North American Championship

OBJECTIVES

1. The aim of the North American Championship is to promote youth sailing worldwide and particularly in the relevant continent.
2. The prime objective of the Championship is to ensure the highest quality racing is provided for young sailors from the relevant continent in the Optimist Dinghy.
3. The Championship shall also provide the environment necessary to ensure that individual friendships may develop among competitors, and goodwill among all participating nations.

FORMAT

The format of the Optimist North American Championship(INAM)  will be published in the Notice of Race.  A minimum of 3 races shall be sailed to constitute a series.

The format for the Optimist North American Team Racing Championship is organised for up to 16 teams. The qualification system is as follows:

1. After the total number of completed races sailed before the team racing event(s), the total points of the 4 competitors with the best cumulative results from each Member will be added to give a score for the first team of each Member. The total points of the following 4 sailors with the best cumulative results from each Member will be added to give a total score for the second team of each Member; and the total points of the following 4 sailors with the best cumulative results from each Member will be added to give a total score for the third team of each Member.
2. The first team from each North American Member shall qualify except that, if there are more than 16 such teams, the team of the host Member and the 15 Members with the best first team score will qualify.
3. If places remain after 5.2 (b) the first teams of other Members shall qualify in the order of their total first team score.
4. If places remain after 5.2 (c) the second and third teams from each North American Member shall qualify in the order of the total score of that team.
5. If places remain after 5.2 (d) the second and third teams of other Members shall qualify in the order of the total score of that team.
6. If the number of teams eligible to sail the team racing event is less than 16, the series will be sailed with the number of existing teams according to a format provided by the IODA PRO.

EVENTS

The following events shall be included in the official programme for the championship:

1. Two Measurement days
2. Team Leaders’ Meeting
3. Opening Ceremony
4. Championship Series:

1. Optimist North American  Championship – 4 race days
2. Optimist North American Team Racing Championship – 1 race day

5. Prize Giving Ceremony

ENTRY

1. Entries for a Continental Championship shall only be open to IODA Member countries who have paid their subscription on or before the official arrival day.
2. American Members of IODA may enter teams as follows:

USA: 24 sailors

MEX: 16 sailors

BER, ISV and CAN: 10 sailors

ARG and BRA: 15 sailors

ECU, CHI, PER, URU: 10 sailors

Other North American and South American Members: 4 sailors. The host Member may enter 10 additional sailors.

3. The North American members, at the Annual Meeting of IODA, may alter for the following year with the purpose of accommodating more sailors for the smaller teams with growing national fleets.
4. Unless the IODA Executive Committee determines differently one year before the event, 6 Non-American Members of IODA may enter teams of 4 sailors each. Entries will be accepted in chronological order, except that a place is reserved for one team from each continent represented in the first half of the Teams aggregated score (Jacobsen Trophy) of the previous year World Championship.
5. The defending North American (closed) champion may participate, if eligible, in addition to the number of sailors allocated to his country. This sailor will not count for the gender quota requirements.
6. North American Members are defined as those so listed as those so listed on the IODA website. Countries geographically partly in North America but politically in Europe shall be considered to be North American in respect of sailors resident in North America.
7. If by the first registration payment deadline, the total entries effectively registered are less than the maximum entries agreed with the organizers, the IODA Executive Committee may allocate additional entries for Members that may have requested them. Priority is North American Members, South American Members and Non American Members.

PRIZES

Prizes for the Optimist North American Championship shall be awarded at least to:

1. The 15 best placed sailors, without gender distinction, regardless of their continent of residence;
2. The 5 best placed girl sailors regardless of their continent of residence;
3. The 3 best placed sailors, without gender distinction, whose IODA Member is from North America; the first of whom will become the North American Champion of the corresponding year;
4. When the fleet has been divided into divisions, medals or small tokens should be awarded to the top three sailors in Silver and Bronze fleets where applicable.

Prizes for the team racing events shall be awarded to:

5. The 3 best placed teams in the North American Team Racing Championship. The first of these teams shall be the North American Team Racing Champion of the corresponding year;
6. The three best placed teams in the Optimist Nations Cup;
7. It is desirable that prizes for the team racing events include a trophy or a medal for each team member.
8. More prizes may be awarded at the discretion of the organizers.