The history of Winner Optimist
The foundation for the superior craftsmanship Winner Optimist put forward today was underway in the sixties.
Our founder Mr. Henning Wind (Olympic medalist in 1964 - Finn dinghy)
Started working with the Optimist production in the sixties. First as a valid sales person at Falsled Optimist. Henning
Wind ended that cooperation in order to fulfil a desire to start a production of superior Optimist dinghies in high quality
fiberglass and with his racing expirence he made that the centre of attention.
A few years later, unfortunately, fire erupted at the original plant at the harbour in Faaborg and consequently the entire
production had to be relocated to an entirely new plant at Krogsbjergvej.
Over the years the Winner plant has steadily been expanded with offices area and more space for production and stor-
age. This means that the plant nowadays have evolved into the biggest and most modern production facility for Optimist
construction in fibreglass.
During all those years the Winner Optimist dinghy was continuously developed and improved through the different marks
- each new model improving on the previous marks.
Winner has won more championships than any other Optimist builder, from the first World Championship back in the
1970’s to the last World Championship in 2016. We won gold in 2013, 2014 and 2016 but
“only” won silver in 2015.
In 1990 the production of Europe-class dinghies was relocated to our sister company in Spain. This led to the entire pro-
duction at Krogsbjergvej being dedicated to the supreme quality Optimists that is manufactured today. Winner Optimist
therefore has 40 years of experience with the building and development.
Today Winner Optimist is under the management of Stig & Marianne Bløcher.
Both are experienced sailors with various championships to their claim.
Marianne is Silver medalist from the Optimist Europeans in 1993.
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