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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:


because we were more interested in getting a sense of what the 29er is about and what kind of sailor would succeed in it.
Photo by Chenard Visuals

It was interesting to see just how open everyone was about sharing information, tuning, and boat handling tips - aptly described as "a tribe". The 29er sailors were all about speed and pure enjoyment of the process. Shooting the 29er was a little difficult as they move so fast even in light air that we really missed our gimbal stabilizer!

We'll let you be the judge of the culture in the video above, as we saw that the 29er pathway is for sailors who enjoy speed, keep an open mind, and enjoy the learning curve.

Photo by Chenard Visuals

Shoutout to Phil Muller of
2niner
 for bringing us along to see what the 29er is really about. If you want to know more about the 29er check out



We've got some more editions of the Post-Opti Life coming up - don't miss them and subscribe to the channel,

Thanks for watching!
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