{"id":735,"date":"2015-07-28T21:22:02","date_gmt":"2015-07-28T18:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/?p=735"},"modified":"2015-07-28T21:24:14","modified_gmt":"2015-07-28T18:24:14","slug":"a-hot-love-affair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/a-hot-love-affair\/","title":{"rendered":"A Hot Love Affair!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Athens, Tuesday, July 28th<\/sup>, 2015, 12:00.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The 52nd<\/sup>\u00a0Aegean Rally,\u00a0 Greece\u2019s top offshore sailing event just entered the history book.\u00a0 OPTIMUM 3-ASPIDA-SAXOBANK \u00a0took the silver podium position after four demanding offshore races with a score line of 5, 1, 6, 2 and racing a total of 222 nautical miles.\u00a0 No less than 18 Optimum crew were part of the repeated success this year, that allows Team OPTIMUM to be the most successful team over the 52-year history of the Aegean Rally.\u00a0In the 21 editions the team has participated from 1994 to 2015, OPTIMUMM(36-footer) and OPTIMUM 3(52-footer) has achieved podium positions 17 times, including 7 times 1<\/span>st<\/sup><\/span>, 6 times 2<\/span>nd<\/sup><\/span>\u00a0and 4 times 3<\/span>rd<\/sup><\/span>.\u00a0 Team leaders\/skippers\/owners Nikos Lazos and Periklis Livas have a lot to say about their hard to beat record:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is getting harder and harder every year, especially the last five years with the economic situation in Greece.\u00a0 But we are still inspired to put all the hard work required to have a chance to reach the podium.\u00a0 \u00a0This year the inspiration came from the success in the Rolex Middle Sea race, the last race of the 2014 season. \u00a0There, we were pushed over the limit. Way over..!\u00a0 People and gear.\u00a0 Afterwards, we sat down and we decided changes.\u00a0 Changes that would inspire us to go one more racing season, full on.\u00a0 So, new guys were invited to join, strictly under 30 years old that made serious contribution with their freshness, willingness and stamina.\u00a0\u00a0 The mentality on board shifted to racing fighting mode and \u00a0we have enjoyed 27 races so far in the 2015 season, escaping at the same time from the misery all Greeks are going through.\u00a0 And we did not hold back, and we inspired our sponsors too to fight alongside our team, and here we are finishing another Aegean Rally second to BULLET-ENCODE TP52 Sailing Team, a formidable team guided by Olympic Champion Dimitris Deligiannis & Co(Kamburides, Sinouris).\u00a0 We can only thank our crew \u00a0for their contribution of long hours of hard work before and after every race and more importantly for their fighting spirit during racing. We deeply appreciate the time and effort they invest in the team,\u00a0 and that inspire us back to stay true to our word and find ways to keep the Optimum Team going in such hard times.\u00a0 And that is the logic one can say underlines Team OPTIMUM.\u00a0 The rest is a hot Love Affair, were logic drops dead and feelings take control.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As always, in the prestigious prize giving ceremony for the 52nd<\/sup>\u00a0Aegean Rally, we had our share of Optimum glory but more importantly had the chance to celebrate and share our long time success story with our valuable sponsors ASPIDA Maritime Security and SAXO BANK that were kindly invited to join in by hosts Hellenic Offshore Racing Club and \u00a0Greek Navy.\u00a0 These team articles work as team history book chapters, so the heroine and the heroes of the 52nd<\/sup>\u00a0Aegean Rally that battled successfully the extreme conditions from 0 to force 8 conditions are:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>newcomers 19 year-old Elisavet Mazaraki, Gary Gabri, Stratis Tsamparlis, and old school royals George Hatzigeorgiou, Giannis Kapos, Nikos Apostolakis, Alexis Chrysochoides, Manolis Markogiannakis, Kostas Makridis, George Kyragiannis, Thanos Papasideris, Gerasimos Petratos, Patroklos Tachtatzis, Lambros Nakis, Manos Roudas, Periklis Livas and Nikos Lazos.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Athens, Tuesday, July 28th, 2015, 12:00. \u00a0 The 52nd\u00a0Aegean Rally,\u00a0 Greece\u2019s top offshore sailing event just entered the history book.\u00a0 OPTIMUM 3-ASPIDA-SAXOBANK \u00a0took the silver podium position after four demanding offshore races with a score line of 5, 1, 6, 2 and racing a total of 222 nautical miles.\u00a0 No less than 18 Optimum crew…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":737,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions\/737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}