AEGEAN 600 delivers in its 4th edition

July 14, 2024 - Sounio, Greece - This year’s AEGEAN 600, organized by the Hellenic Offshore Racing Club (HORC) and co-organised by Olympic Marine, has in its 4th annual edition once again proven to be among the world’s most challenging 600-mile races. The largest-ever turnout of 69 entries from 24 countries encountered a huge range of conditions that competitors needed to conquer to complete the course - from dead calms to gale-force winds - provided a suitable test of skill for any offshore sailing team, professional and amateur alike. All teams on all boats were challenged this year.

The start on Sunday afternoon was, as always, spectacular: with spectators lining the cliffs above Cape Sounio at the Ancient Temple of Poseidon the fleet got off to a fast start in the teeth of a brisk Meltemi. The two MOD 70’s quickly sped off towards the first island at Milos at amazing speed, and with the fastest monohulls not far behind they transited the gate through the caldera of Santorini within several hours of the start. The bulk of the fleet made that transit in the dawn hours of Monday.

On the downwind leg to Kassos, however, tragedy struck one entry: two crew members on board the Pogo 44 HEAVEN (FRA) fell overboard on Monday afternoon 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, organizers and fans. At the Awards Ceremony on Saturday evening HORC announced it has commissioned a commemorative remembrance and award for next year in honor of Ganna Konontchouk, the fallen crew on HEAVEN.

When the fleet encountered gale force winds and huge seas at the south end of the course near Kassos and Karpathos, fortunately this was at headsail reaching angles, making this manageable for most teams. However, the next hurdle that lie ahead in the lee of 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 at Limnos, some wiggling through at low speed while others stopped and drifted in circles for hours.

While zig-zagging around the islands of the eastern Aegean, the fleet leaders proceeded at record pace and the middle and back of the fleet struggled in lighter conditions hopping from one hole to another behind these islands. Even the two MOD 70’s hit some of these speed bumps en route westwards towards the finish at Cape Sounio, where they set a new Multihull Record of 1D 13H 18M 52S. The fastest monohulls fell into holes as well, one big one in particular in the lee of Ikaria that stopped them for hours, enough to fall just short of breaking the Monohull record set last year.

After five and a half days of racing all entries had completed the course, as well as most of the 30 retired teams had returned to the venue at Olympic Marine. All will have plenty of stories to tell and memories to share about this exceptional 4th edition of the AEGEAN 600.

Highlights from the awards ceremony can be watched at the link below.

https://youtu.be/MHzYunVIfJU

Final results (top three):

Maxi (IRC scoring)

1. AILOS (GRE) Juan-K VOR70 George Procopiou
2. L4 (DEN) Juan-K VOR70 Joern Larsen
3. LUCKY (USA) Juan K 88 Bryon Ehrhart

IRC One

1. BLACK PEARL (GER) Botin 56 Stefan Jentzsch
2. AIOLOS (GRE) Juan-K VOR70 George Procopiou
3. L4 (DEN) Juan-K VOR70 Joern Larsen

IRC Two

1. ARTIE III (MLT) HH 42 Lee Satariano
2. NEOMIND (GER) Neo 430 Roma Sascha Schröder & Manuel Polo
3. AFAZIK IMPULSE (FRA) Neo 430 Roma Yves Grosjean

IRC Three

1. LANN AEL 3 (FRA) MN 35 Didier Gaudoux
2. CHESTRESS (ITA) J109 Leonardo Petti
3. NOISY OYSTER – Selma Racing (POL) J122 Olivier Parchet

IRC Double Handed

1. AETHER (GRE) Dehler 30 OD Jerry Petratos & Evi Delidou

IRC Overall

1. BLACK PEARL (GER) Botin 56 Stefan Jentzsch
2. ARTIE III (MLT) HH 42 Lee Satariano
3. NEOMIND (GER) Neo 430 Roma Sascha Schröder & Manuel Polo

For the first time in this race ORC Weather Routing Scoring was used for both Class and Overall rankings. The method proved effective, with a compression of corrected time margins to less than half the margins calculated from APH scoring.

“This was a great start to the more general use of WRS in offshore races,” said Akis Tsalikis, co-Skipper of the XP 44 ANTELOPE and member of the ORC Management Committee. “This is a complex race course, and the forecast from the grib files used in WRS did not exactly match the conditions we saw. Yet they were mostly in agreement with other models for this race, so we look forward to further development of this method."

ORC One

1. NEOMIND (GER) Neo 430 Roma Sascha Schröder & Manuel Polo
2. ARTIE III (MLT) HH 42 Lee Satariano
3. CHOCOLATE 3 (SUI) Farr 52 Francois Bopp

ORC Two

1. BEDOUIN (AUS) Swan 53 Linda Goddard
2. NOISY OYSTER – Selma Racing (POL) J122 Olivier Parchet
3. ANTELOPE (GRE) XP 44 Patroklos Tottas & Akis Tsalikis

ORC Three

1. CHESTRESS (ITA) J109 Leonardo Petti
2. ASSANTE (GRE) Bavaria 36 Alkis Georgiadis
3. SUSANO’O (GRE) Italia 11.98 Stelios Zompanakis

ORC Double Handed

AETHER (GRE) Dehler 30 OD Jerry Petratos & Evi Delidou

ORC Overall

1. NEOMIND (GER) Neo 430 Roma Sascha Schröder & Manuel Polo
2. ARTIE III (MLT) HH 42 Lee Satariano
3. CHOCOLATE 3 (SUI) Farr 52 Francois Bopp

X-YACHTS (ORC-scored)

1. ANTELOPE (GRE) XP 44 Patroklos Tottas & Akis Tsalikis
2. ARTEMIS-SELMA RACING (POL) X^6 Artur Skrzyszowski
3. AQUA NOMIS (AUT) XP 44 Julian Kircher

MOCRA

1. ARGO (USA) MOD 70 Jason Carroll
2. ZOULOU (FRA) MOD 70 Erik Maris
3. PICOLOME (ITA) Rapido 53XS Aldo Fumagalli

Final results can be found at www.AEGEAN600.com, as well as many other resources of photos, videos and information on the race and the teams.

Race and race analysis videos made by Dobbs Davis of Seahorse Magazine are on the event’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/channel/UCUZJ6RLffsOcgIccIwCAT_A

AEGEAN 600 social media accounts:

Facebook | @Aegean600
Instagram | @aegean600
YouTube | @aegean600
Photos | High Resolution