
Optimist Racing
A Manual for Sailors, Parents & Coaches
Fernhurst Books Limited (Publisher)
3rd Edition
Published on 3. September 2019
Book
Paperback/Softback
120 pages
978-1-912177-18-9 (ISBN)
Description
The Optimist is the most popular junior sailing class worldwide, with thousands of young people actively racing them and hundreds attending the major events in the class. It has been the nursery for most of the top racing sailors in the world including all the Team GBR gold medallists at the last 2 Olympics (Sir Ben Ainslie, Hannah Mills, Saskia Clark and Giles Scott) - the same will be true for most other countries. Optimist Racing is written for those sailors, parents and coaches who are looking for success in this competitive class. In it you will learn what it takes to win, including how to achieve blistering boatspeed through technique and tuning, perfect boat handling and tactics as well as covering the mental and physical requirements for success. There is also a section for parents and coaches describing how they can best support their young sailors. Originally written by Ben Ainslie's Optimist coach, Phil Slater, this new edition has been completely updated by top international racing coach, Steve Irish, who can be found coaching Optimist and other sailors worldwide. This book is the up-to-date handbook for sailing an Optimist fast.
More details
Series
Edition
3rd edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Leamington Spa
United Kingdom
Illustrations
57 Diagrams; 228 Halftones, color
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 172 mm
Thickness: 10 mm
Weight
290 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-912177-18-9 (9781912177189)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
09/2019
Fernhurst Books Limited
€16.31
Available for download
Previous edition
Phil Slater
Optimist Racing: 4500112
Book
08/2001
2nd Edition
Fernhurst Books
€36.04
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Persons
Steve Irish is a world-class professional sailing coach. He has worked for the British Sailing Team, Turkish Sailing Federation and Thailand's 49er team amongst others. He is a previous 420 World Champion and multiple National Champion in the RS800 class. Since devoting himself to racing coaching full-time in 2003 he has coached teams to world championship success. He coaches Optimist sailors regularly both in the UK and around the world. Phil Slater was an RYA Optimist Racing Coach and has been the UK Optimist Team Coach at numerous championships. He was Ben Ainslie's first sailing coach, training him to win the UK National Optimist Championships and compete in 4 Optimist World Championships. As a sailor himself he was Firefly National Champion.
Content
Foreword; Introduction; PART ONE: SPEED: Speed Basics, Sail & Rig, Upwind Speed, Downwind Speed; PART TWO: BOAT HANDLING & TACTICS: Basic Boat Handling, Tactics; PART THREE: EQUIPMENT & TUNING: Mast Rake, Fast Gear; PART FOUR: WIND SKILLS: Seeing The Wind; PART FIVE: MIND & BODY: Mental Fitness, The Perfect Body, Physical Fitness; PART SIX: PARENTS & COACHES: For Parents, The Perfect Coach.