A brisk Meltemi breeze of 25-30 knots prompted reefed mainsails and small jibs for this year’s fleet at Sunday’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 cap . . . 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.
First off the start line were 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. In corrected time at 19:00 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.