19:00, Tuesday 26th November 2024, Alimos Marina N.C.Kalamaki, Greece.
Last race weekend for the season arrived, and on Saturday we had to cancel our training session due to strong westerlies of up to 30+ knots, blowing most of the day to avoid possible breakages. On Sunday the wind had softened and for Race 4 of Winter Series the organising committee of Y.C.G. managed a 15-mile coastal course around cans for boats in ORC SPORT category and two W/L races for ORC PERFORMANCE 1 & 2 category. Without a training session the day before, and crew changes in relation to the previous weekend, Team OPTIMUM-Samos Steamship managed a 13th and 7th places among 18 entries in NNW winds varying from 10 to 17 knots and mainly flat seas. As such, OPTIMUM S finished in 6th place overall the Winter Series Cup after four consecutive race weekends, and completed the 31st season for Team OPTIMUM.
“We are not happy performance wise, as we never reached the podium in five races after OPTIMUM S got back in action in mid-October. It seems to me that our retirement in July from Aegean 600 followed by three months ashore to short the mainsail mast track issue, seriously affected our fighting spirit and proved we were not able to perform on our return against teams that had taken no break. However, those six weekends in total and five races were used wisely to monitor and evaluate boat systems, sails and crew continuously, in various conditions, and think about changes for the coming season. After more than three decades we know that we learn more from our defeats than our victories and we look forward for Season 32”, says Team OPTIMUM member and trimmer Giannis Kapos.
The 13-crew line-up that put the last fight of the season consisted of Lefteris Grispos, Nikos Kountouriotis, Apostolos Serraos, Charis Piperakis, Nikos Apostolakis, Vasilis Kritidis, Manolis Markogiannakis, Giannis Kapos, Vaggelis Nikolopoulos, Periklis Hoegger-Anemogiannis, Periklis Livas, Nikos Lazos.
Plans, schedules and goals for 2025 are advancing, will be presented to our patron Samos Steamship and final decisions will be made and communicated to all Team OPTIMUM members early enough to deliver the best we can for season 32, in 2025.
Season’s Greetings!