08:00, Saturday 8th July, 2023, Lavrio, Greece.
Following a magnificent Aegean 600 opening ceremony last night, hours left for the start of the 3rd edition of the AEGEAN 600 under the Poseidon Temple in Cape Sounio. 41 monohulls and 4 Multihulls representing 15 countries will cross the line on Sunday July 9th at 14:00 for an epic round of the Aegean Sea in champagne conditions. Team OPTIMUM-Samos Steamship have already managed a 2nd place in IRC and 1st place in ORCi overall in the inaugural 2021 edition with OPTIMUM 3/Farr 52od. in 2022 with OPTIMUM S/Carkeek 47, Team OPTIMUM had to abandon right after the start due to a complete blackout in electronics. This year OPTIMUM S is fully prepared for battle royal and the crew hungry for Aegean fun and glory. The competition is beyond any expectation as yachts like LEOPARD 3, PROTEUS, ARAGON, I LOVE POLLAND, CARBONITA, CHIPPA LIPPA X, CHOCOLATE 3 and many others make a quality favourite list. One should note that CHOCOLATE 3 is Team OPTIMUM’s ex. OPTIMUM 3 at the hands of a well travelled and very capable team. Thirteen Team OPTIMUM members aged 18 to 58 will press the pedal to the metal aiming for a good result to celebrate the 30th season of Team OPTIMUM.
“We are thrilled to compete with such high calibre sailing teams on iconic race yachts that one find them campaign all over the world, in our home waters. Last year’s forced abandonment was costly as it delayed our learning and mastering of OPTIMUM S for a year. We have put a lot of boat preparation time and crew training and we are looking to complete the course in a continuous good pace. Although the Aegean Sea is our playground and Team OPTIMUM has criss-crossed it in all ways and angles, it is the strong competition that we expect to push Team OPTIMUM-Samos Steamship to climb to another level. An opportunity we hope to have year after year in the AEGEAN 600 as one of the home teams”, says Nikos Lazos, Team OPTIMUM co-skipper and co-Principal.
We are thankful and proud to have Samos Steamship of Inglessis family supporting us in every way possible since 2019, equally positive through good and bad times. HELLY HANSEN as our apparel sponsor, QUANTUM SAILS Greece as our sailmaker of choice, LALIZAS S.A. as our safety partner, KAPA ROPES Technology and ROPE ALIGN as our rope experts, have all contributed to raise Team OPTIMUM standards in all areas. We should also thank Christos Chatzidimitriou and Stergios Papadopoulos for taking care and providing their technical skills and solutions in a timely manner.
In order to be recorded in the OPTIMUM story book, here comes the final Team OPTIMUM-Samos-Steamship crew line up for the 2023 AEGEAN 600 from bow to stern: Fanis Dalezios, Lefteris Grispos, Nikos Apostolakis, Kostas Makridis, Manolis Markogiannakis, Giannis Kapos, Nikos Kountouriotis, Nikolas Stavropoulos, Vaggelis Nikolopoulos, George Kouklakis-Papadopoulos, Apostolos Serraos, Periklis Livas and Nikos Lazos.
Good Luck guys!