In photos: Optimists on the water

A young girl from Heideveld is enthralled as she sails around the Cape Town Waterfront during The Little Optimist Trust holiday sailing program. Photos: David Harrison

Optimist: A person who is inclined to be hopeful and to expect good outcomes

Optimist: A small single-handed sailing dinghy intended for use by young people up to 15 years of age

Greg Bertish is an optimist. After contracting a bacterial infection while travelling in the tropics in 2001, he spent over 200 days in hospital over six years, and had two open heart surgeries.

While in hospital, Bertish met hundreds of children and their families who, he says, were “fighting for their lives and to get through these tough situations”. He realised then he wanted to help give hope to children so that they could get out of the hospital and thrive.

Bertish created an animated character, The Little Optimist, based on a less than three-metre boat, with a huge heart to inspire children. Using this character, a public benefit organisation was formed in 2011. It first did charity work at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town.

The Little Optimist Trust founder, Greg Bertish, takes a photo with a prospective sailor. Bertish is a passionate sailor, surfer and waterman who wants to share his love of the ocean with children, as he believes it has a positive effect on a child’s development.

He raised money for a new ICU at the hospital with a solo sail around the Cape of Storms in his Optimist boat. The documentary film The Little Optimist helped secure the sponsors’ funding, and a year later, over R1-million was raised to paint the Children’s Hospital.

In 2017, Bertish started his sailing program. He would take groups of children down to Zeekoevlei and the Milnerton Aquatic Club. He borrowed boats. He saw how much the experience of being on the water helped some of the children. Bertish then decided he wanted to do a lot more with the idea.

“We’re giving children the opportunity to fall in love with the ocean and sailing in one day. If you can do that, they will want to protect the ocean,” he said.

“We get children coming down here who’ve never sailed, never been on a boat, never been to the ocean, can’t swim, and are scared of the water … two hours later, we’ve got them marching and singing out of the classroom here with their lifejackets. Thirty minutes later, they’re sailing their own boats. At the end of the day, you can’t get them out.”

Little Optimist facilitator Erica McCune teaches a school group from Heideveld about water safety, ocean ecology and sailing skills.

There are over 150 registered surf therapy organisations around the world. By contrast, sailing therapy is very new.

Bertish says, “The yachting community is starting to realise how elite, white and male-dominated their sport is, and that they need to change it. They’re trying to find ways to do that. Hopefully, we can be a catalyst for that change.”

A school group receives prizes after completing the Broadening Horizons Sailing Program at The Little Optimist Trust sailing academy in the Waterfront.

Funding is a problem for these programs.

In 2020, Greg got three years of funding from the Paris Olympics to set up the sailing therapy academy in a safe space at the V&A Waterfront. The IOC has now given The Little Optimist Trust a grant to scale the sailing model for multi-day programs and to set up a further three pilot sites.

“You are Fantastic”: A learner from Heideveld receives a certificate of completion.

The Little Optimist Trust sailing instructor Joshua September is also responsible for running the new sailing academy pilot sites at Strandfontein, Zeekoevlei and Hout Bay. He says he’s grateful to the Little Optimist for giving him a chance by introducing him to sailing while he was still at school. He fell in love with the sport and has sailed overseas.

The Little Optimist Trust sailing academy classroom at the Waterfront, where a group from Vista Nova special needs school children receive instruction before heading onto the water.

Young learners from Vista Nova enjoy the freedom of sailing Optimist boats.

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