{"id":916,"date":"2018-10-18T15:57:53","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T12:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/?p=916"},"modified":"2018-10-18T15:57:54","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T12:57:54","slug":"greek-dream-team-arrives-in-malta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/greek-dream-team-arrives-in-malta\/","title":{"rendered":"Greek Dream Team arrives in Malta"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Valletta, Malta, Thursday 18 October 2018.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OPTIMUM Yacht Racing Team crew for the 50th Anniversary of the ROLEX Middle Sea Race arrived today in Malta.  Their trustworthy weapon yacht OPTIMUM 3 was delivered safe and sound from Athens a few days earlier by a competent delivery crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe difference in this 7th participation of Team OPTIMUM in the RMSR is the crew mix.  We wanted to give the chance to young and competent offshore sailors from all over Greece to race and experience a 600-mile classic  and transfer our knowledge to the new generation.  So we blended six newcomers mainly under 30 with Optimum core crew, prepared the boat, trained adequately and here we are ready to take on the Race starting on Saturday 20th\u201d, says co-skipper\/tactician Nikos Lazos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such the lineup is the following starting with the six newcomers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Vaggelis NIKOLOPOULOS<\/strong>, aged 27.\u00a0 He accepted the Optimum invitation as one of the driving forces behind CHIARA IASON\u2019s win of this year\u2019s AEGEAN Rally. He can cover effectively any position on board from bow to stern but his main task will be to trim the mainsail on his shift.<\/li>
  2. Apostolos SERRAOS<\/strong>, aged 25.\u00a0 He forms the winning duo with Vaggelis from CHIARA IASON and accepted the invitation with great enthusiasm.\u00a0 Although he is capable to cover any position on board a racing yacht, he will be at the bow department and trimming the headsails on his shift.<\/li>
  3. Athanasios GKIZAS<\/strong>, aged 28.\u00a0 He was invited to join us from Kalamata of South Greece after having acquired huge experience campaigning all over the world with the RAN Team from UK. He will be leading the bow department onboard Optimum enjoying racing and speaking his native language, Greek.<\/li>
  4. James SWEETMAN<\/strong>, aged 30.\u00a0 He was invited to join from the Ionian Islands, Kefalonia.\u00a0 He is a skipper himself and campaigns successfully his own racing boat all over the world under charter.\u00a0 He accepted the invitation to enjoy competing one more time in Malta on a Greek speaking crew.\u00a0 On his shift he will mainly trim the headsails but can effectively cover any position.<\/li>
  5. Simon SWEETMAN, aged 32.\u00a0 Brother to James, from Kefalonia too, forms the Sweetman duo that have stepped on most racing sailing ports in the northern hemisphere.\u00a0 Hugely\u00a0 enthusiastic and experienced skipper himself accepted our invitation in less than 30 seconds. He will be in charge of the bow department on his shift but will be speed trimming sails too.<\/li>
  6. George PAPADOPOULOS<\/strong>, aged 45.\u00a0 He accepted our invitation and joins us from Thessaloniki.\u00a0 He is a hugely experienced sailor champion in Olympic classes and instructor\/coach in offshore sailing teams for over 15 years.\u00a0 He could not resist the offer to be part of the Greek Dream Team and he will be mainly trimming the mainsail and sharing the helming on his shift.<\/li>
  7. Athanasios BAXEVANIS<\/strong>, aged 55.\u00a0 He is part Team Optimum member as he joins for 5th time our team for the RMSR.\u00a0 He has his own private offshore sailing school in Thessaloniki and has a huge background from sailing Finns to coaching offshore sailing teams in many cases as a duo with George above.\u00a0 He is mainly helming on his shift and is part of the afterguard in the back of the boat.<\/li>
  8. Nikos APOSTOLAKIS<\/strong>, aged 47.\u00a0 He has earned the crew boss position on Team Optimum working hard in the team for more than 10 years now.\u00a0 He holds pitman duties on his shift and always makes sure that boat and crew is in order down to how much food and liquids they have consumed. This will be his 3rd RMSR.<\/li>
  9. Yorgos ELIOPOULOS<\/strong>, aged 45.\u00a0 Team Optimum member for more than 12 years is on for his 5th RMSR on OPTIMUM 3.\u00a0 He is responsible for electronics on board, he cooks, he will be pitman on his shift on this go, but most importantly he holds OBR duties on board producing and sharing media content of high value and quality.<\/li>
  10. Kostas MAKRIDIS<\/strong>, aged 49. He has been with the team forever.\u00a0 He trims the headsails fast, accurately, and continuously and will hold on the sheets even without winches.\u00a0 He can fix everything on board under any circumstances with a hammer and a screwdriver.\u00a0 Just unbeatable.<\/li>
  11. Manolis MARKOGIANNAKIS<\/strong> aged 45.\u00a0 He pushed us hard to enter RMSR this year so that he can enjoy the ride for 3rd time.\u00a0 He has been with the team for 8 years and earned his way as a headsail trimmer through hard work. He is a fantastic team player and keeps the Optimum spirit always at high levels.<\/li>
  12. Patroklos TAXTATZIS<\/strong>, aged 32.\u00a0 He joined the team 7 years ago and never looked back.\u00a0 He designs our sails and produces them on Quantum Sails Greece loft as part of the Quantum Sails Group.\u00a0 He is considered one of the talented young designers in Quantum and his designs have won many international trophies.\u00a0 On board Optimum 3 is a pain in the a$$ trimmer setting continuously new boatspeed targets forcing never ending electronics updates.<\/li>
  13. Charis MAVROGEORGIS<\/strong>, aged 23.\u00a0 He is the youngest on board, maybe the most competent and surely the most promising.\u00a0 He is an international champion in the Laser class and joined the Team in 2015.\u00a0 He is a great mainsail trimmer, driver and tactician but is working hard to develop as a first class navigator.\u00a0 He has mastered in no time the electronics on board and has upgraded the performance envelope of OPTIMUM 3 working alongside Patroklos. He is thrilled to compete in his 1st RMSR in a multi role position and surely the afterguard.<\/li>
  14. Nikos LAZOS<\/strong>, aged 52.\u00a0 Team co-founder, co-skipper, co-owner with<\/li>
  15. Periklis LIVAS<\/strong>, aged 54. They sail as a duo in offshore sailing yachts since 1981, that\u2019s 38 years, from the age of 14 and 16 respectively.\u00a0 In 1994 they formed OPTIMUM Yacht Racing Team and this year they celebrate Team OPTIMUM\u2019s 25th birthday by campaigning with this formidable team in the RMSR 50th Anniversary.\u00a0 They are determined to give back to the sport they love as much as possible.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Please stay tuned!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Valletta, Malta, Thursday 18 October 2018. OPTIMUM Yacht Racing Team crew for the 50th Anniversary of the ROLEX Middle Sea Race arrived today in Malta.  Their trustworthy weapon yacht OPTIMUM 3 was delivered safe and sound from Athens a few days earlier by a competent delivery crew. \u201cThe difference in this 7th participation of Team…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":917,"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\/916"}],"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=916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":918,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions\/918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumsailing.gr\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}