Opti-mistic about the future of junior Sailing
by Helen Hopcroft on 30 May 2007
Optimist action Jeff Crow/ Sport the Library
http://www.sportlibrary.com.au
While club sailing participation continues to increase, sailors are growing accustomed to seeing rising numbers of powerboats on the water. It is widely recognised that supporting junior sailing is vital to the long term vitality of the sport. The ankle biters of today are tomorrow’s champions, club racers, boat owners and sailing aficionados. Desperate parents try and drag their plump children away from their X-Boxes; ‘try sailing’ they plead. ‘No!’ cries the child, and then relents. ‘Not unless you buy me another burger…’
OziOpti may have come up with an answer to the awkward problem of the current lethargic generation of children. They offer affordable rental plans for Optimist dinghies, and have started building a polyethylene training dinghy for less than the price of the fibreglass dinghies. The boats are simple to rig, weigh in at parent friendly 35 kilograms, and are easy to maintain.
‘Transportation is easy’ says sailing mum Jenny Vickery. ‘We pop them on the roof. My daughter and I could put it on the roof easily if my husband was off. And everything just sort of rolls up in a pretty compact way.’
Another advantage for time poor parents is that spare parts are easy to obtain, and the boats are low maintenance.
‘A part for an Opti, which is generally pretty specific to an Opti, is incredibly inexpensive when you compare it to a fitting that goes on a similar junior boat’ noted OziOpti’s Steve Bond.
Steve Bond started the OziOpti company with the simple aim of getting more kids into sailing. It remains the central vision of his rapidly expanding business. He understands that when parents make the decision on what sports their kids will play, they carefully weigh up their financial commitments.
If sailing is perceived as elitist and expensive, junior is likely to spend his or her formative years chasing a ball around an oval or getting very good at origami.
Bond says that the reasonable price of the Optimist has contributed to the dinghies global success, growth within Australia and popularity with families.
‘There are 400,000 around the world and now 423 in Australia, at last count. It’s a huge jump, over 35% in a little over a year. We’re finding that because of the affordability of the product, families are more than happy to buy one or two at a time, and we’ve now got a boat that a 6 year old can handle.’
‘If cash up front is a problem, we’ll do the EziOpti rental plan which is $88 a month.’
Bond says that the rental option enables kids to race in a range of classes, without the parents footing a huge bill.
‘The other thing it’s enabling families to do; you might have someone who’s crewing on a boat and they want to get some helming experience. They can keep doing their two handing sailing, but rent a boat for two years to get some helming experience.’
With the state and national Optimist associations actively developing training and coaching programs in many clubs ‘they get trained to steer a boat, rather than just thrown in it. We’re also promoting and employing youth sailors to keep their interest, give them some pocket money and the kids are relating to these mentors. ’
OziOpti recently announced that they will begin manufacturing the polyethylene training boats themselves via rotomoulding, which has further reduced the cost of getting kids into sailing.
‘The training Opti, the one off price is $2395, but we offer a rebate to clubs and schools of 7.5% when they buy five or more. So it’s $2215 including GST. It’s a couple of grand ex tax, in some cases we have sponsorships available and we’ll be able to lend the boats to the clubs.’
Bond sees the Optimist dinghy as being crucial to developing good sailing skills and a lifelong passion for the sport.
‘Kids are spending more time worrying about their own boat than trying to stay in control. They learn more technically and tactically and that leads to satisfaction, greater interest and longer sailing careers.’
The class provides an upward path to international competition for keen junior sailors, with 400,000 boats worldwide and 150,000 active competitors in 110 countries. Almost 2/3 of Olympic medalists at the last two Olympic had been Optimist sailors.
‘It’s the only junior class that’s ISAF approved for single handed under 16, and it’s the preferred junior class for single handed by Yachting Australia.’
Jenny Vickery agrees that the Optimists were a great way for her daughter Freya to experience international competition.
‘She’s travelled to NZ a couple of times and taken part in 250 boat fleet racing. She also did the Pacific Rims in New Caledonia at one stage. And from that has a huge network of friends already. She’s grown, she’s 15 now sailing 29ers and 420s and she now has this broad group of friends already who say ‘come and stay at our place’.
She sees the international experience that Optimists can provide as a positive contribution to sailing culture as a whole.
‘What kids are finding out is that they can jump from their Minnows and their Sabots, they can jump into an Optimist and get that international exposure, then come back with the knowledge that they’ve gained, take it back to their own fleets. And so it’s all good for junior sailing.’
There has been significant growth of the Optimist fleet in the region.
‘There are huge Optimist fleets out of Asia and New Zealand and we are going that way in Australia now. In New Zealand there are 4500. Singapore has 300 in the training squad alone, around 800 boats all up. These countries have been the top nations at the past two Worlds Championships.’
He hopes to increase Australian fleet numbers to match Singapore’s strong fleet.
‘We’d like to think that in a few years time we’ll be level with Singapore. We took the Australian Optimist Sailing team to New Zealand at Easter time. And the guys had their best showing ever over there in this regatta. It was the first time they’d travelled as a team, and next month they go to Singapore.
‘We’re trying to get Singapore and New Zealand to work with us to help training. They’d enjoy having us as a competitive training partner nearby.’
His vision for the future of the Optimist is simple; ‘in five years time we’re aiming to get 30,000 kids a year into boats through Tackers at 60 clubs nationwide, we’re getting 25-30% retention now but we’ll aim for 20% which equates to 6,000 junior yacht club members, then it’s up to the clubs to provide a meaningful pathway that maintains interest through the youth classes and into senior membership.’ (www.littletackers.com.au )
That’s a lot less hamburgers for a lot more healthy and happy kids. And parents will feel reasonably confident about opening their bank statements too…
Contact details
Ozi Opti
Address : 21-23 Chessell Street
City : Southbank
State : Victoria
Postcode : 3006
Country : Australia
Phone : +61 3 9525 3788
Mobile: 0424225774
Fax : + 62 3 9525 5329
Email : stevenbond@oziopti.com.au
http://www.oziopti.com.au
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