One week to the start of the Aegean 600
Teams from 21 nations are assembling now and completing their final preparations for the start of the 6th edition of the AEGEAN 600 organized by the Hellenic Offshore Racing Club (HORC) and the host venue at Olympic Marine. One week from today - Sunday, July 5th - a record-sized fleet of 74 monohull and multihull teams will set off commencing at 1400 local time from the starting area at Cape Sounio to start their 605-mile odyssey through the Aegean Sea.
Over the next week each team will have to complete registration formalities with HORC that include safety equipment inspections and attend the Safety Seminar offered on Thursday July 2nd for team members not already certified. This will be in addition to working on a myriad of preparation details for their boat, their sails and rigging before attending the Skippers Meeting held on Friday evening July 3rd.
Yet there are fun activities also planned for this coming week. At midday Friday there is a short Practice Race held just east of Olympic Marine that offers teams an opportunity to test themselves before the main event. Later that evening the teams and their entourages are treated to a generous helping of Greek hospitality at the Welcome Ceremony held that evening following the Skippers Meeting.
And on Saturday July 4th a tour of the Ancient Temple of Poseidon is offered to give participants an opportunity to have the same amazing cliff-top view that spectators will have watching them start the race on Sunday.
An important and enduring feature of this race is the spectacular Aegean weather with cloudless blue skies and clear seas that along with the prevailing Meltemi winds often creates ideal conditions for fun and fast sailing. The forecast for start day looks promising: after being on the lighter side of average at the end of the week the Meltemi is predicted to pick up to its customary 20+ knots for Sunday and Monday, suggesting a fast start to this year’s race.
Its too early to speculate on whether the Monohull course record of 1D 21H 5M 25S set in 2023 by the Farr 100 LEOPARD 3 is at risk, but if so a strong contender would have to be the fastest-rated boat in the fleet: Claudio Demerits’s Reichel/Pugh 90 PROSECCO DOC SHOCKWAVE 3 (ITA). This ocean greyhound is capable of downwind boat speeds over 20 knots in a brisk Meltemi, but so does George Procopiou’s Volvo 70 AIOLOS (GRE), so we anticipate what could be a close fight ahead for this two teams at the top of the fleet. In all there are 11 Maxi’s entered in this year’s race.
While these two teams will be focused on elapsed time victory, all others in the fleet are competing for class and division prizes in corrected time using IRC and ORC handicap ratings for the 69 entered Monohulls, and MOCRA ratings for the 5 entered Multihulls.
Information about all 74 entries - boat names, boat types, skipper and owner names, crew lists, classes entered, IRC, ORC and MOCRA ratings, etc., can be found at the entry information portal on the event website at this link.
Their challenge will be to sail as most efficiently as possible on a complex race course that will present them with innumerable challenges: from the high winds and seas that typify the southern end of the course at Kassos and Karpathos to the wind holes that they will encounter next on the lee shore of Rhodos.
This pattern that may very well be repeated throughout the remaining half of the race course as they wind their way north then west towards the finish line positioned where they started at Cape Sounio.
All this and more awaits the 500+ sailors gathering now in Lavrion at Olympic Marine
