Optimist sailors run the world!  If you havent already heard, David Hein who sailed in his last Optimist regatta at the Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta this past December at Coral Reef Yacht Club in Miami, Florida is now officially sailing a campaign for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil!

This past Sunday during the NBC coverage of the 2012 Olympic closing ceremonies in London, they played a 3 minute interview with David talking about his sailing career and his plans for his campaign leading up to 2016.  You can see the interview and read more about David on his blog which is http://www.followmetorio.com.

It is that time of year again, the USA Optimist National Championships are under way in Sandusky, Ohio.  The schedule of events includes three days of team racing, one day of girls fleet racing and four solid days of open fleet racing on Sandusky Bay.

While there is much excitement from the sailors that have traveled from as far away as Bermuda, Canada and all across the USA, the most impressive moments from the Sandusky Sailing Club's USODA Opti National Championships of 2012 can all be seen at http://pix.daveheinphotography.com/event/OPTISAILING.

2012 OPTIsailing calendar

Wow, what an awesome year of Optimist sailing and incredible response from everyone voting on photos on our all new www.optisailing.com! The result is the best version of the Opti sailing calendar EVER!. This 15 month calendar offers a huge size of 18" wide x 24" high when hanging on your wall. So big you can practically feel the spray hitting you in your face while doing homework or just daydreaming about your next chance to venture out onto the waters at your next regatta! We have also worked closely with regatta hosts and Optimist organizations around the globe to include every possible regatta that is currently scheduled and have listed many that the dates are still pending in the month they are expected to happen. If you are sailing in North America, Europe or anywhere else around the globe, we have many regattas listed for your convenience!


The calendars were printed in a limited quantity and are available right now at http://www.opticalendar.com. They will also be available at some of the upcoming regattas, if there are any left... Enjoy your copy before they are all gone.

2011 USODA Team Trials

I will be in San Francisco to cover another year of the Opti Team Trials regatta and am expecting that many of the photos will end up in the 2012 OPTIsailing calendar! This is the elite Opti event in the USA, where the top sailors from around the country come to compete for a coveted spot on the US Opti Team and to qualify for specific regattas around the globe including Opti Worlds in NZL!

Watch for some exciting photos as the regatta gets under way! Then see them all online on the Beta site located at http://www.optisailing.com

Opti Sailing Video- David Hein

2010 Orange Bowl Regatta is underway

The 2010 Orange Bowl regatta started with a tremendous day of competition in cooler than anticipated conditions for most competitors. With temps that never stepped above 60 throughout the day and starting at only 34 (in Miami), there was an unusual chill to the air that helped to raise nerves and anticipation just before launch in the 9-20 knots of breeze that were providing for an awesome day of racing on Biscane Bay. Photos of all three fleets will be posted on daveheinphotography.com

2011 Optisailing Calendar

The 2011 edition of the Optisailing calendar is published and shipping from our Cleveland studios! Make sure to order your copy today to receive it in time for the Holidays!

Buy your calendars at http://www.opticalendar.com!

Layline Optimist Great Lakes Championships

In 2010 Layline has been selected by USODA as their Platinum sponsor. Among many benefits of being awarded this honor, Layline is able to require all competitors at USODA events to place their logo on the boats.

At the Great Lakes Championships we witnessed the first event with the Layline logo and debate erupted over the placement of the stickers. What do you think? Should it be on the starboard side as shown, or directly on the bow?

Chautauqua Lake Yacht Club in Lakewood, New York was the host of this event and proved to be a great place to sail in the spring. With light, 8 knot breeze blowing in the beginning it looked like an average regatta, but the 18 knots were not far behind. 21 sailors from this event qualified for the 2011 USODA National Team Trials which will be sailed in San Francisco at the St. Francis Yacht Club in late April.

All photos posted

All photos of the incredible sailing action of last week's IODA North American Optimist Championship regatta at CORK in Kingston, Ontario are now online and available at http://pix.daveheinphotography.com/event/2010-OPTINAM-at-CORK. Here you can view the photos, purchase any prints you want and save your favorites to view online or vies as a slideshow and share with your friends.

Remember to vote on these photos at http://www.optisailing.com. The top photos here will be used in the 2011 OPTIsailing calendar, which will be distributed worldwide this fall! Login every day and vote for the top photos from OPTINAM 2010!

2010 OPTI North American Championships

So, you think you are too big for an Opti? Is the boat not "cool" enough for you?

Well this year, IODA sent the Opti NAM's to Kingston, Ontario, Canada and there are 200 of the World's top Opti sailors competing for the title in both fleet and team racing. Take a look at the photos below that will give you an idea of just what the calebar of sailing that the Optimist class is turning out.


These sailors are competitive in winds ranging from 3 knots to above 25, and CORK is delivering a challenging mix to provide a full-range assessment of the sailing abilities of the world's best sailors.

Valentines Regatta at SPYC

Getting ready to travel to St. Pete for the Valentines Regatta. This is the final qualifier for the 2010 USODA Team Trails regatta. See you there!

USODA New England Optimist Champs

Day 2 of the 2009 USODA Opti New England Champs is in the bag, with the weather and excitement one would expect from the Capital of sailing, Newport, RI.

The day provided an excellent opportunity for all sailors to prove their meddle with sustained breeze of 12 and gusts above 18. The shifty New England wind proved to be a true test of the sailors attention to detail and kept everyone looking across the race course to be the first to the puffs and shifts.

Day 3 is about to get under way and looks to be offering the lightest conditions of the event. Sail Newport is truly proving to give sailors a little of every condition as a real test of sailing abilities. Photos from day 1 are now available on the Dave Hein Photography site.

Opti New England Champs

As if just being in Newport, RI is not enough on it's own for a sailor; this week Sail Newport is hosting the 2009 USODA New England Championship regatta. With nearly 400 boats competing for an opportunity to qualify for the 2010 US Team Trials Invitational regatta, you can bet the level of sailing is at it's top.

Day 1 of racing ended after 4 complete races in the 4 flights. With shifty winds that did not top 10 knots, the sailors were required to stay attentive and watch for the shifts ahead while navigating the changing tidal currents.

I shot nearly 3000 photos of the first day of racing, and they will all be posted on Optisailing.com as soon as I get near adequate Internet access. Keep watching for more exciting sailing photos to follow!

2009 Opti National Championiships

The 2009 Opti US National Championship regatta took place in July at the Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club in San Pedro, California.

220 sailors turned out for the championship event and were honored with the most hospitable club and regatta committee ever! To make the event tops, the Commodore even arranged to have the wind build from 10 knots at the start of sailing each day to over 20 knots by the end of racing each evening.

Sailors in both the championship and green fleets enjoyed excellent sailing, plenty of wave surfing and hiking to prove their talents as the top Opti sailors in the country.

Photos of the event can be seen at Dave Hein's Boatyard Photography site and at OPTIsailing.com.

Lake Ontario Opti Team

The Lake Ontario Opti Team, or LOOT is one of a few teams that have been formed over the past fifteen years to help local Opti sailors grow in their knowledge of sailing and build advanced racing tactics that propel them to the top of the class. LOOT however is a bit different in that it is truely International in flavor. With 50% of the team (this year) from Canada and 50% from the US, and Roberto Fabini, full-time opti coach from Uruguay; the team is a collection of top sailors that are destined for success through this season and beyond.

The team format is to travel the entire summer, staying approximately one week at each venue to train before their regatta. This gives the sailors a variety of waters to train in and helps them to acclimate to the area before a big race. In 2009 the team is travelling to Cleveland Race Week, USODA Great Lakes Championships, Fogh Boorman Regatta, Island Heights Junior Olympics, Rochester Junior Olympics, USODA New England Championships, CORK International Regatta and Conadian National Championships.

If your Opti sailor is growing beyond the coaching at your local club, I strongly recommend looking into LOOT or any one of the other teams around the country that bring advancing sailors together to help build their skills while providing the most awesome summer experience any sailor can have!

CORK International Regatta

I have just received a request from the organizers of CORK asking me to be the photographer of the 2009 International Regatta in Kingston, ON!

Last year's event was the first time I had experienced CORK, and I have to say, the facilities, the race management and the waters are among the best I have seen anywhere. I constantly tell everyone involved with youth sailing that if there is one regatta to travel to in the season, CORK would be it! Make plans to attend. Register today and we will see you in August!

2009 Fogh Boorman Regatta

When a severe storm blew through at 9am on Saturday, I figured this regatta was going to be light and short on races.

After the storm had passed, it appeared that all of the wind had gone with it. Boats launched and it looked as if it would be a day of light and variable wind, basically a day of bobbing on the water.

Within a hour of launching, the wind started filling in and continued to build all day. In fact, the weather proved to provide for exciting sailing on the Opti, Laser/Radial and 420/29er courses. All fleets had tremendous wind and awesome sailing across the board. You can see photos of the Opti races at OPTIsailing.com and all others at Dave Hein Photography

2009 Cleveland Race Week

The 2009 Clevenad Race week Opti regatta hosted by Edgewater Yacht Club was bigger and better than ever, with sailors in town to compete the following weekend at USODA Great Lakes Champs at LSYC. The regatta provided the perfect venue to experience sailing in the waters of Lake Erie and preview the competition that would be present at the upcoming championships.

Featured in this photo is Edgewater Yacht Club sailor, Ian Moran completing a roll-tack in light breeze.

Make sure to see all of the photos from this event, and vote for the photos to be included in the 2010 OPTIsailing calendar by visiting OPTIsailing.com

RHYC Lilac Regatta

Spring sailing is always great. If the winds and air temperature are not ideal, at least we have the thoughts of the warm and windy summer to come.

This May, Royal Hamilton Yacht Club in Hamilton, Ontario hosted it's spring event, the Lilac regatta. While the winds on day 2 were disappointing and did not allow for a single race to get off, day 1 was great with a building breeze all day and some terrific conditions on the Opti course. As always, you can see thee complete set of photos at DaveHeinPhotograpy.

2009 USODA Great Lakes Championships

The 2009 USODA Great Lakes Championship regatta, hosted by Lorain Sailing and Yacht Club in Lorain, Ohio was an event for the record books. With light and shifty breeze throughout day 1. The race committee was able to challenge the sailors with a true course that provided difficult navigation through the constant oscillating winds.





Day 2 proved to be a test of strength and deft understanding of race tactics as the winds provided 18-25 knots of force to blow the sailors quickly across a long and trying windward-leeward course. The sailors swiftly navigated the legs, twice around to demonstrate their abilities in all conditions aboard the world's largest one-design fleet! Opti sailors are awesome!

In the end, the top 18 sailors at Great Lakes Championship regatta qualified for the 2010 USODA Team Trials Invitational Regatta. Congratulations to everyone!

To see all of the photos from this event, visit daveheinphotography.