News A Message To Our Optimist Family!

A Message To Our Optimist Family!

2019 was a huge year for the Optimist Class with record numbers of fleets and Optimist activity across the globe. In 2019, we made history by hosting the largest Optimist World Championship in Antigua with 65 nations participating.

Marco Gradoni (ITA) also made history by winning the Optimist World Championship for an unprecedented third consecutive year. And to top it off, he was the youngest sailor ever to be awarded the 2019 Rolex World Sailor of the Year in recognition for his outstanding achievements throughout this past year.

This was also the year that we introduced our new Paperless Measurement System at our IODA Events to support our efforts to reduce paper waste at our championships and to improve efficiencies. We also introduced our new Mobile App across five IODA Championships, that enabled us to reach a record number of Optimist families, friends and fans globally. Over the last year we have also welcomed two new builders from Italy and Slovenia to become part of the Optimist family.

We recognize the effort that is takes to keep this global Opti family going strong from year to year, so we want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your commitment and hard work in all that you do for the class and for Optimist sailors around the globe. We owe you a mountain of gratitude.

We look forward to working with all of our IODA Members and stakeholders in the continued growth of Optimist sailing worldwide as we start this exciting new decade, where we will celebrate 50 years as an International Class. We hope to see many of you at our IODA Events and other activities in 2020!

And finally, we wish you all a wonderful Holiday Season with your family and friends and a healthy and happy New Year!

Happy Opti Sailing!