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.

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!

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.

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.

USODA Team Trials Regatta

The 2009 USODA Team Trials Regatta hosted by Noroton Yacht Club in Dairen, CT was an awesome event, providing a litte of all wind conditions and lots of cold wet rain. Here is one of my favoriate photos from the regatta. You can see more at my site http://www.daveheinphotography.com and OPTIsailing.com.