12:00, Thursday 10th October 2024, Alimos Marina N.C.Kalamaki, Greece.
The Double Handed National Cup proved tough, long and tiring. The twenty entries from various parts of Greece covered the 138-mile race, facing all sort of conditions continuously day and night. SEANATK Yacht Club, organized the yearly event for 5th time in a row, very successfully, and emerges as the Greek Club with best understanding of Double Handed long distance racing. Light and sunny, then stormy and rainy, then surfing in 20 knots of wind, turning light again, magnificent sunrise, followed by long and tiring upwind stretch and a shifty tactical final run to the finish, was the menu for the twenty duos. With the support of LALIZAS and PERFORMANCE TECHNOLOGIES, OPTIMUM Sailing Academy father and son duo of Periklis and Vasileios Livas raced red rocket Dehler 30od OPTIMUM 4 to win the silver podium position in an elapsed time of 28h18m09s.
“Less than a month ago I got the silver medal in Olympic Class Formula Kite National Championship foiling on my board at 40 knots of speed in multiple 10-14-minute races. This weekend I had the opportunity to race with my father the red O.S.A. Dehler 30od in the Double Handed Nationals 28+ hours non-stop. I love the diversity that the sport of sailing has to offer, and I enjoyed as much working hard continuously for more than a full day, fighting for tenths of a knot and best VMG possible. I have crewed occasionally on Team OPTIMUM race yachts the last few years, and offshore sailing interests me but double handed racing offshore boats is another dimension of the sport with additional requirements and knowledge that takes time and race miles to acquire. We had a good time with dad, and it was a positive experience, although we were both totally burned out at the finish line. We did a fair share of mistakes, so finishing in second place was a bit of surprise to me but my father and Vaggelis Nikolopoulos had finished second in 2022 and 2023, so I guess OPTIMUM 4 is destined to finish second always to a different winner!”, jokingly describes multi-disciplinary sailor and OPTIMUM Sailing Academy graduate Vasileios Livas.
In other news, Team OPTIMUM launched back OPTIMUM S-Samos Steamship and will train and compete in Hydra Race and Winter Series all through the end of November. Looking forward putting back in action our thoroughbred race yacht and get Team OPTIMUM members back in full action after a 3-month period, following the retirement in AEGEAN 600.
Stay tuned!