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The Secretary responds...

Posted 9 months, 16 days ago

The Secretary responds...
The right to reply is a staple of our human existence, unless of course you happen to live in China where for some absurd reason we are choosing to hold the Olympic Games! Anyhow, Robert Wilkes the Secretary of the International Optimist Dinghy Association has been online to put what he considers to be the record straight, following the post below...and he doesn't pull any punches: May I comment on the absurd diatribe of Mario Sampoia? .Price: “ a regatta competitive (complete) optimist in Europe today costs around four to five thousand euros” The average retail price of a championship winning Optimist is about half that. An example is the LDC M1 sold in England at EUR 2,400 ( http://optimist.ldcracingsailboats.co.uk/index.asp?selection=boats&InBox=Optimist&subcat=Boats) including VAT. As shown by the analysis at www.optiworld.org/06topgear.pdf there is no need to buy a special make. The top 20 used boats from 12 different manufacturers, including one identical in specification to the LDC M1. .Retailers are entitled to their mark-ups but groups which make the effort can usually buy batches of Optimists ex factory at very much lower prices.  Moreover Optimists retain their value – see the secondhand list at http://www.mariner.co.uk/classifieds/pages/search/searchresult.asp?cid=6b&ItemType=37 - and annual depreciation is probably under EUR 400 per year. .IODA“ the international optimist dinghy association – is a gigantic, heavy, hungry useless monster.” For the record the IODA is administered by just 12 unpaid and democratically elected officers from five continents and, since last week, its first ever full-time paid secretary. The Executive comprises 6 people and two committees add a further 6. Of this 12, four are ISAF-qualified International Measurers and three ISAF-qualified International Race Officers – rather useful people! The total cost of the operation, including running eight major championships attended by over 800 sailors and maintaining the one-design principle for  4,000+ Optimists built in 30+ countries a year is approx EUR 100,000. A sailor who in a year is a member of a national fleet of 100 boats, buys a new Optimist with sail and attends an IODA championship contributes a total of approx EUR 40 to IODA funds.. Dropout“ Internationally, I think it is around two thirds or more kids that drop out of sailing once the opti ‘ monster ’ is done with them!” The facts are totally different. Between 70% and 90% continue to sail. An exhaustive study of this question was conducted in 2004 and the results can be found at  http://www.optiworld.org/dropoutreport.pdf. .Robert WilkesSecretaryInternational Optimist Dinghy Association Full Story »

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