide. http://optiworld.org/suppliersBOATS.phpInternational
- Optimist Class Association
- International Sailing Federation (ISAF)
- History of Optimist Pram development