Learn to sail
an Optimist dinghy
One hull, one mast, one sail, one sailor. The Optimist is the world’s most popular boat for children to learn on. This guide takes you from never-been-in-a-boat to your first tack.
Start with the hullWhat is an Optimist?
An Optimist (the “Oppie”) is a small one-sail dinghy designed in 1947 by Clark Mills in Clearwater, Florida, USA. It measures just over three metres long — small enough for a child to manage alone, strong enough to take years of lessons.
Nobody is born knowing how to sail. Almost every top dinghy racer — from Ben Ainslie to Robert Scheidt — learned in a boat like this one, and so will you. The Optimist class is the standard first boat for racing and leisure sailing for kids roughly aged 7 to 15.
Its shape is a flat-bottomed box, which makes it forgiving when you make mistakes (you will make plenty), and its tiny sail area means the wind can’t overwhelm you. In this manual, “you” means the skipper — the person in charge.
| Length (LOA) | 3.23 m (10 ft 7 in) |
|---|---|
| Beam | 1.15 m (3 ft 9 in) |
| Draft | 0.85 m board down, 0.15 m board up |
| Sail area | 3.5 m² mainsail; optional spinnaker ~2.3 m² |
| Hull weight | about 35 kg |
| Crew | 1 sailor, up to about 85 kg |
| Sailors | typically ages 7–15 |
| Designer | Clark Mills, 1947, Florida, USA |
| Hull number | your boat’s ID, stamped in the fibreglass |
Parts of an Optimist
Learn these names before you touch the boat. When a coach says “pull the mainsheet” or “raise the daggerboard,” you should already know what each piece is. Say the word to yourself as you look at the boat.
The parts you will touch on your first day
Tiller, mainsheet and daggerboard are the controls; mast, boom and sail are the engine.
Rigging the boat, in order
Rigging means assembling the Optimist from its parts, then checking it before launch. Do the steps in this order and you will not knock your own mast down. Allow ten relaxed minutes the first few times.
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Read the wind and lay out your kit
Face into the wind and spread every part on the ground upwind of the boat trolley: mast, boom, daggerboard, rudder, tiller, mainsheet, halyard, bungs, lifejacket. Check the forecast too — if it is above roughly 12 to 15 knots on your first outings, sail another day.
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Step the mast
Lift the mast and place its bottom heel into the mast step in the middle of the hull. Hold it upright — it is unsupported for a moment. This is easiest with a helper, and nearly impossible alone in a blow.
Tip: keep one hand on the mast at all times until the sail is attached. -
Feed the sail up the mast track
Slide the mainsail’s luff (the front edge) into the groove in the mast, working the bolt rope in from the top or the bottom as your club teaches. The sail’s head (top corner) carries the halyard fitting. Leave the foot loose for now.
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Attach the boom
Hook the gooseneck onto the mast and slide the sail’s foot along the boom track, finishing at the clew (the aft corner). Tension the foot enough that wrinkles along the boom disappear, then lock the clew outhaul. This is the sail you will tune all day.
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Hoist with the halyard
Clip the halyard to the sail head, pull until the luff is snug but not drum-tight, and cleat it. A loose luff shakes and stalls; a thundering-taut one makes the boat hard to steer. Aim for small ripples only at the very edge.
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Lead and cleat the mainsheet
Clip the mainsheet block to the boom end, route the line down to the center of the boat through the traveller, and tie the free end to the hiking strap. You pull the sheet in and ease it out with your hand — it is your throttle.
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Fit the rudder and tiller
Lower the rudder blade onto the transom gudgeons, push in the pin, and attach the tiller to the rudder head. Connect the tiller extension with its universal joint. Wriggle the rudder — play that feels like slop means a bent pin or worn joint, so say something.
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Final pre-launch check
Daggerboard down halfway, bungs in, buoyancy tanks closed, lines no more than two knots everywhere, PFD zipped and clamped. Only then do you roll the trolley toward the water, always keeping the bows pointing into the wind.
If it can blow away, tie it down. If it can fall in, clip it. The wind aboard an Optimist plays no favourites — check everything before launch so nothing surprises you on the water.
Points of sail
The wind gives you your choices. Every angle between your course and the wind has a name, and each needs a different sail setting. Your two real options before the wind are: let the sheet out, or change direction by turning through the wind.
The points of sail, seen from above
Grey wedge = the no-go zone where the sail cannot fill
- No-go zoneIf your bow points within about 45° of the wind, the sail flaps and fills with air like a flag — you lose speed and steerage. To go upwind everyone zig-zags, and the zig and the zag are tacks.
- Close-hauledThe tightest you can point toward the wind, about 45° off it, mainsheet trimmed well in. This is how you beat to windward.
- Beam reachThe wind hits your side (beam). Fast, balanced, the best first course to practice on: sheet in until the forward edge of the sail just stops fluttering.
- Broad reachWind comes from behind and the side; the sheet lies out nearly square. The boat feels lively and the helm lightens.
- RunWind directly behind you. Slow but relaxing; the main danger is an accidental gybe — the boom swings wildly across if the wind catches the sail’s wrong side.
Running straight downwind with the sheet fully out, a puff can blow the boom right across the boat. On an Optimist the boom is low. Keep your head down — literally — or duck and steer a slightly higher course instead.
Your first sail, from the trolley to the shore
Everything above was on land. Now here is what happens in the water on your first day — not as a substitute for a coach, but so nothing on the water comes as a shock.
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Launch, then head away from shore
Push the boat clear of the jetty, hop in, let the wind push your bow away from the bank, and pull the mainsheet in gently. Steer with the tiller. To turn the bow away from the wind (bear away), pull the tiller toward you… no, the tiller is reversed: push it away to head away from the wind. Practice that on land first.
Confusion killer: repeat this until it is a reflex — push the tiller away from you, and the bow turns toward the wind. The tiller always steers the wrong way round, so think bows, not tiller: to swing the bow through the wind, push the tiller the other way. -
Pick a side and hold a course
Choose something on the shore ahead — a tree, a tower — and aim for it. Keep the sheet tensioned just enough that the sail’s front edge never shakes. Adjust the daggerboard: down when beating, up when running, halfway in between.
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Learn to stop
Let the sheet go completely. The sail spills its wind and the boat drifts to a stop. Now you know the panic-free way out of almost any situation: ease the sheet. Add the tiller toward the wind and you will come to rest pointing upwind.
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Make your first tack
From close-hauled, say “ready about,” check nothing is in the way, then push the tiller away firmly so the bow swings through the wind. As the sail crosses, duck, change sides, and trim in on the new side. Congratulations — you just sailed upwind.
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Come back in
To return to the jetty, aim above it (into the wind), then on your final approach let the bow turn downwind and drift in gently. Or lower the sail a few metres out and paddle. Coming in hot on a crowded shore is how beginners start family stories.
If the boat goes over, here is what you do
An Optimist will capsize — that is part of the fun and a big reason it is a good first boat. It has reserve buoyancy, so it floats high even full of water. The capsize drill happens on land or in shallow water with a coach watching, before you ever do it for real.
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Stay with the boat
Do not swim for the shore — the boat is your float and your marker. Hang on to the gunwale, keep your head down when the rig slaps the water, and make sure the mast is not stuck in mud or sand.
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Float the mast head to windward
Swim behind the boat and walk the bow around until the mast points straight into the wind. This is the single most important move: with the mast facing the wind, the sail cannot scoop water and fill like a bucket.
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Climb out onto the daggerboard
The daggerboard pokes sideways into the water. Grip the gunwale, get your legs over the board, and stand up on the daggerboard — your weight on it steadies the whole boat.
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Heave on the gunwale and climb as she rises
With the mast to windward, pull back on the gunwale or mainsheet. As the hull comes upright the water drains quickly through the otherwise-kept-open drain holes (Automatic Drainer).
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Climb aboard over the stern, never over the boom
Once she is upright and drained, swim to the stern and haul yourself in over the transom. Climbing in over the forward gunwale risks pushing her over again. Sit in, grab the tiller and the sheet — you are sailing again.
1. Never leave the boat. 2. Always sail within reach of a rescue craft and an adult on shore. If you feel you cannot right the boat, sit on the upturned hull and wave — staying dry beats winning.
Sailor’s glossary
- Boom
- The horizontal lower spar that carries the foot of the sail.
- Capsize
- When the boat rolls over. Expected, and recoverable.
- Clew
- The aft (back) lower corner of the mainsail, where the boom attaches.
- Daggerboard
- The lifting fin that slides up and down, stopping the boat drifting sideways.
- Ease the sheet
- Let the mainsheet out — go slower and safer.
- Gybe / jibe
- Turning the stern through the wind, sail switching sides. Watch the boom.
- Halyard
- The rope that hauls the sail up the mast.
- Luff
- The front edge of the sail; also, to point so close that the sail flutters.
- Mainsheet
- The rope controlling the sail — your accelerator and brake.
- Point of sail
- The angle between your course and the wind.
- Ready about
- Tacking call: “Ready… about!” then turn.
- Run
- Sailing straight downwind.
- Tack
- Turning the bow through the wind to reach upwind.
- Tiller
- The arm that turns the rudder — reversed thinking; push to turn the bow to windward.
- Trim the sheet
- Pull the mainsheet in to use more of the wind’s power.
- Windward / leeward
- Toward the wind / away from it.