Island hopping in the AEGEAN 600

By now the stories of challenging conditions - from gale-force wind to dead calms - have become a trademark of this year’s 4th edition of the AEGEAN 600, organized by the Hellenic Offshore Racing Club (HORC), co-organised by the Olympic Marine. The teams finishing in this fourth full day of the race are no different, but one team expressed an interesting perspective not yet discussed: experience learned from past editions of the race.

“This was undoubtedly a tough race,” said Linda Goddard, co-skipper and owner of the Swan 53 CB BEDOUIN (AUS). The mixed team from Australia and Italy finished today at 13:19:09 local time with a corrected time good enough to claim victory in the ORC Two class. Goddard credits their experience from last year’s race with having given them the insight needed on what to expect this year.

“Last year had many similar elements of the same tough racing we had last year, such as the strong winds at Kassos and Karpathos,” she said. “And while last year there were also some holes in the race course, they were larger, longer and more frequent for us this year, and required a lot of attention as we sailed from island to island.”

She said one tool they used was having intel on their competitors nearby and ahead of them to see when there were holes in the road.

“We were approaching the gate at Mykonos at dawn this morning with [Aldo Fumagalli’s Rapido 53 catamaran] PICOMOLE and [Patrizzio Bertelli’s 20 meter Cantieri Sangermani] ULISSE just a few miles ahead. We were all going OK at good speeds until we saw on the YB tracker and AIS that PICOMOLE stopped just passed Dilos, followed by ULISSE. We then diverted north, going some extra distance but managed to stay out of that hole.”

Just a few miles back two trailing rivals - Maksim Niemchenko’s Farr 45 FAVORIT (MNE) and Patroklos Tottas and Akis Tsalkis’s XP 44 ANTELOPE (GRE) - may have also seen the hole that trapped ULISSE because they too took a similar track as BEDOUIN. ANTELOPE went on to finish as the runner-up in ORC Class 2.

“We even considered heading north further to leave Makronissos to port on the final approach to the finish to ensure not getting caught in a hole from that island too,” a radical move not taken by anyone thus far in this race. “This would have added 8 miles but would have been worth it to avoid yet another parking lot.”

Meanwhile at sunset the remaining fleet of 10 teams is shown to have shaken free of the light air that pervaded the eastern side of the race course over the two days. The Meltemi has now spread across to that side of the Aegean and is providing great breeze for tonight’s transit towards the finish…provided they can avoid any holes that may lie ahead.