Yes, we won Race 5 from Koufonissia to Cape Sounio, and by doing that we achieved a record of 5-0, which means that we are the first yacht to win straight out all 5 races in the 50 year history of the Aegean Rally! The OPTIMUM crew did a consevative start in Koufonissia to avoid any incident, and as soon as they cleared their line they hoisted their huge A3 Spinnaker flying from the new bowsprit and literally explode ahead of the fleet, surfing at 18,5 knots in 25-28 knots of wind. From then on, Team OPTIMUM concentrated to build distance in every corner of the course to Cape Sounio, in Naxos, Strogili, Serifos and Kithnos and at the same time avoid any windless zone that would halt their effort and allow the chasing fleet to stay in touch. We crossed the line under the Poseidon Temple in Cape Sounio at 21:42 as the dark settled and calculated that we roughly needed 2 hours before the second boat cross the line in order to win this last race. We slowly sailed back to our yacht Club in Kalamaki, Alimos, checking the positions of the yachts behind in the internet, knowing that they were fighting hard for every second to cut our winning strake. Would they succeed?
“There was nothing we could to do about it. Racing was over for us, our destiny was on the hands of the crews chasing us. We did our best in this last race and the atmosphere on board was relaxed but focused. Our new Quantum No3 Jib proved very efficient and allowed us to achieve upwind boatspeeds we had never seen before. Although, it seemed certain that even if we lost 1st place in this race we could not miss the 1st Overall win of the 50th Aegean Rally, we were in agony to score 5-0 to write history. 2 hours and 10 minutes later yacht ARISTOFANI crossed the line but silence remained on board. We knew that nothing is certain until the results are posted on the scoreboard. We moored the boat home in Kalamaki at about 02:00 and we went home to sleep. At about 09:00 the sms came in: “5-0” done and dusted!!!” confesses Alexis Marougas ex. Optimum Bowman transferred all the way back to the navigator spot .
It was a real success story for OPTIMUM YACHT RACING TEAM. Stay tuned for the final report that will be issued after the prizegiving ceremony tomorrow and check frequently our team’s facebook page for more pictures videos and stories…