Skip to main content

Announcing The Opti TV Test Team

Hey Everyone,

We've been hinting at something big happening behind the scenes and we can finally share with you the news: 

We are happy to announce the formation of the OPTI TV Test Team, which is a team of experienced Opti sailors dedicated to testing new and exciting equipment from class manufacturers - we recently did a big shoot with them testing the latest sails out of Italy and found some interesting results! Take a look:


We were joined by Stephan Baker and Charlotte Leigh - some of the best Opti sailors the US has ever seen - as guest coaches for the Test Team practice. Huge shout out to Stephan for helping film and to Charlotte for their feedback and observations from these sails.



We invited some local sailors to form the first test team, and they ran the sails through their paces. BIG thanks to: 

Sara Ortiz Vey
Keith Grupenhoff
Will Barnhart 
Ferragut Gutierrez-Solana
Brayden Zawyer
Sophie De Leon Urban
Garrett Fox 
Carlos/Beckmann
Kyla Benesch
Sebastian Johan van de Kreeke
Reece Schwartz
Alfonso Lanseros

For participating in the weekend and forming the inagural OPTI TV Test Team. The kids sailed very well, and gave really good feedback on the sails. 




Conditions were spectacular for testing sails, with Day 1 consisting of a very nice easterly at 10-12 knots - and Day 2 a little lighter with 5-8 knots. The kids had a great time and we had a great time on the shoot. 




We'll be putting up the first episodes of this adventure over the next few days, make sure to pop by the YouTube channel to tune in. We'd like to thank Professional Boats for providing the two coach boats for the shoot, we could not have done it without Rene and Alyzu! More to come, thanks for watching Opti TV!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is This A Chance To Start Fresh? Parents Take Note

The Opti Class is a large enterprise spanning some 150,000 sailors (probably more) worldwide. They all love to sail, and some love to race. Under COVID-19 racing as we know it will not be possible in the near term. That does not mean we can’t race, it means we need to do things differently. There are many really smart people who race sailboats and organize racing and regattas. Plenty of them are in the medical field. There is tremendous brain power at work right now sorting through the issues of how we can continue to facilitate the development of young sailors in a safe way.  The first recommendation is for us to let kids get back to sailing for the fun of it, simply to enjoy sailing for what it is. Just get them out and let them explore their watery world. Sailboat racing, like many other things in life, has been heading in the direction of more and more perfection and complication. We are going to be dialing it back. As we ease into racing it will be with fewer people out

The Post-Opti Life: 29er Sailing And Skiff Culture

 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

What Should Be In Your Dock Box/Ditty Bag

 Although the Optimist class is comprised of children, the fact of the matter is that serious racing happens in the Optimist class and that carries with it needs for equipment and replacement parts. Any sailor or coach worth their salt will tell you that you need a ditty bag or tackle box to carry spare parts and tools in order to keep your Opti up or in case of technicals - breakage - out on the race course.  The historical example of a ditty bag, complete with marlinspike So what should you keep in your ditty bag? At the bare minimum, your ditty bag needs to have tools to repair or adjust parts of your boat. A good set of screwdrivers, of medium length, pliers, and a crescent wrench are absolute musts Example contents of a ditty bag. Note the ample variety of tape, tools and spare line Next, you'd want to add a roll of sail tape, the thick kind, to patch up tears or holes that might happen. I cannot stress the importance of dealing with that sooner rather than later, because a sm