The Ontario Mirror Dinghy Association (OMDA) is an organization of people who have one main thing in common. They belong to a family that owns a Mirror Dinghy: a small wooden sailboat.
One of the other factors that ties most OMDA members together is camping.
Many of our sailing events take place at camp ground locations.
Among the places our events take place include: Sibbald Point on Lake Simcoe,
Killbear Provincial Park on
Georgian Bay, Pittock Lake in Woodstock,
Belwood Lake Sailing Club.
Whereas these sites are the ones we have frequented most often, we also visit other locations.
Because of the close proximity of Lake Ontario we visit various marinas for a number of our day regattas.
Interestingly, not all OMDA members are into sailing. Most of the adult sailors are husbands (fathers) and their wives still enjoy the camaraderie of the on shore activities. Even so, there are a few wives who are the sailors and their husbands also enjoy the on shore camaraderie.
Our greatest joy is the ease with which the children (we actually call them the juniors) take to sailing. OMDA operates a week's junior sailing camp in years where there are enough juniors who need basic sailing training. It teaches from CYA White Level I to Bronze Level V. Many of our regattas are specifically for the juniors. The gender split among the junior sailors is much more even than among the adults.
Obviously, the Canadian winter is not conducive to camping or dinghy sailing. OMDA, nevertheless, is active as a social organization during these frigid months. We have one day (or evening) events ranging in locations from Pickering to Guelph. There even is a group who one Sunday a month gather to take an extended hike. We carry lunches in our knapsacks and halfway through the hike we have a picnic. Yes, hiking and a picnic in the middle of winter, even in the snow. It is invigorating and fun.
In spite of its name, some OMDA members own larger sail boats (in addition to their Mirrors),
some are into sail boarding and lately we have even noticed a beginning interest in kayaking.
So, you can see that OMDA is a sailing, racing, camping, social, hiking organization;
the order of preference being a very individual thing.
OMDA publishes a quarterly newsletter called The Jibsheet.
The Jibsheet has a variety of information including the results of regattas,
accounts of various camping and social events, information about sailing in general, safety tips, etc.
If this little description of OMDA has piqued your interest and you'd like more information, contact us.
© 2006 Ontario Mirror Dinghy Association