With the help of a solid Meltemi wind throughout the race area, and reaching and running angles in the first few legs of the course, the fleet of yesterday's 44 starters has had a fast start to the first half of the AEGEAN 600. This offshore classic race is organized by the Hellenic Offshore Racing Club (HORC) and co-organized by the Region of Attica, Olympic Marine and supported by the Deputy Ministry of Sports.

Northwest winds of 15-20 knots with higher gusts at the southern end of the course has both propelled the monohulls and multihulls entered in the event to their top-end speeds - but also challenged their seamanship. While the lead monohulls have vaulted ahead of the pack at record pace, others have had to retire early with a variety of sail, spar and boat issues.
Nonetheless, there are early leaders in each class that are fighting to stay ahead in the standings. In the Maxis Chris Sherlock's Farr 100 LEOPARD 100 from Monaco is leading the pack now on the second half of the race course for the elapsed time lead, and has been closely followed throughout the race by Grzegorz Baranowski's Volvo 70 I LOVE POLAND. In IRC and Maxi class scoring it is the Poles who have the top spot in corrected time.

In the ORC division it is Pericles Livas and Vaggelis Nikolopoulos' Carkeek 47 OPTIMUM S-SAMOS STEAMSHIP from Greece that are at the top of the leaderboard, a much better position than they were in last year's race where they were unable to start due to instrument problems. In Divisions 2 & 3 Vassilis Priftis' Hanse 508 PHAEDRA also from Greece is in the lead over Dr. Sascha Schroeder's Neo 430 NEOMIND from Germany. In the X-Yachts division Artur Skrzyszowski's Polish team racing on the XP 44 SELMA RACING are in the lead, and in the MOCRA division of multihulls Pietro Farrielo's Outremer 4x LYNX is at the top of the standings.

Earlier today fleet members were captured by event photographer Carlo Borlenghi in their transit of the caldera at Santorini where the strong breeze helped them gt through this gate more quickly than in previous editions of this race.

The Meltemi is forecasted to back off a few knots later tonight and tomorrow morning, which may change the complexion of the last half of the race... We'll see.