Psara Island, Friday, July 23, 2021, 18:00.
Race 3 and 4 of the 58th edition of the Aegean Rally from Tinos to Psara and a coastal around Psara island concluded today. Team OPTIMUM-Samos Steamship scored two more bullets and is leading comfortably the leaderboard. From Tinos to Psara, moderate to light downwind conditions prevailed but today in the coastal race full blast meltemi conditions up to 35 knots TWS, challenged the fleet in all points of sail.
“It was happy sailing in ideal summer Aegean conditions of up to 15 knots wind speed downwind all the way to Psara. Moreover, after we crossed the finish line in Psara, we soon realized that the wind disappeared for the rest of the fleet pursuing us, so we had an easy and lucky win in Race 3. But in race 4 we fought hard and in great caution not to damage anything or hurt anyone onboard and we got our fourth bullet by a 3 second margin on corrected time. It was upwind with a reef and Jib 4 in 3 meter waves in which we later surfed with the fractional A5 clocking 21+ knots boat speed. It was my first taste of heavy weather sailing but the Optimum guys were smooth operators and kept me busy grinding and enjoying the bumpy ride. Can’t wait for more in tomorrow’s final race 5 where fierce wide reaching and downwind conditions are expected”, enthusiastically comments Samos Steamship associate Alexandros Venetsanos on his second year with Team OPTIMUM.
So we are now regrouping in Psara windy port, go over our checklists, and place bets on maximum and average speeds we will attain in the 95 mile downwind dash to Cape Sounio finish via the famous Kavo Doro strait.
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