A brisk Meltemi breeze of 25-30 knots prompted reefed mainsails and small jibs for this year’s fleet at today’s start of the 6th edition of the AEGEAN 600, organized by the Hellenic Offshore Racing Club (HORC) and Olympic Marine. After a short leg upwind towards the turning mark at the foot of the cliff below the Ancient Temple of Poseidon, all teams sped off at high speeds to the south under azure skies and clear water flecked with white caps…this was a spectacular scene for all.
This year the Meltemi had a slight easterly bend in direction, prompting a delay in deploying gennakers among the fast monohulls, but later as the breeze backed more to the north mainsails were unreefed and big sails deployed for the first 62-mile leg of the course to the island of Milos.
Before leaving Olympic Marine for the start, every team was energized and excited for the fast starting conditions for this race.
“The start this year will be windy, wet and exciting, we are super super excited, it will be an epic day!” gushed an exuberant Julia Stelzl, skipper of the all-women’s team from Austria racing on the JPK 39 PHILEAS FOGG (GRE). “We were here last year, but this will be completely different for us: we now know the boat, we know the course, unlike last year there will be windy conditions, and we have trained a lot for this race.”
About to set off on their first AEGEAN 600, skipper Russell Whitworth of the TP 52 FINAL FINAL (USA) seemed to have a clear view of what’s ahead.
“It looks pretty windy all the way to the eastern end of the course,” he said, “so we’re preparing all of our heavy weather sails and make sure we have all out big breeze maneuvers down. Our goal is to protect the boat and make sure we get to the east side of the race course in one piece.”
First off the start line was the Maxi class entries, led by the two fastest monohulls in the fleet: Claudio Demartis’s Reichel/Pugh 90 PROSECCO DOC SHOCKWAVE 3 (ITA) and George Procopiou’s Volvo 70 AIOLOS (GRE). After rounding the mark and heading south at boat speeds over 20 knots, their fight was on for who would be leader of the pack.
One and a half hours into the race AIOLOS held a track slightly more to the east of rhumb line, but as she gybed just west of the island of Kythnos, SHOCKWAVE gybed to cover just 1.5 miles ahead. To preserve this lead SHOCKWAVE soon thereafter gybed back towards the rhumb line and over the next two and a half hours extended her lead to 4 miles at the southwestern tip of Milos for the start of the next 50-mile leg to Santorini.
Here the fleet transits on a 9-mile leg through the island’s collapsed caldera structure, with the lights of the island’s cliff-top villages illuminating the route. At the present speeds the fastest boats will make this transit tonight while the slower boats will have a full view of this spectacular journey in the early morning light.
In corrected time at 1900 EEST AIOLOS held the overall lead in IRC and Maxi class scoring, while in overall ORC scoring Gregor Stimpfl’s Scuderia 65 HAGAR V (ITA) had the lead. Amongst the Multihull entries, Michalis Aftias and Stathis Balomenos’s Outrider 4x LYNX (ITA) had the lead in both elapsed and corrected time. Among the Double Handed teams Massimo Juris and Pietro Luciani racing on their JPK 10.80 COLOMBRE (ITA) had the lead in IRC scoring, while Periklis Livas and Simon Sweetman sailing their Dehler 30 OPTIMUM 4 (GRE) 2.5 miles ahead of COLOMBRE held the lead in ORC scoring.
This race can be followed using the YB tracker system available at https://pro.yb.tl/aegean6002026, and using this system and other resources a daily race analysis is being provided by veteran offshore race commentator Dobbs Davis of Seahorse Magazine.
About the AEGEAN 600:
The AEGEAN 600 is organized by the Hellenic Offshore Racing Club (HORC), in co-organization with the Region of Attica and Olympic Marine, with the support of the Ministry of Education Religious Affairs and Sports, Ministry of Tourism and the General Secretariat of Sports.
For the third consecutive year, Rolex serves as the Official Timepiece, reinforcing its strong connection with excellence and high-performance sailing. The race is sponsored by the Greek National Tourism Organization and Koronakis, a global leader in synthetic ropes and wire ropes manufacturing.
The event is supported by key international and national partners, including the International Maxi Association (IMA), Kerameikos, Pantaenius, Technohull and X-Yachting. Mercedes-Benz joins as Official Mobility Partner, while the Aegean Yacht Club acts as the collaborating yacht club.
Official suppliers include Torqeedo, empowered by Yamaha, Helly Hansen, and Dole bananas. Media partners include SKAI, Kathimerini, Skipper on Deck, The Yacht Book, Boat & Yachting, Athens Riviera Journal and Istioploikos Kosmos, while Interad is the official internet services sponsor.
Text Credit: AEGEAN 600
Photo Credit: Alen Photography/Nikos Alevromytis, Deea Buzdugan and Fragoulis photography
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