Malta Optimist Team

Help Get Malta's Optimist Team to the World Championships

Malta Optimist National Team Community June 20, 2018 at 9:02 am
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Project Description

Hi

We are 4 boys aged between 12 and 14 years. Richard, Saul , Nico and Antonio. We are all sailors from Malta Young Sailors Club. We are Team Malta. This year we will be representing Malta in the 2018 Optimist World Championships, in Limassol Cyprus. We will be competing against 258 sailors from 55 nations.

To be able to compete at such a high level we train all year round, usually twice a week on the water and as often as we can on land, building up our physical strength. We participate in monthly intensive international training camps that are organised by our club as well as travel abroad to compete in international training camps and regattas. This part of our training is essential as Malta’s size does not allow us to get enough exposure to big fleets.

Unfortunately we do not get much funding, so our parents have to pay for it all.
We have set up this Zaar account, we are seeking to raise 10,000 euro to be able to cover the costs of travel, accommodation, participation as well as the chartering of boats at the World Championships.

Our prospects for top positions and results are good with high chances of making sailing history for Malta and our local Maltese clubs. Richard Schultheis and Saul Vassallo, have already made history by winning Gold and Bronze respectively, at this year’s Jeux des Isles, Island Games, held last week.

We would appreciate any help in getting us there. We are hoping to make Malta and all of you proud.

Thank you for donating ?

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Project FAQ

What is Optimist Sailing?
The Optimist is a one-design boat. . The optimist itself is a small, single-handed boat not larger than 2.5 metres in length. The class has an age limit so by December 31st of the year that you turn 15 you must leave this sailing class and move onto another class. On average you get sailors competing from the age of 7 to 15.
Optimist dinghy sailing has the highest level of competition for any class of sailing. Numerous international regattas are held all over the world every month. It also has the largest fleet in the world. Most successful sailors, including olympic sailors, start their career in the Optimist dinghy class.

What are the Optimist World Championship ?
The optimist world championships are held once a year and are organised partly by the international optimist dinghy association. It is an extremely prestigious event which has seen the likes of olympic sailors such as Ben Ainslie  Any country can take part and each country may send its top 5 sailors. As you can expect the standard of sailing is extremely high.

This year the Optimist World Championships will be held in Limassol, Cyprus between the 26th August and 6th September.

How do you qualify to be part of  Malta's Team and represent Malta in the World Championships?

In order to qualify and represent Malta in the World Championships you need to compete in a number of national ranking regattas.
You can only qualify to start being ranked, once you have moved up from the novice class. This happens after 1 year of racing or after 8 ranking regattas, dependent which comes first.

A regatta is normally made up of a minimum of  4 races usually 6 races, spread over 2 days. This is obviously weather dependent.

The top sailors in the national ranking will be chosen to form part of Team Malta. The first top placed sailors usually go to the World Championships and the next  go to the Europeans.
The Maltese Team changes from year to year. Also the number of sailors chosen will vary. This is dependent on which competition Team Malta will be competing in; this is dependent on the number of national places allocated by the actual  international competition.

How will the money collected be spent?

The monies collected will be used for registration fees, flight tickets, accommodation costs, boat charter, coach charter boat, pre-world championship regatta and uniforms. The team will be travelling up to Cyprus on the 20th August. We will train in the waters and compete in the pre-world championship regatta.

The World Championships will take place between the 26 August and the 6th September.

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