12:00, Monday 12th May 2025, Alimos Marina, N.C.Kalamaki, Greece.
After four training weekends since late March, all Team OPTIMUM-Samos Steamship members were keen to race. The ATHENS TROPHY event is co-organized by five Yacht Clubs led by H.O.R.C. and is run over two consecutive weekends, just under the Acropolis. In the ORC Performance category, the schedule is for up to twelve Windward-Leeward races, no more than three per racing day with no starts after 16:00. As such, the Race Committee managed to complete two races on Saturday and another two on Sunday, when a third one that got started had to stop as a wind shift of more than 60 degrees swept the course and there was no time to start again. Team OPTIMUM scorecard on the first racing weekend of the season reads 12, 1, 6 and 11, sitting in 7th place overall out 16 entries, a bit erratic performance in the light sea breeze conditions that prevailed, but nevertheless enjoyable to be back in racing mode.
“Windward-Leeward racing is not our aim these last seasons with OPTIMUM S as we have set her up for long offshore racing like Aegean 600, Rolex Middle Sea Race, etc. But we like the fun and at this early stage of the season, it allows us to focus on crew coordination, communication, boat handling, starts and smooth mark roundings plus sorting out technical details. The debriefing of this first weekend pointed that our results were mainly dependent on our positioning and acceleration at the start line, and secondary in crew handling errors at the leeward gate. When in clear lane we could hold on with the TP52 VELOS-Eurobank Team in speed and angle and we felt we had a nice wide groove to play with. The fleet was very competitive, and it was promising for the racing scene in Athens that new teams emerge, put on hard work and post good results. Sunny, warm and light winds prevailed both days, really nice rewarding conditions. The bullet we scored in race 2 on Saturday showed that we can reach the podium if we start well and minimize mistakes, although we race inshore with a triple reef offshore mainsail on ball bearing mast cars… Overall, we had good fun, and we are progressing on our playbook”, says Team OPTIMUM co-skipper Nick Lazos.
The crew lineup for this first racing weekend for Team OPTIMUM-Samos Steamship included Thodoris Papakyriakou, Vasilis Kritidis, Nikos Apostolakis, Giannis Kapos, Nikos Kountouriotis, Charis Piperakis, Manolis Markogiannakis, Periklis Hoegger-Anemogiannis, Stavros Papadopoulos-Kouklakis, Nikos Stavropoulos, Nikos Lazos, Periklis Livas and Apostolos Serraos on Saturday who was replaced by Patroklos Tachtatzis on Sunday.
Looking forward for more racing action next weekend, stay tuned!!!