In line with the Irish Optimist Dinghy Association of Ireland (IODAI) push to have a fun and inclusive fleet, a Team Racing Optimist Nationals will be held on the 16th of August, the day before the Fleet Racing Nationals starts at Ballyholme Yacht Club on Belfast Lough.
Team racing has one of the highest participation levels of young sailors.
The fun format allows for many short races where a team of four sailors races against another team of four sailors. Tactics, rules and boat handling are the key to success.
It will be run in the bay just off Ballyholme Yacht Club, allowing spectators to get a front-row seat to the action.
Up to 12 teams are expected. A round-robin format will be used with only knock-out sailing at the very end to decide the final and Optimist Team Racing Champions.
We want to get as much racing for teams as possible. An event trophy will be awarded to the winning team.
Thomas Chaix, IODAI coach, will be running the event and the event, which will have on the water umpires. The course type will be the ‘S’ course. Teams can be made up of sailors from different clubs if that club does not have enough sailors to field a team.
We would ask sailors and coaches to enter teams as soon as possible to optimise event planning.
The notice of race and entry form can be found here
