After 3 days of preparations and inspections in Mikrolimano, Athens sailboats small marina, the ORC International World Championship started today with a strong "meltemi" that was blowing too hard in the morning to allow a good race. After a few hours wait, the meltemi dropped a few knots and the Race Committee made their way out to the sea.

The racing course was set right in front of the city under a shining sun, and the fleet of 51 boats made their way out opening the Championship with a nice race with winds above 20 knots in the puffs.

The first gun went to Croatian "Ola" (ex Caixa Galicia) who crossed the finish at 17:01 after completing the windward/leeward course of about 8 miles in a bit more than one hour. By 17:35 the whole fleet crossed the finish, but Ola was able to save their rating, ahead of Farr 52 "Superfast" and small Grand Soleil 37 "Sagola".

The good wind conditions led the Race Committee, chaired by PRO Dimitrios Alevizakis, to hoist the signal for a second race, that started at 18:06. The second race was won in corrected time by George Andreadis Grand Soleil 42s "Meliti IV", closely followed in second place by "Sagola" who is now leading the series ahead of "Meliti".

The fleet is racing for an overall title, but is divided in 2 groups, above and below 585 sec/mi GPH, and each group has a Corinthian and an Open Division. There are 8 Corinthian competitors in the big group, and 16 in the small one. To qualify for the Corinthian Division, all members of the crew except one (who cannot steer) need to be certified as Group 1 following the Isaf classification code.

The program of the Championship will continue tomorrow with the Offshore Race, all sailed within the Saronic Gulf near Athens. There are two options for the course that the Race Committee will decide before the start, and an intermediate gate that will count as a race. The "meltemi" is announced to last for another couple of days, so it will be a tough test for boats and crews.

Full results are available accessing the event site, and all races can be tracked in real time.