course records to break on their 70ft ocean greyhounds. In these perfect downwind conditions the fastest monohulls were also not far behind as they transited the first gate on the course that lies through the spectacular caldera of Santorini - and only within the first several hours of the start. The remainder of the monohull fleet was also fast this year, with many making that transit in the morning hours of Monday in this unique scenic setting of outstanding volcanic beauty. On the remainder of this
downwind leg to the southern extent of the racecourse at Kassos, however, tragedy struck one entry: two crew members on board the Pogo 44 Heaven (FRA) fell overboard on Monday evening while struggling with their spinnaker, and while both were retrieved quickly one was severely hurt in the incident and succumbed to her injuries. News of this terrible accident devastated all participants in the event: sailors, organisers and fans. At the Awards Ceremony, held after a moment of silence and reflection on this incident, the HORC announced that it has commissioned a special commemorative remembrance award for next year’s race in honour of Ganna Konontchouk, the fallen crew on Heaven. At the bottom of the course
from Kassos to Karpathos, the fleet’s halcyon downwind journey turned more serious as the Meltemi accelerated to gale force in strength with accompanying huge seas. Usually this wind is at headsail reaching angles and is somewhat more manageable for most teams in that they can drive effectively in the big seas and reef sails safely and securely. Yet the next hurdle that lay ahead
in the lee of the next island, where Rhodes treated the fleet differently depending on their timing: the fast boats managed to slip through without serious delay, whereas the remainder of the fleet hit a wall of no wind at Limnos in the centre of the island. Some wiggled through at low speed while the progress of others ground to a halt, with many trapped to drift in circles for hours. Usually it paid to do the wiggling along the shore close to the beach or swinging out wide, away from the traps near the rhumb line. The next phase of this race could
be described as a slalom course around the islands of the eastern Aegean, with many islands and rocks to round while transiting back and forth, east to west, while generally heading northwards, before eventually heading west
Above: the brilliantly designed course of the Aegean 600 presents a unique set of challenges to the teams who enter. Right: perfect two-sail reaching at some point during the race is almost guaranteed
back towards Attica. This was a very tricky part of this course, where each island had its own twists and turns in the Meltemi that varied from calm to hectic. ‘I’m relieved we made it around
this treacherous course, full of challenges at every turn,’ says Byron Ehrhart, skipper of the Juan K 27m Lucky (USA) that was the first-to-finish monohull in the IRC and Maxi Class. Referencing this portion of the course, Erhart says ‘The wind over these very tall islands is new to us. We have done the Caribbean 600 three times and this is a much more challenging race.’ Even the two MOD 70 fleet
leaders hit some of these speed bumps on their final route westwards towards through the gate at Mykonos and eventually to the finish at Cape Sounio. Nonetheless Erik Maris’s Zoulou managed to set a new multihull record of 1D 13H 18M 52S, while Lucky fell into some of these holes, including one big one in particular in the lee of Ikaria that stopped them for hours: just enough to deprive them of breaking the monohull record that was set by
Leopard 3 in 2023. First Overall in IRC scoring and recipient of the Aegean 600 Trophy was Black Pearl (GER), Stefan Jentzsch’s Botin 56, a remarkable result considering they raced without their racing sails. ‘We have done a few races with
this boat and this is the toughest we have done,’ said Maris. ‘We had everything: 45kts of wind max and zero at times, but the scenery is just beautiful. This is an incredible race.’ After five and a half days of racing 39 entries had successfully completed this course and safely returned to the venue at Olympic Marine, as well as most of the 30 entries that had retired from the race. All will have plenty of stories to tell and memories to share about this exceptional fourth edition of the Aegean 600. Now is the time to set sights on
the fifth edition of this challenging and exciting offshore race that has become an emerging classic: save the date of Sunday 6 July 2025 for the next start at the Temple of Poseidon.
www.aegean600.com
❑ SEAHORSE 75
VAGELIS FRAGOULIS
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