Alimos Marina, Monday September 14th, 2020
Our tireless Farr 52 One Design OPTIMUM 3 sits on its cradle since Andros Race and other scheduled races are being canceled for safety reasons due to the covid-19 situation. Upon consultation with our partner Samos Steamship we elected to resume racing with OPTIMUM 3 for Hydra Race in October and Winter Series in November if the situation with the virus allows for safe operations with absolutely minimal risk. We also agreed to carefully keep in touch with racing as a team in order to stay in form but only on smaller and less crowded racing boats than the 15 crew needed for OPTIMUM 3. As such, we asked Team OPTIMUM crew member Evi Delidou who just became proud owner of a brand new “talk of the town” Dehler 30 One Design AETHER and our dear Romanian friend Laurentiou Gaitan who keeps his stunning carbon X-treme 37 AFRICANA in Greece to campaign their boats for a few weekends and join us of course if they were free from other commitments.
Team OPTIMUM co-skipper Charis Mavrogeorgis secured Evi Delidou, Gerasimos Petratos, Aggelos Nikolaidis, Christos Mylonas, Patroklos Tachtatzis, Periklis Livas as a line-up and enjoyed already two weekends of daily coastal races of about 25 miles each with a combination of 5 crew on board AETHER. Team AETHER managed a scoreline of 6,7,2,1,3 over the past two weekends in various conditions and were extremely impressed on how far yacht design has progressed since the Dehler 30 OD is a 2020 breakthrough design incorporating the latest proven features in hull design and sailplan thinking. Most importantly we had the chance to test how AETHER performs on handicap and we were very pleased with the results. It is early days for AETHER but she is very well thought, user friendly and very-very promising little rocket for exhilarating sailing for the years to come as we recorded steady speeds of over 17 knots in flat seas on no more than 22-23 knots TWS!
AFRICANA sailed so far only last weekend, led by Team OPTIMUM co-skipper Vaggelis Nikolopoulos surrounded by Lambros Nakis, Fanis Dalezios, Giannis Kapos, Nikos Apostolakis, George Papadopoulos-Kouklakis, Tasos Dikastopoulos, Odysseas Kantas and Nikos Lazos. They managed to train only on Friday and get a feeling of the boat and the crew choreography guided by Nikos Lazos who was the only one on board with knowledge of the boat as he has raced before on AFRICANA in the 2018 Aegean Rally finishing in second place behind CHIARA IASON helmed by Vaggelis Nikolopoulos. They managed a scoreline of 3, 5 and very tight on corrected time with the other finishers on top. AFRICANA is a 2012 carbon racer 37-footer by Reichel-Pugh leading naval architects, well maintained, carrying a serious sail wardrobe for any kind of racing as owner Mr. Gaitan has campaigned her in the 2018 & 2019 ROLEX MIDDLE SEA RACE with great success. The boat is for sale for a very competitive price and it would be great if she stays and keep racing in Greece and modernise the ageing Greek racing fleet.
Team OPTIMUM members enjoyed their rivalry over the weekend and are looking forward for more boat to boat action on the water as the photos reveal…