Optimists - History

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The Optimist was born in 1947 in Clearwater, Florida.  The Clearwater Optimist Club wanted to do something for the children of the community, and a number of members pushed around the idea of promoting soapbox derby cars.  This idea turned out to be a non-starter because Clearwater has no hills, a fatal deficiency for a prgram involving vehicles powered solely by gravity.  It was then pointed out by other members that while the Gulf Coast city was poor in land features it was rich with water and suggested sailboat racing instead.

They asked a local boatbuilder named Clark Mills to come up with a children's boat simple enough to build at a cost no more than $50.  Mills sketched a sprit-rigged pram that was 7ft 8' long, the maximum length he could get out of an 8ft length of plywood.  It took a day and a half to build and was called the Optimist Pram.  It was a boat which a young skipper and a parent could put together in a garage, with one sheet of plywood, some stainless steel screws, some resorcinal glue, and a few banged thumbs.  Plans were sold for $2.50 and a fleet of the Optimists were soon sailing on Clearwater Bay.

The Optimist was mainly a Florida phenomenon when a serendipitous development set the boat on a course to become the most truly international of all international classes.

A danish tall ship captain by the name of Axel Damgaard to the Optimist to Denmark in 1958 will Mills' permission.  It was in Denmark that the rig was slightly modified and the boat was renamed the International Optimist Dinghy and the class soon spread across Europe.

In 1962, the first World Championships were held, at Hamble in the UK.  The class received International status from the sailing world's governing body, the International Yacht Racing Union (now ISAF) in 1973.  It was during the 1970's that the popularity of the Optimist spread to Asia, Africa and Latin America.  The Optimist today is one of the world's largest and fastest growing sailing classes, bigger than Lasers, Hobies or any other one-design.

While many boats claim 'International' in their title, there is none which is sailed in more countries.

The Optimist may be the world's only true 'International' dinghy.