The NZ Optimist Association committee (NZIODA) would like to make you aware of a few changes that will take effect in the 2024 – 25 season for our Optimist sailors and families.
These decisions have not been made lightly; they have been discussed and debated at length over the last few seasons in a bid to try to improve the experience of being an Optimist sailor in New Zealand. We are aware of the great responsibility that our class holds as the gateway to sailing for many, and believe it is our responsibility to provide a fun, inclusive, and rewarding experience for all. The underlying goals at the heart of these changes are the following:
- To make Optimist sailing more inclusive and accessible to all
- For kids to have fun with their mates doing something that they love
- To inspire a love of sailing and the marine environment
- To build lifelong relationships and a sense of community in our sport
- To make Optimist sailing more affordable
- To provide a range of experiences for our sailors
- To encourage sailors and their families to help each other to build knowledge and share experiences within the class
- To better align with SportNZ and YNZ research that ‘balance is better’ for our young athletes
- To bring the class in line with other classes regarding selection to represent New Zealand on the world stage (e.g Youth trials)
How will we choose our teams to represent New Zealand in 2025?
The teams will be selected from sailors’ results at the Nationals to be held at Royal Akarana Yacht Club in April, 2025. All IODA regatta and Development Team members will be selected from this regatta alone.
Please note : There will be NO other ranking regattas
What teams will NZIODA be sending to overseas regattas in 2025?
We will continue to select and send sailors to the following Optimist regattas:
- World Championship
- European Championship
- North American Championship
- 3 x Development Teams (venue and regatta TBC)
Other regattas that our membership can put an expression of interest to attend are:
- Asian and Oceanian Championship
- Polynesion Regatta – Tahiti
- Qingdao Regatta – China
- Japanese Friendship Regatta
Changes to our Three Fleets
We are making some significant changes to the structure of our three fleets; particularly our Green Fleet to help build sailor engagement. It will be up to each sailor to decide which fleet is right for them for each regatta that they sail in.
Green Fleet
Green Fleet is our introduction to racing while keeping the focus on fun. It provides an opportunity for younger siblings to get involved while their older siblings are racing in the more challenging White and Open fleets. It is NOT designed to be a competitive experience; its goal is to nurture young sailors to love sailing, meet new friends and have a go at racing.
With this in mind NZIODA have decided to:
- Make this fleet open to any age group and take away all restrictions
- Remove the trophies for overall results from this fleet
- Reward success on a day to day or race by race basis
- Provide a variety of experiences at a regatta including destination sails, longer course sailing, novelty races and traditional race courses, etc
White Fleet
White Fleet is our introduction to a racing series without the high demands that are experienced in Open fleet. It provides an opportunity for sailors to compete in more traditional racing on a similar course to the Open fleet. This is a more competitive fleet than the Green fleet and a great transition between Green and Open fleets.
With this in mind NZIODA have decided to:
- Award trophies / prizes for overall results at major regattas for this fleet
- Enforce only one restriction to entering this fleet; if you had a podium place in the White fleet at the previous Nationals you will be required to move into the Open fleet
- Provide racing that will follow a similar format to the Open fleet; however races will be shorter and there may be less races sailed in a series
Open Fleet
Open Fleet will remain our most competitive fleet in the class with a similar structure that it has always had where sailors can compete at a high level for the overall prize of being the Optimist champion at the event for each gender.
Things to note about being an Open Fleet Sailor:
- Trophies / prizes will be awarded for overall results in each major regatta rather than for each individual day
- Sailors will continue to compete for age related awards
- NZIODA will select IODA and Development team members from this fleet based on their performance at the Nationals
Please take some time to browse through our website over the winter months to become familiar with what we have to offer your sailor. There are a multitude of extremely useful resources to help you at each step of your sailing journey. As a committee we would be very grateful to anyone (sailors or parents) who can lend a hand; that might be some coaching, helping other parents (they might be non sailors), pointing anyone in the direction of our website, engaging another club that might need a hand, or even… joining this committee.
We also ask that you bear with us as we work through updating our website to reflect these changes over the next couple of months.
Your NZIODA Committee