Dinghy sailing is the activity of sailing small boats by using five essential controls:
The Optimist, also known as the ‘opti’ or 'bathtub', is a small, single-handed sailing dinghy intended for use by children up to the age of 15. Contemporary boats are usually made of fibreglass, although wooden boats are still built.
Knud Olsen was a Danish builder and designer of boats, who designed one of the most popular sailing dinghies in use over the past 50 years, the OK Dinghy, which became an ISAF International Class in 1974.
The Redhouse Yacht Club (RYC), which is amongst the oldest yacht clubs in South Africa, hosts large dinghy races, and operates a training program that has produced international champion sailors.
Black Rock Yacht Club is a Yacht club for off-the-beach sailing boats on the shores of Port Phillip Bay, seventeen kilometres south of Melbourne, Australia. The club was founded in 1904 and has a proud history of Olympic, world and Australian champions. Classes sailed include International 14, Sabre, 125, 420, Moth, Sabot, Optimist, Minnow, and Australian Lightweight Sharpie.
Idle-Along (IA) - is a class of sailing dinghy designed by Alf (Unc) Harvey at Worser Bay in the 1920s. It grew to considerable popularity in the 1950s but its popularity gradually diminished during the 1960s. A redesigned hull for plywood construction by John Spencer kept the class going but on a smaller scale with a small revival in the 1990s with about 10 new boats being built. The Idle-Along is also sometimes referred to as IdleAlong, Idle Along, IA, I Class and Idie.
Zeddie is an old New Zealand sailing dinghy. The first boat was designed and built by Mr R.B. Brown at Northcote in the 1920s. The Zeddie originally was gunter rigged, which shortened the spars for convenience. Some have been converted to Bermudan, no jib and a spinnaker which was sheeted around the front of the mast leading to many capsizes. This rule was changed in the interests of safety. The Zeddie is 12 foot 6 inches long and about 5 foot in the beam.
The Algoa Bay Yacht Club (ABYC) is a yacht club in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Port Elizabeth forms part of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality.
Pwllheli Sailing Club is a yacht club in Pwllheli, Wales, founded in 1958. Over the years its clubhouse has moved several times, and it has also become an organiser of national and international yachting and dinghy sailing events.
Burghfield Sailing Club is an inland sailing club located close to the town of Theale in Berkshire near Reading in the south of England. The club and lake are easily seen from the M4 motorway as the westbound lane approaches Junction 12. BSC was one of the first Clubs in the UK to be awarded RYA Champion Club status.
Jennifer Margaret Armstrong OAM is an Olympic sailor from New Zealand. After competing for her native country at the 1992 Olympics, she moved to Australia in 1996 and won a historic sailing gold for her adopted country at the 2000 Olympics.
The Splash Dinghy is 3.5 m in length and all boats are identical, thus, as is typical in One-Design classes, the sailor's ability rather than equipment is emphasised fleet racing. The boats employ an un-stayed mono rig with a sail area of 6.3 m2, which makes the class easy to handle by sailors ranging from 45 to 80 kg. This, combined with the low hull weight of 55 kg, allow the class to serve as a stepping stone between the Optimist Dinghy and boats such as the Laser Radial, suiting Sailors in the age range from 13 to 21 years.
Peter Burling is the 2017 America's Cup champion helmsman, and an Olympic gold and silver medallist.
Ed Baird is an American sailor. He was a coach of the 1995 America's Cup-winning Team New Zealand and a helmsman for the 2007 America's Cup-winning Alinghi syndicate.
Mossel Bay Yacht and Boat Club, / Mosselbaai Seiljag- en Bootklub (Afrikaans), established in 1956, is a yacht club in South Africa. It is located in the harbour city of Mossel Bay on the Garden Route in the Western Cape Province.
Joanna Ayela Aleh is a New Zealand sailor. She is a national champion, a former world champion, and an Olympic gold medallist.
Raúl Ríos, is a world class sailor in the Optimist, Snipe, and Lightning classes.
Carl Evans is a New Zealand sailor who represented New Zealand at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
