Being part of an NZIODA development team provides a great way to accelerate your learning so that you can keep challenging yourself with your sailing. These teams continue to be very popular and selection to one of these teams is a great goal to aim for at the upcoming Toyota Optimist Nationals if you are competing in the Open fleet.
Each year NZIODA supports 18 young sailors to be included in one of three development teams; the Girls’ development team, the Junior Boys development team or the Senior development team which can be made up of sailors from either gender.
In 2026 these teams will attend the King’s Birthday weekend team clinic held at the Peter Snell Youth Village on Whangaparoa Peninsula, attend several team training sessions and then travel to attend the Zhik Youth Sail New South Wales event held at Lake Macquarie in October.
For more information about being part of an NZIODA development team and what this entails visit our website at https://optimist.org.nz/development-teams/
Our selection criteria for these teams can be found here: https://optimist.org.nz/selection-criteria/