What is an Optimist?
"A flat-bottomed, hard-chine, pram-bow dinghy with a una spritsail" (The Observer's Book of Small Craft)
"A bathtub that breeds the best sailors" (Observant Sailor at the Club Bar)

Optimists in action during Dockendale Asian Optimist Sailing Championship 2004

The Optimist is quite simply the dinghy in which the young people of the world learn to sail. Sailed in over 110 countries by over 150,000 young people, it is the only dinghy approved by the International Sailing Federation exclusively for sailors less than 16 years of age.

Sailing is a lifetime sport where those in the age group of 8 to 80 are practicing the same skills. One of the tasks of the Optimist Class is to provide the sailors of the future. Many will be content to sail at club or national level. But for those with the desire and talent, the Optimist is the introduction to the world of competitive international racing.

The “Opti” as the young sailors fondly call her is the greatest little boat in the world.