Skip to main content

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!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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
Post a Comment
Read more

Ask Coach: What Is A Leebow?

 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
Post a Comment
Read more

The Roundup Returns: October 2023

 SailGP Upset: USA Climbs To 3rd After Cadíz For those who don't follow SailGP, the Formula 1 of Sailing, Team USA has come in with the sneak and climbed to 3rd overall for Season 4 with a decisive win in Cadiz this past week. Skipper Jimmy Spithill together with flight controller Taylor Canfield (who we interviewed here in 2020) took the team through light wind, non-foiling conditions and surprised everyone with the win.  The U.S. beat both rivals across all metrics - picking up the highest average speed of 32.7 km/h, highest 58% flight time and executing the fewest number of maneuvers - just six. The Americans also sailed the shortest distance - a total of 4.9 km/h versus ROCKWOOL DEN’s 5.7km and Australia’s 6km. Spithill went on to dedicate the win to the team’s flight controller Hans Henken, who was injured during an incident in Taranto. While this was ‘such a massive blow for the team’, the incident gave the team ‘a real amount of purpose’, Spithill said.  “It was a tough mom
Post a Comment
Read more