37TH GARDA OPTIMIST MEETING

Thanks For Visiting Us At Fragila Vela Riva

North Sails were proud to be a part of the 37th Lake Garda Meeting for the Optimist Class – the largest one design class in the world. Aside from a spectacular sailing venue, Lake Garda always delivers perfect sailing conditions and this event was no exception – reliably at noon every day, the Ora wind sets in. This made for exciting racing, with the top seven boats being divided by just four points after the penultimate race.

Throughout the week, the North Sails booth acted as a hub for over 1000 sailors to come and talk, ask questions and play games. North Sails Optimist Class Experts offered some last minute racing tips to the sailors, coaches and parents, with sail designer Mike Marshall coming over from the U.S. to give some hands-on sail tuning advice. ”It was great to see both the coaches and sailors critically analyzing the sails,” commented North sail designer and Optimist expert, Mike Marshall.

As well as being present onshore, our experts got out on the water to see our Optimist development sails being tried and tested by Team Russia, USA and Norway. After receiving promising feedback from both the sailors and coaches, we are excited for the sail to launch later this year, believing it has the potential to make an impact within the fleet. Congratulations to Marco Gradoni from Italy who came out on top of the 887 boats in the Junior fleet and Erik Scheidt from Brazil for winning the younger Cadetti fleet with 84 boats.

The North Sails booth acted as a hub for over 1,000 sailors to come and talk, ask questions, and play games. North Opti experts offered some last minute racing tips to the sailors, coaches, and parents, “It was great to see both the coaches and sailors critically analyzing the sails.”

”With great pride and satisfaction, we have completed this 37th edition of the Garda Optimist Meeting. This year, we were particularly lucky also with the weather conditions. that gave us a week that almost looked like summer, with warm sun and steady Ora wind, never below seven knots. It’s already time to look forward, in 2020 we will also host the Optimist Worlds so it will be a great year for Fragila Vela Riva.” Giancarlo Mirandola, President of Fragila Vela Riva.