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Future Olympic sailing hopefuls race on Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra

Hundreds of tiny sailing boats have descended on Canberra over the weekend for a national sailing regatta.

Some of the juniors are touted as Australia's Olympic sailors of the future.

All are learning in the Optimist boats or 'Opti' as they affectionately known.

It is a bathtub-sized vessel which has revolutionised junior sailing.

Children aged between eight and 15 years old learn to sail in the Optimist class before progressing to larger boats.

As a measure of its success, 80 per cent of the skippers in the London Olympics learnt on an Opti.

The boat is constructed using a strict set of plans which matches an estimated 200,000 boats around the world.

This means winning or losing a race in an Opti is down to the skill of the skipper alone.

A standout leader at the ACT Optimist Championships was Victorian championship winner Jack Littlechild, who loves to get out on the water.

"I always seem to get butterflies in my stomach when I'm on the start line," he said.

"But usually when I get settled I get full on excited about what's going on around me."

Sailing coach Traks Gordon said the Optimist is one of the best ways to train the Olympic competitors of the future.

"It is a terrible-looking boat that builds an amazing sailor," he said.

"The best sailor wins in this gear and they might not go super fast yet, but the kids who come out of these boats go on to amazing things here and around the world.

"At the highest end is always an Optimist kid."