Matias Capizano and the Optimist Worlds
Ultimate Sailing Calendar - Sept 2026 - Optimist World Championship, Argentina ©Matias Capizzano
Mar del Plata, Argentina, Dec 2024 – For the September spread of the Ultimate Sailing Calendar, photographer Matias Capizano takes us to his home waters of Mar del Plata, Argentina—a place that has shaped his photography for nearly three decades.
These photographs were taken at my home club in Mar del Plata, Argentina, where I started photographing sailing 28 years ago.
Together with other members of the club, we worked for several years to bring the Optimist World Championship back to Mar del Plata. After several attempts, we finally won the right to host the event again in December 2024.
There was a special history for me. The club hosted its first Optimist Worlds in 1992, when I was a volunteer at Mark 1. Argentina’s Ramón Oliden won that championship with an extraordinary score—five firsts and one second—while a young Ben Ainslie finished 37th.
More than 30 years later, the Optimist Worlds returned to Mar del Plata.
The 2024 championship was a fantastic event, and Mar del Plata showed itself at its best, with incredible sailing conditions. The photographs in the September spread were taken during the training days and the first day of racing, when the conditions were particularly spectacular.
Luckily for the young sailors, the wind and seas calmed down somewhat as the championship progressed, and in the end it was a fair event, with fairly even conditions across the fleet.
Getting the Shot
Mar del Plata has helped me capture some extreme Optimist photographs since the beginning of my career. This time, almost 30 years later, I was very happy to welcome so many friends from the Optimist community—sailors, coaches, parents, judges and officials—and to have them experience firsthand the beauty of Mar del Plata and its sometimes wild sailing conditions.
As usual, I photographed from a very small RIB with a tiller. I think this has become one of my trademarks.
It gives me a great connection with the kids. I can stay very low, sitting on the floor of the RIB, and move through the fleet without creating waves or disturbing the sailors.
Positioning is incredibly important to me. Where you are on the water is crucial to getting the shot, and with this kind of small RIB, I can be extremely precise about where I want to be.
This time, however, the RIB I found was so small that even my Pelican case wouldn’t fit. I had to bring a small dry bag instead and carry less equipment.
Cameras vs. Mar del Plata
I always push hard to get the photographs I want, no matter how rough the waves are.
I use a Think Tank Hydrophobia cover to protect my cameras, but Mar del Plata won this round: two cameras didn’t survive to the end of the event.
Most of the time I photographed with the Canon EOS R5 and R5 Mark II, using the Canon RF 100–500mm lens. It is an extremely versatile combination, particularly for the way I work on the water.
Being back at my home club for an Optimist World Championship, almost three decades after I began photographing sailing there, made this event particularly special.
It is always an honor to be part of the Ultimate Sailing Calendar.
And I cannot finish without remembering our friend Carlo Borlenghi, a tremendous inspiration to all of us and a photographer whose work has been part of this calendar for many years. We sadly lost Carlo recently, but his influence on sailing photography—and on all of us who photograph this sport—will remain for a very long time.
