Strangely enough, the Optimist Dinghy began as a
soapbox car. About forty-eight years ago, in Clearwater, Florida,
children used to wheel around town in their soapbox cars. A local
chapter of Optimists International, the civic group, asked Clearwater
boat designer Clark Mills to build a floating version of the soapbox
cars, hoping that the local children would start cruising Clearwater
Bay instead of Clearwater's streets. Clark Mills came up with a little
square bowed boat and called it the Optimist Pram. It was a boat which
a young skipper and a parent could put together in the garage, with one
sheet of plywood, some stainless steel screws, some resorcinol glue,
and a few banged thumbs.
Optimist Class Association of South Africa |
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The
first Optimist was built in 1948 and was soon a popular youth boat in
and around Clearwater and St. Petersburg. For some time, it was only
known in that area. The turning point for the Optimist class came in
1954 when Axel Damsgaard, skipper of a Danish three masted tall ship,
saw an Optimist while his ship was visiting the United States. When he
returned to Denmark, Axel promoted the design. The Optimist soon became
very popular throughout Scandinavia, where it was renamed the
International Optimist Dinghy--its official name today. 
The
IOD spread throughout Europe in the 1960s. In 1962, the first World
Championships were held, at Hamble in the UK. In 1965, seven nations
got together and formed the IODA (International Optimist Dinghy
Association). In 1973, the class received International status from the
sailing world's governing body, the International Yacht Racing Union
(now ISAF). During the 1970s, the popularity of the Optimist spread to
Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Today, the Optimist is the world's
largest-- and fastest growing--sailing class, bigger than Lasers,
Hobies, Sunfish, or any other one-design. While many boats claim
"International" in their title, there is none which is sailed in more
countries. The Optimist may be the world's only true "International"
Dinghy.