On Sunday Charteris Bay Yacht Club celebrated 50 years of Optimist sailing in New Zealand at their club Opening Day ceremony. Otherwise known as the ‘Home of the Optimist’ the Charteris Bay YC has a long history with the class as long time club member and NZIODA life member Paul Pritchett built and launched the first ever Opti in New Zealand this month 50 years ago during a club working bee. Paul and his wife Pat (also an NZIODA life member) then went on to champion this little boat all around New Zealand which resulted in many an Optimist being built in the garden shed and 50 years later the biggest fleet of sailing dinghies being sailed in our country.
Despite the extreme wintery weather in Canterbury on the weekend making sailing not possible for Opening Day, there was plenty of friendship, history and stories to entertain as Paul, his wife Pat, and their daughter Sarah, who at age 3 was one of the first Opti sailors in NZ, were present to recount stories of the class’ early days and rise to fame throughout the country. Also in attendance was the Pritchett family Optimist ‘Muffin’ which is NZL 1, as well as many of the first group of Opti sailors in our country, recent Optimist champions and young sailors just starting out to learn to sail.
Read all about the early history of our class and how it became a force to be reckoned with here https://optimist.org.nz/elementor-7999/
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