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Fleet advances to the last half of the AEGEAN 600

by Hellenic Offshore Racing Club 8 Jul 11:17 PDT 8 July 2025

As of sunset this evening, most of the fleet of 59 Monohulls and Multihulls who are sailing in this year's AEGEAN 600 have either already entered the second half of the race at the island of Rhodes or are well on their way to reaching this important milestone.

In contrast to yesterday's slow pace, the rate of progress has been much improved due to fairly steady 15-20 knot westerly and northwesterly winds in the southern Dodecanese section of the race course.

This is the 5th edition of the AEGEAN 600 organized by the Hellenic Offshore Racing Club with co-organizers being Olympic Marine and Region of Attica. Rolex is the official timepiece, and other sponsors include the Greek National Tourism Organization, D. Koronakis SA, and this year Mercedes-Benz has joined the AEGEAN 600 as the event's Official Mobility Partner.

Yet these perfect sailing conditions that produce beautiful reaching and running points of sail in the passages between the islands do get marred by one important factor: the wind holes in the lees that lie behind these islands. These are an inescapable part of every edition of this race and many others in the offshore racing world. The teams that perform the best in these races are often not only those who know how to sail fast (and safe) when there is wind, but also how to get through these zones when there is little or no wind.

The first test of this was Sunday night at Milos, yesterday and last night at Santorini, and again today and tonight getting through these light air patches in the Dodecanese islands of Kassos, Karpathos and Rhodes. In past editions of the race, the strength and direction of the Meltemi winds made Rhodes the largest parking lot, yet this year the other two islands seemed to be even more significant stopping points for some teams while the transit at Rhodes was easier.

Nonetheless, one consequence of these complexities is the current leader in the fleet has masterfully managed to emerge from these last few stopping points and vault out to an impressive lead on the fleet as of sunset today.

It was in the pre-dawn hours early today in the lee of Karpathos that the two race leaders - George Procopiou's Volvo 70 AIOLOS (GRE) and Frédéric Puzin's Carkeek 54 DAGUET 5 (FRA) - were alongside each other when they both stopped, re-started for a few miles, then stopped again. It was the second restart and quick gear-shifting that launched DAUGUET into the impressive 30-mile lead they now enjoy on the fleet.

Another team that was able to use these holes to leap-frog their nearest rivals into a better position on the course is Chris Hemans's Cookson 50 VARUNA (USA). This team is relatively new to their boat, this being their first offshore race on this particular boat, and the first night at Milos did not go well.

However, with the boat's canting keel helping to propel them at double-digit boat speeds in 15-20 knots of wind, they sped forward and overtook many rivals on the long leg to Kassos. Next they were clever at working the zephyrs close to shore and managed to punch out of every lee better than everyone else near them. Approaching Lindos halfway north along the lee shore of Rhodes, they took a narrow lead over Manolis Kondylis's Neo 570 CARBONITA (ITA) to assume the runner-up position in elapsed time behind DAUGUET.

Then after a few hours (and more wind holes) later the larger CARBONITA re-took that position by late afternoon, yet VARUNA remains very much back in the game in both IRC and ORC corrected time for the remaining second half of this race.

Tonight the last half of the fleet will be enjoying champagne sailing under cleat moonlit skies in the passages between the islands while battling to keep the boat moving in the quiet and windless lees to get around Rhodes. The front half will be beating upwind and reaching on their long zig-zag journey through the eastern Dodecanese islands and along the coast of Turkey.

Throughout the race, from start to finish, race participants can be followed by the YB tracker system found here and there is an abundance of media resources - photos, videos and news stories - made available here.

Veteran offshore race commentator Dobbs Davis will use the YB tracker as the backdrop for his daily race analysis video shows that started yesterday. These shows will explain how the fleet is progressing based on their positions, the weather and other factors that will affect the race, and are available on the event's

Information on how to enter the race, a complete list of entries, and the official Notice Board can be found at aegean600.com.

High resolution photos from this year's as well as past editions of the AEGEAN 600 are found here.

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