Our story
About us
Our story
VAKALOPOULOS THANOS sailing Authority May of 1964 S. C.of Thessaloniki . diasyllogika 1969-1972 gold medals 23 – silver medals 14 bronze medals 9 .
1971 3rd place over all “ Ionian Rally 1971” with the boat “ANDRIA” Sloop Nikolson 56. 1972 Panellinionikis 420.
1979 Principle design and construction sails. 1981-1989 Director wind surf and sailing schools in 8 islands for companies “SunMed” and “RED WING” of the BRITISH AIRWAYS TRAVEL 1990-1994 crew with Simon Morgan and participation in international competitions, Laser 4000- HC16. Return to Thessaloniki 1994.
Dealing with design and construction of sails. Parallel games 1994 Cup Porto Karras 1 position IMS A’class. “1995 IMS National Championship.” 1st place A class. Catamaran National openCup winner 1997 Catamaran National Championship 1st place 1998.Catamaran Open National Championship 1st place 1998 .Tornado National Championship 1st place. 1998 NACRA Open European Championship 1st place NACRA .1999 Dealing with training people with blindness in education with catamaran. 2000 National Championship 1st place Tornado. 2001 Athens Eurolymp 1st place Tornado. Parallel 2000 opening OS3 sail loft designing and constructing racing sails as well as cruising and traditional .
2017 moving OS3 sail loft to Vasiliki Lefkas island, for easier development on racing sails do to the ideal wind condition of the bay.
At the same time, he participates in Catamaran races, winning
• 1997 first place in the National Catamaran Cup and the National Catamaran Championship with HC16.
• 1998 first place in the National Catamaran Cup and the National Catamaran Championship with Tornado.
• 1998 first place in the National Tornado Championship
• 1998 first place in the Nacra Open -European Championship with Nacra 6
The experience and knowledge of all these years pushed him to start a sports department at the Catamaran Toroneos Sailing Club in Perea-Thessaloniki, which until that time operated at an amateur level, with only adult boat owners, giving the opportunity to young children to get to know sailing through a catamaran.
After the World Tornado Championship in Brazil in 1998, he stops his racing activity due to professional commitments.
In 1999, for the first time in Greece, Catamaran training for People with Special Needs begins at the Catamaran Sailing Club Toroneos.
In 2000, he leaves the DL sails Sailing loft and starts with Stergios Ioannidis the Ostria Marine Center where a Sail loft is also created and deals exclusively with it.
Got back into Tornado racing by winning first place in the Nationals Tornado Championships in 2000 and 2001.
He also wins the first place at the Athens Eurolymp in 2001 where his participation as an athlete in the Tornado category ends definitively.
At the same time, research into the design of Tornado sails begins.
In 2002 he participates and wins the first place in theNational Catamaran Championship with a Hobie Cat FX One single-handed boat, where it is his last participation as an athlete, since he stops due to professional obligations.
Having a fairly fast set of mainsails and jib on a Tornado boat that uses the second crew of the “Toronaeus” and stands out focuses more on the development of the spinnaker.
On the eve of the 2004 Olympics he manages to have the fastest spinnaker in the fleet, which is unfortunately destroyed when it is painted in the colors of the Greek Flag after the measurement. Due to the fact that its replacement with the same spinnaker is impossible, the Greek crew is forced to run in the races with the second spinnaker of another manufacturer that has already passed the measurement.
After the Olympic games, the new crew of I. Paschalidis-K. Trigonis – is created and everything starts on a new basis.
It is agreed that the crew will run exclusively with “OS3” sails and start with only the mainsail and jib pending the change of the boat’s mast, since after this change the mainsails will have to be re-designed.
In the same year, Ostria Marine Center equips the sailloft with BSG’s Sail Pack design program which you consider to be the most advanced in sail design, as well as with Aeronaut’s Plotter Cuter, a machine certified for the accuracy of repeated cutting of sails and accurate data transfer from design program.
This enables faster development in the design and manufacture of racing sails, enabling the Greek crew to star in the coming years, bringing important distinctions.