Athens, Monday, June 1st, 2015, 22:00.
It was an extra long weekend and a 9-race series over 4 days of racing in Faliron Bay. Yacht Club Greece organized perfectly the 23rd edition of its prestige event “Y.C.G Sailing Week”. OPTIMUM Yacht Racing Team started the series scoring low but managed to turn the tables by scoring two bullets in races 8 & 9 and so reached the podium once more this season in 3rd place. The series started on Friday with two inshore races on a Windward/Leeward course around buoys followed by a 25-mile offshore/coastal race on Saturday. Team Optimum scored 5, 5, 6 and was lying low in 6th place. On Sunday, the Race Committee filled in three more W/L races and the Optimum boys posted 2, 2, 4 and were elevated in 4th place in the standings. Day 4, Monday, the wind changed to North and strengthened providing OPTIMUM 3-ASPIDA-SAXOBANK the opportunity to shine and score 5,1,1 and get onto the podium. Well done!
“Racing for 4 days in a row, a 9-race series is very demanding mentally and physically. You leave the office early on Friday and run your guts to make the 16:00 start. You get home late and tired every day and at the dock at 09:00 every morning. All day long you have to survive among a crew of 15 strong sailors/characters, make it through with one sandwich, perform your best and avoid to be the weak ring in the chain. Back at home in the evening your lovely ones ask you how did it go and before the answer comes out of your mouth they ask you to do all the things you should have done for them over the weekend if you didn’t have to be away for “yacht racing”. And you try hard to please them all, get your act together team wise, and be part of the team that managed to reach the podium, and enjoy yourself. I repeat it is tough, but it is worth it. A hard earned success feels great and makes your investment in time and effort worthy. And that’s exactly what me and my Optimum buddies are feeling now with a score line reading 5,5, 6, 2,2,4, 5,1,1. Thank you for letting me part of the Optimum Team and please allow me to count down the days for our next race, the big one, the 52nd Aegean Rally!” says enthused George Kyragiannis on his second season with the team.
Our loyal sponsors ASPIDA and SAXOBANK should be proud of our consistent progress and fighting spirit all the way to the finish line of race 9 and we invite them to accompany us to the prize giving ceremony in the unique premises of Yacht Club Greece. The men only crew line-up included Gary Gabri, Stratis Tsamparlis, George Hatzigeorgiou, Vaggelis Karras, Nikos Apostolakis, Alexis Chrysochoides, Manolis Markogiannakis, George Kyragiannis, Thanos Papasideris, George Belessis, Patroklos Tachtatzis, Lambros Nakis, Manos Roudas, Periklis Livas, Nikos Lazos. The new score after nine more races between Bullet TP52 vs Team OPTIMUM now stands at 9-14.
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