FAQS

• Enter the Great Optimist Challenge via our website and platform: fill in the entry and receive an entry number and information pack.
• You can enter as an individual, corporate, school, charity or team.
• Challenge your friends, family or competitors to enter for charity too.
• South African challengers can raise funds for their chosen charity and The Little Optimist Trust. Funds raised by YOU are all for The Little Optimist or split 50/50 with your chosen charity. International challengers can fund raise for The Little Optimist Trust on Back a Buddy. If they want to fundraise for international charity as well, they can do so on a separate Given Gain platform.
• We help you set up a fundraising page for your challenge/boat on one of these amazing online platforms and YOU share with your friends so they will donate and support you.

Contact us to ask about an Optimist dinghy that we can deliver or offer you to use. You can even sail, sit or paddle in your pool or garden, or at The Little Optimist Sailing Academy & Trust, located at Battery Park, Dock Rd, V&A Waterfront.

Any challenge is accepted! Kids can cycle their tricycle around the park and get Granny and Grandpa to sponsor them. YOU can do any race for charity, or do a personal challenge for charity – for example, swim across the bay, sit on a lilo in the pool for 4 hours, cycle a mountain pass, walk a distance or sleep out in the garden with your kids for charity.

You can also race Optimist dinghies at Boatica 2024 from 25 to 27 October.

We have teamed up with BackaBuddy and GivenGain to help you quickly and effortlessly get your friends and family to support your race, and help raise money for charity. Our International sailors will be best served with the GivenGain platform which allows your supporters to pay in multiple currencies. Click HERE and start your campaign now. Set up your campaign and share via social media to get your supporters onboard to help you reach your fundraising target.

It is not possible to raise money on one fundraising platform page for a local and an international charity at the same time due to our stringent exchange control regulations in South Africa, but you can do half on Back a Buddy and half on Given Gain – get in touch to ask us how.

The funds raised by The Great Optimist Challenge will be used for therapy, education, opportunities, meals and material for at-risk youth from disadvantaged backgrounds,  who attend our Sailing Thru Life programs, as well as inspiration days and at our hospital and school visits.