Opti TV

 A New Series To Connect Sailors To What's Out There We tried something different with this one as we constantly get questions about what comes after the Opti. Part of what we want to do at Opti TV is to connect the class with the next steps, so naturally we went to take a look at the 29er class from the viewpoint of what kind of sailor wants to compete in 29ers. The 29er is a deceptively simple boat that requires agility and strength, and a mindset of sharing and growth. As a pre-olympic boat it's not for the faint of heart. We went over to the US Sailing Center in Miami to meet up with 2Niner Head Coach Phil Muller for day 1 of racing in the 2nd event of the Skiff Generation Grand Prix, a really great event that he has put together with US Sailing and the 49er class. It was a great day of racing, albeit light and notably it had several of the US Sailing Team members racing on 49ers and the 49erFX. We'll let you read the recap here: SGGP Event 2 Recap because we were more

Save On Your Opti Christmas Shopping Hey Opti TV viewers, for this christmas we're partnering up yet again with McLaughlin Boat Works for another special deal - if you're looking to get your Opti sailor something nice this Christmas, or need some replacement parts/clothing/etc - we'd like to give you a nice christmas thank you with 15% off purchases at the McLaughlin webstore until Dec 31st, 2020 (excludes charters and boat purchases).

 We Talk Optis, Sport, And Soccer Get to know Head Opti Coach of Southern YC Martin Borrallo in our latest installment of OPTI TV Presents. Martin is an accomplished coach hailing from Uruguay and stopped by to chat about the upcoming US Opti Midwinters and the state of Opti sailing in 2020. Thanks for watching!

 Calendar Reshuffles Into Later 2021 As we predicted, the sailing world is starting to organize its 2021 calendar but much remains dependent on the Olympics which have been moved to the summer of 2021. IODA concluded its Annual General Meeting (AGM) yesterday via web conference. Let's unpack it: World Championship Locations Confirmed Via Co-Proposal from ITA and TUR Country representatives from Italy and Turkey submitted a motion to re-host the 2021 IODA World Championships in Riva Italy, and in Bodrum Turkey for 2022. This officially makes 2020 a gap year and the other continental championships are following suit. As for many events that were slated for this year deposits were given, plans were made and entry fees paid; organizers from across the world are doing their best to still make it happen for the sailors, although many now will not be able to participate in the World Championship as they will be outside eligible age to compete. However, it was great to finally have certain

 US Sees Big Demand For Racing As the coronavirus has impacted so much of the sailing world, the Optimist class has begun to fight back and open up competitions slowly but surely. Here's a quick roundup of news from around the #optiworld South Florida Sees Surge In Regatta Participants South Florida is typically a very busy place for Optimist sailors in the winter, but with the lack of regattas since March of this year, there is quite a pent-up demand for quality racing which is beginning to show in the registration lists of the events going on around the warmer parts of the country. With 137 RWB and 52 in Green Fleet at the Junior Olympic Festival to be hosted by the US Sailing Center Martin County, this regatta is attracting sailors from the neighboring Bahamas and Cayman Islands. How exactly social distancing will be practiced remains to be seen but it's good to see that there are so many kids that want to race. USODA Opens Registration for Midwinters The USODA X-Com has giv

Miami's First Opti Meet Since March 2020.  It was an interesting weekend being out in Biscayne Bay last month, as we saw many familiar faces for the first time in months since South Florida locked down due to the coronavirus. Although the virus still is very much present, we the sailing community were able to sail for these last few months but we finally found the way to race safely.  As it's our home waters we wanted to chronicle this meet and show you all the fun that was had and challenges that were met. Although the first day was thrown off by thunderstorms into the afternoon, that Sunday saw some great races and the sailors really got into their stride.  Congratulations to all the sailors, and to the coaches and parent volunteers that made it happen. Miami, in our opinion has become the development Mecca as some of the best sailors and innovative practices are coming out of that 6x12 mile bay.  Thanks to Professional Boats for setting us up once again in their amazing 6m T

 Amenities, Trailering Tips, Inside Info And More We've been putting together inside looks into venues for Opti Regattas - Yacht Clubs, Sailing Clubs, Sailing Centers, Etc. Plan ahead with our inside info including brief histories, amenities, regatta particulars, trailering tips, and more. Check out all the articles till September 2020. The St. Petersburg Sailing Center The Coconut Grove Sailing Club The Upper Keys Sailing Club

 An Inside Look At The Bigger Picture Last May, we sat down for a virtual interview with Sigrid Beckmann, VP of Americas for the International Optimist Class to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes and what the current state of affairs was for the International Class. It was a very enlightening interview for many reasons but for us, mainly the fact that at the highest levels of organization in the class, the sentiment is shared that Opti sailing is for everyone and that a good foundation that the kids receive in their Opti years sets the tone for a lifetime of sailing. Full interview below:

The Upper Keys Sailing Club And The Buccaneer Blast September 29th, 2020 The Upper Keys Sailing Club is located on Buttonwood Sound in Key Largo Florida and is the parent club of the Mark Sorensen Youth Sailing Program and host to the Buccaneer Blast, the largest Opti regatta south of Miami. It's an idyllic setting for a very well attended local regatta, hosting teams from around Florida and on occasion international sailors from the Caribbean and North America.  The Buccaneer Blast The Buccaneer Blast is typically held at the end of February every year, hosted by the UKSC with the race courses on Buttonwood Sound. Racing is normally local to national level, with teams from some of the top Opti programs in the country, mostly from South Florida. The Fleet consists of 100-150 Championship and Green Fleet sailors, and in different years has hosted other classes such as the Laser, 420 and O'Pen Skiffs.  The Venue The UKSC is located on N Ocean Drive in Key Largo,

 Remember The Three C's: Calm, Cool, Collected AP. Postponement. It can be a tough time for sailors and maybe even more so their coaches, because it's switching off that competitive mode and it can be hard to maintain discipline when you're sitting around on land or out on the water waiting for improved conditions. Here's the latest video from us just on this very topic, featuring tips from Daniel and Omari. Key Takeaways: Stay Hydrated Keep an eye on changes in conditions that could help you formulate a plan Conserve your energy Things that could help you in those three areas is drinking plenty of water, not swimming around too much, finding some shade to keep you cool, and talk to your coach about changes in conditions or things that you see.  Listen to some music, chat with your friends, but don't forget what you're there for!

 Timing + Technique = Control! Welcome to Ask Coach! Where we take your questions on Tactics, Strategy, and Boathandling. In our first installment, let's cover the Lee Bow. This is aimed at beginning to intermediate level racers in order to let them formulate questions they can bring to their coach, so we've tried to incorporate appropriate explanations and language.  We think it's important to agree on the vocabulary coaches and sailors use, so as there are many different ways to explain the same thing - make sure you know the difference between Tactics and Strategy What Are Tactics? Out on the race course, you'll be faced with many situations where you have to make a decision, sometimes before you even get to the situation (ahem - *mark roundings*). These decisions are what we call tactics. You can think of tactics as the little steps you take in order to achieve your strategy of success.  What Is Strategy? Strategy is the overarching plan for the regatta, race or par

The Roundup: Getting Into The Fall Cooler temperatures abound (for some) and the Atlantic hurricane season is coming to an end (we hope). So here's the latest monthly installment of The Roundup - where we round up our picks for news, education, and entertainment from around the world of sailing at large.  "CROSSINGS" ft. surfing stars Kai Lenny and J.J Florence John John Florence and co. are back for another sailing adventure out in the Pacific Blue, this time undertaking a 200 nautical mile, open water crossing on a Flying Phantom. Yep, Ocean sailing on an 18 foot foiling cat. What other reason do you need to watch? Sit back and enjoy a high-quality sailing production that's sure to raise the question: "When do we go to Hawaii?" The Smartest Ship That Ever Sailed Although it's not a sailboat, what you're looking at there is the smartest ship to ever sail. Fully autonomous, it borrows some technologies from recent developments in self-driving cars (r

It's Not About The Boat, It's About You.  Navigating the waters post-Opti is sometimes quite the challenge because we, in Optiland, tend to get tunnel vision and only see the possibilities in sailing within the context of the Optimist class. In reality, the Optimist is the first step of many into a wide world of sailing that's out there.  Out of the many, many classes out there most of them will remain inaccessible to a fresh-out-of-the-class sailor who is transitioning from the Opti into another boat. There are many youth fleets out there and although the typical pathway is to jump into a 420, Laser or such there are no hard rules about what to do after the Opti. Here are some resources and words of advice we've put together for those who are eyeing the next steps already, whether they're reaching the age cutoff or are getting too big for the boat. Remember that because there are so many options out there, its not about the boat - its about the sailor and their kin

 Smaller Fleets For 2020 Recently, the Coral Reef Yacht Club released an amendment to the 2020 OBYIR noting their plans for registration - so sailors! be aware that the Orange Bowl 2020 is O.N!  Event organizers have announced a cap on all the fleets:  50 Club 420s 70 Lasers (Standard, Radial and 4.7 combined)  70 Optimist (Red, Blue and White combined) 50 Optimist Green. They will be opening registration for the Opti Green and RWB on October 13th at 9 AM EST All other classes will open at 9 AM EST on the 12th October.  With the reduction in fleet sizes, we guarantee registration will fill up immediately, so plan accordingly! Full Press Release Below: Dear Sailors, Coaches and Parents:   The registration for our Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta opens in just a few short weeks on October 12 th .  We are very excited to welcome you back to our Club for what will surely be a most memorable regatta!  We have been planning for the event and taking special precautions to provide you w

  Good News, East Coast Opti sailors! The Notice of Race is now published for the Atlantic Coast Champs. Big change from last year's event-  There is a CAP of 150 boats . 50 will launch from Larchmont YC.  Registration will open for Larchmont YC sailors only on Friday, September 11 at 0900. Registration will open for all other sailors on Saturday, September 12 at 0900. Take a look at the Notice of Race below: 2020 Opti ACC NoR Event Website

What Lies Beneath  2020 has been an interesting year, to say the least, and we've somehow managed to launch a brand and youtube channel in this time. But as always, there's more to do and say - and this time its a subject that's particularly contemporary to our home waters of Miami - and that's plastic pollution. More and more we see that its having an adverse effect on our waters, and it's not limited to Miami! This is a global issue. We were i nspired by the World Sailing and IODA Sustainability Inititative, so we dove into the topic of plastic pollution in our waters in this episode and some things we can do to help fix the problem. Thanks to our friends at FOCUS Miami and our contributors for helping make this happen. We hope you enjoy the cool underwater sequences and if you like this episode, make sure to show it to your sailor(s). It's a topic we can't afford to ignore. Check out the full Sustainability Topic 4 - Reducing Waste below: http://www.opti

Make Your Coaching Videos Easy To Digest It used to be that if you had a camcorder and were able to take footage out on the water, that was a big leap forward for you and your team since you were able to provide video feedback to the sailors. But now? Everyone has a camera in their cellphone that is leaps and bounds  better than consumer digital cameras from even 5 years ago. 4k resolution is not even the golden standard anymore with phones like the Samsung Galaxy S20 boasting 8k resolution, but we digress. The point is, cellphones are amazing tools that we can use as coaches to create awesome video feedback for our sailors (See Our Video Debrief Series  For More) but we tend to shoot in environments that are not so nice to cameras - weather and vibration. Most of the time, you can get away with just whipping out your phone and getting the footage, especially at starts - but what about when your boat starts moving? Bow pitching, beam a-swayin' - it can make for jarring video

 Opti TV Presents: Dr. Tim Herzog, Reaching Ahead Mental Performance Training Dr. Tim Herzog is a renowned sport psychologist who has worked with the USODA National Team and is a APA Board certified in biofeedback. Check in with Dr. Herzog to see why language is key to success at any sporting level. #opti_tv #optiworld #optisailing Opti TV is the one-stop-shop for Optimist sailors, parents and coaches where we bring together the knowledge base across the Optimist class into one place. If you like what we do, please consider supporting the channel through our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/opti_tv Thanks for watching!

The 2020 Guide To Optimist Blades McLaughlin has been putting out some fantastic content this summer with technical information that every coach and sailor should be paying attention to. This latest article is an updated guide to the foil sets out on the market at the moment, what makes them different, and some hard data for your consideration. Definitely bookmark this one! New IODA Code Of Conduct IODA has released a new Code Of Conduct that will be adopted by the member associations this year - so best to read up and get to understand your role a little better! Throwback: 2017 Australian and Open Opti Champs IN 4K Harnett Media started as Sailing Shack, which a couple of years ago was putting out some bangers that made their way around the interwebs. This is their video from 3 years ago covering the 2017 Australian Open Optimist Championship. Not what we would have picked as the soundtrack, but its AWESOME video! Check it out!

Concerns With Timing Today, CORK organizers announced in a press release that they would not be hosting the 51st edition of the regatta, citing concerns over the timing of the event around the return to school. Although many in the community desire a return to racing, organizers reached the conclusion that it was not in their best interest to host a large event around the time that children would be returning to school in some fashion. Full press release below CORK Press Release Wednesday August 5th, 2020 CORK Fall Regatta Decision Over the past month, the CORK team has been carefully monitoring the COVID 19 situation and working on the question of whether The CORK Fall Regatta could be held this September.  A plan was developed that could comply with the COVID-19 rules and it was clear that there was a strong desire among sailors and coaches to see racing resume.  However, the CORK Board of Directors had to balance that against the continuing uncertainty of how the virus is developing

Why A Bird's Eye View Is Everything So. You got yourself a drone/quadcopter/flying video camera It's probably a DJI Drone. A Mavic series, right? Very nice. You read the manual (hopefully) and watch a couple of YouTube videos and you tell yourself: Pretty Easy Stuff! This drone does half the work for me! And you'd be right! If all you were doing was filming a sweeping panorama or an overhead shot coming from and going back to LAND. Flying quadcopters has become very much simpler over the last few years and drones have become exponentially smarter. They are now capable of taking videos that were before the realm of helicopters and aerial photographers. Now, there are ones the size of your palm with very lengthy battery lives. It has never been easier to incorporate drone footage into your sail coaching and once you start using drone footage you can open up yet another door to drop some knowledge on those eager kids you've got sailing with you. So we&