12:00, Monday 14th April 2025, Alimos Marina N.C.Kalamaki, Greece.
Although Sunday’s coastal race was cancelled supposedly due to the visit in the Saronic Gulf of a French Navy Air-carrier, Team OPTIMUM-Samos Steamship managed to complete two training sessions on Saturday and Sunday. Light and up to 15 knots true from WSW prevailed, and it was sunny up to 17οC for this second weekend of April. We covered more than 40 nautical miles in total, pushing our crew work around buoys leveling up our game for the new season. Sunday’s debriefing was long and detailed, testament to the work accomplished and promising to where we are heading with our build up schedule.
“On Saturday, we rounded every available mark in the vicinity and on Sunday we even dropped our own leeward mark to allow all crew members from bow to helm to focus on timely execution. Tacking, rounding, hoisting, jibing, takedowns, jibe drops was the order of the day myriad times all the way to exhaustion. The younger ones showed more stamina however all of us should consider time on the gym. It was agreed that there is ample room for improvement and we welcome mistakes from everyone in training under pressure will only strengthen and sharpen us in tight competition. From dinghies to offshore sailing, training hard is the only way to improve”, says sailing coach Charis Piperakis and Team OPTIMUM member since late last year.
The crew lineup for this third training weekend, Season 32 of Team OPTIMUM-Samos Steamship included Lefteris Grispos, Vasilis Kritidis, Nikos Kountouriotis, Apostolos Serraos, Charis Piperakis, Manolis Markogiannakis, Periklis Hoegger-Anemogiannis, Stavros Papadopoulos-Kouklakis, Nikos Stavropoulos, George Papadopoulos-Kouklakis, George Voutsas and Periklis Livas on Saturday. On Sunday, Nikos Apostolakis and Giannis Kapos replaced Manolis Markogiannakis and George Voutsas and co-skipper Nikos Lazos managed to join as his hurted ankle was feeling much better. We are trying to squeze one more training weekend before our first race on the second weekend of May, likely on 26-27/4.
Happy Easter to all and especially to Peter Burling who announced his departure from ETNZ this week!
Stay Tuned!!!