HISTORY & AWARDS
| 1970 - 2018 . In Portugal
Photograph provided by Francisco Mourão
In 1970 the businessman and sailor Jorge Granger Pinto traveled to Germany to purchase Optimist. She arrived in Lisbon under the protectionn of the Portuguese Naval Brigade (Brigada Naval da Legião Portuguesa) and was first registered in Lisbon on the 22nd June 1970 under the name ‘Optimista’, registration number 8413.
Granger Pinto was a keen and competitive sailor and during the 1970’s Optimista entered numerous regattas not only in Lisbon but overseas.
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| ( some of the many ) AWARDS
24.05.1970 . Regata de Abertura - Yates de Grande Cruzeiro | winner
12.07.1970 . Corporação dos Pilotos - Yates de Grande Cruzeiro | winner
13.09.1970 . Troféu de S. Pedro - Yates de Grande Cruzeiro | winner
04.10.1970 . Regata de Fim de época - Yates de Grande Cruzeiro | winner
30.05.1971 . Regata de Abertura - Yates de Grande Cruzeiro | winner
1971 . Troféu de S. Pedro - Yates de Grande Cruzeiro | winner
30.05.1972 . Regata de Abertura - Yates de Grande Cruzeiro | winner
10.06.1972 . Taça S.M. El Rei D.Carlos I - Yates de Grande Cruzeiro | 2nd place
24.07.1972 . Taça Wintermantel - Yates de Grande Cruzeiro | winner
25.07.1972 . Taça X (A.N.L) - Yates de Grande Cruzeiro | winner
27.07.1972 . Regata D. Pedro V - Yates de Grande Cruzeiro | winner
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In 1987 Optimist was sold to José Paulo Alexandre da Fonseca and remained in Lisbon. Alexandre da Fonseca owned her until 1991 and then sold her to José Manuel Natividade Lopes Ferreira who owned Optimist for the following decade, until 2002.
In 2002 the doctor Víctor Vaz Moreira bought Optimista in Setúbal. It was his intention to strip Optimista down and pursue with her restoration. Optimista was taken out of the water and moved to a strip of land adjacent to his farm, one hour and a half away from the sea. Vaz Moreira initiated the restoration and commissioned sand blasting the steel hull so it could be surveyed and repaired. Once the hull was repaired it was painted with an International paint system. The restoration was then put on hold and the yacht was left under the weather for several years. Seventeen years later Optimista was once again out for sale.
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| GALLERY