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1000 Boats 45 Nations Sailing On Lake Garda Northern Italy In Largest Youth Regatta

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With a group of keen and hungry “racing kids”, we participated in the huge sailing event that is the “Lake Garda Optimist Meeting” – a celebration of sailing for kids and families from 45 nations, where we tested our newly developed Optimist race sails. At the other end of the scale, vastly experienced “old salts” share their tips and ideas on double-headsail rigs for serious cruising. Thrown in for good measure are our new, cheerful but top quality training sails for the Hobie 16 catamaran.

optimist race sails garda meeting 3
  • May , 2026

The Rolly Tasker Sails “Optimist Team” attended the Lake Garda Optimist Meeting with four sailors, and myself- CEO Sven and former 420 World Champion Dirk as team coach. A huge event and hugely enjoyable, there also was work to be done: testing our newly developed Optimist racing sails.

World’s Largest Youth Regatta

It is the world’s largest one-design youth regatta event, with more than 1000 boats out of 45 nations at the start. Every Easter, thousands of Optimist fans from all over the world gather on the shore of Lake Garda in northern Italy – young sailors aged 9 to 15 years and their friends, families, and coaches. This gigantic sailing event is unique in its friendly, international family spirit but also known for strong competition on the water. Up to 10 races are sailed, splitting the 1000 plus boats into different groups. A real challenge for the organizing yacht club, “Fraglia Vela Riva”, which is masterfully accomplished year after year.

Testing New Racing Sails

This is the “Lake Garda Meeting Optimist”, in which I am very happy to participate. Both as a family, with my kids competing, and as Rolly Tasker Sails. Our overall team of 4 young sailors included our Thailand test sailor to test our newly developed Optimist race sails in true race conditions, also in strong winds gusting up to 26-28 knots. And we are pleased to report that these sails more than fulfilled our expectations, performing extremely well across the entire wind range. 

After a great and successful regatta at Lake Garda, we are eager and motivated for the ongoing Optimist racing season both in Asia and Europe. The next step will be enabling 4 sailors from the Thailand National Optimist team to travel to Europe for the Optimist European Championship in Gdynia, Poland. 

Our research and development for the best possible Optimist sails will strongly continue! For the Silo, Sven Cornelius.