New Rig for Optimist

[Doug Lord]

Wild may be an understatement. (fromSail-World.com) http://www.sail-world.com/USA/Wingsa...ationals/82656
What a cool thing for Oracle to do!!!
More on the story:

Members of the Oracle Racing America's Cup team have been busy ahead of the 2011 Toyota Optimist Nationals, due to get underway at Auckland's Wakatere Boating Club which get underway tomorrow.

Several members of the various America's Cup teams live in the Devonport area, and took the opportunity to develop a wingsail rig suitable for the Optimist.

Oracle Racing in conjunction with Oracle NZ are sponsoring a day at the Nationals, which will consist of a sailpast plus prizes for the sailors, in addition a bottle of wine signed by Russell Coutts and James Spithill will be auctioned as a fundraiser.

On Friday afternoon the 300 sailors will visit the America's Cup Race Management base to watch an AC45 craned into the Viaduct harbour and to met with the sailors and teams from Artemis Racing, Emirates Team NZ and Oracle Racing. They should also have the chance to check out Emirates Team NZ's new Volvo 70 being campaigned for CAMPER.

Overseeing the trials of the wingsail was Oracle Racing's Technical Director Mike Drummond, who checked the basic setup on the beach before the Optimist was launched this afternoon. According to all reports it sailed very well indeed, and provided an interesting contrast to one of the teams wingsailed AC45 catamarans, returning from a training session on Auckland's Hauraki Gulf.

300 entries have been accepted for the regatta with competitors entered from five countries in the Oceania region, including sailors from five Australian states. 200 sailors have entered the Open competition and another 100 are sailing in the Green fleet for first year sailors.

The championships double as a selection trial for the New Zealand team for the 2011 World Championships.
click on image:

[Doug Lord]

And don't forget these milestones in Optimist history:


Optimist with spinnaker and Optimist on foils-yes, an Optimist bi-foiler(it sorta did foil!) http://foilingboatadventures.blogspo...ing-oppie.html :
click on image:

[P Flados]

A wing on a the boat that looks like a bathtub.

The concept reminds me of the Pintos & Vegas with hot V8s that were cobbled together when I was a teenager.

[Doug Lord]

From Scuttlebutt Europe today:

Wing Technology Trickles Down To Youth Sailors

When it was announced that wingsails would be used in the 34th America's Cup, many wondered how the technology would trickle down through the sport. While the final applications are far from decided, the technology has trickled down to the youth sailor in the form of a wingsail for an Optimist dinghy.

The optimist is one of the oldest, most used trainers for youth sailors. It was designed in 1947 by Clark Mills, and the square bow design with gaff rig has withstood the test of time. The International Optimist Dinghy Association has national associations in 126 countries and there are more than 130,000 Optimists registered worldwide.

It is such a popular trainer that the children of some of ORACLE Racing's teammembers own an Opti as they start what could be a career long path towards the America's Cup. Several of the design team took the initiative to adapt a wingsail for the Optimist that was trialed recently ahead of the New Zealand Optimist Nationals.

"The idea came about when talking with some 470 sailors at Wakatere Boating Club, who are always building things for boats or skateboards or surfboards," said Mike Drummond, a designer with ORACLE Racing. "The top section of our A-class catamaran wing is removable, and about the same size as an Opti rig. It was very easy to add a standard Opti mast tube to be able to step it into a normal Opti."

When it was trialed ahead of the nationals Drummond was impressed the sailors asked very good questions about how the wing works and why it has a slot. The wing isn't class legal so it won't be seen on the racecourse in the immediate future, but down the road wingsail technology will undoubtedly become widespread.www.oracleracing.com


picture: President of IODA, Peter Barclay (left), with 2011 Optimist Worlds Committee member, Peter Dawson and the mysterious wingsailed Optimist. Photo by Terry Nicholas.