08:00, Tuesday 29th March 2022, Alimos, Greece.
Team OPTIMUM managed to enter all three OPTIMUM Sailing Academy Dehler 30ods in 49th Hydra Race organized by H.O.R.C. The snowy and windy weather that persisted in Athens until March 23rd didn’t allow much preparation but the will to compete was strong among Team OPTIMUM members and friends. Over the long weekend, due to the national holiday on Friday, we enjoyed fantastic spring weather that provided mostly happy sailing conditions with light- medium winds. Academy brand new DEHLER 30ods, AETHER, OPTIMUM 4 and LAVORO III scored mid fleet results in both legs of the race to Hydra island and back and finished 22, 16 and 21 respectively.
“We enjoyed our first race of the season with a team of five Team OPTIMUM members and fans. Yorgos Eliopoulos, Tzanetos Kyriakidis and Mily Tirla joined me and partner Gerasimos Petratos and raced AETHER in full crew mode after a 2021 season mostly in double-handed mode. We were in the mix in both legs but a few errors and fresh wind coming from behind pushed us back in the scoreboard. Nevertheless we feel the more we sail our little rocket the more satisfaction we receive”, declares Team OPTIMUM member Evi Delidou and AETHER owner.
“OPTIMUM 4 hoisted sails for first time on Thursday afternoon and hit the start line on Friday morning. Speedo wasn’t calibrated neither the wind instruments but racing against three other Dehler 30s including ATLAS was a good measure of performance. We tried to give the chance to as many Team OPTIMUM members to wet their feet in the new season, so we raced with the max crew of six. Team OPTIMUM co-skipper Vaggelis Nikolopoulos led Christos Stathas, Fanis Dalezios, Periklis Livas, Nikos Lazos and myself to figure out how to sail this little rocket. The end result was irrelevant to the fun we had back in action in OPTIMUM spirit”, says Team OPTIMUM crew boss Nikos Apostolakis.
“With the same minimum level of preparation as OPTIMUM 4 we had a fully positive and enjoyable experience racing LAVORO III to Hydra Island and back. It was our first taste of sailing a super modern boat with asymmetric spinnakers on a bowsprit, square-top mainsail, twin-rudder and retractable propeller system. It was so user friendly and felt completely controllable and predictable even when pressed hard in tight reaching angles in good breeze. More impressive was the performance in 2-3 knots wind going upwind where you would expect her to be sticky. She wasn’t. We, the usual Team LAVORO gang of Meletis Paterakis, Prodromos Petridis, Tasos Kardasis and Andreas Kapelentzis enjoyed immensely our time on board and we can’t wait for more. Zigzagging downwind is new for us but we are willing to learn fast”, admits LAVORO III co-owner Prodromos Petridis.
The OPTIMUM Sailing Academy Dehler 30ods will be campaigned extensively throughout the season by Team OPTIMUM members and friends but more importantly will be available to all interested parties for happy sailing all the way to hard core 600-mile non-stop racing.
Join the fun now rather than later!