First finishers in the 6th AEGEAN 600
by Hellenic Offshore Racing Club 7 Jul 23:01 BST
5-11 July 2026
While having to struggle through a few holes in the latter portion of the course, the Aegean's Meltemi winds held strong enough last night and today to allow the first finishers of the AEGEAN 600 to arrive in near-record time.
Under the watchful gaze of the Ancient Temple of Poseidon and organizers from the Hellenic Offshore Racing Club (HORC) and hosts from Olympic Marine, Claudio Demartis's Reichel/Pugh 90 PROSECCO DOC SHOCKWAVE 3 (ITA) is crowned First to Finish this year with an elapsed time of 2D 0H 8M 27S, just 3 hours off the course record set in 2023 by the Farr 100 LEOPARD 3 (MON).
Only 2 minutes later George Procopiou's Volvo 70 AIOLOS (GRE) crossed the line after an epic boat-for-boat battle that pushed these teams to their limits.
"Being my first AEGEAN 600, for me personally this was a fantastic experience," said Andrea Micalli, tactician on SHOCKWAVE. "There are many memories coming from this race, but I should say that during the first night getting a gust of 30-35+ knots and still having a Gennaker up with the waves breaking and surfing the boat was fantastic - very scary at the time, but fantastic once we are talking about it now. The boat was prepared all winter for this specific event and we are all super happy to have tested and trained what we expected and found in this beautiful race."
Helmsman Lorenzo Bressani said "This race was the fifth time for me. I have participated in all the big races in the Mediterranean, and this one is unique because the downwind portion of the first leg is very exciting, especially in this boat which is very fast downwind. We broke the top speed record of this boat at over 30 knots!"
"The race every year is better in terms of organization and in terms of participation," said Procopiou. The conditions were excellent and challenging, with a lot of wind and a lot of waves - we were wet from the first hour all the way to the finish line."
Two hours later the next two boats to finish were Antoine Magre's Mach 50 PALANAD 4 (FRA) that managed to pass Frederic Puzin's Carkeek 54 DAGUET 5 (FRA). All day long and for the last 100 miles of this race these two teams had a hard fight: there were within 2 miles of each other approaching the gate at Mykonos, with DAGUET holding on to a tenuous lead before PALANAD managed to slip past and hold on to their lead all the way to the Temple.
"This was my first race in the Mediterranean," admitted Magre, "But for us this was a great race, very different from what I've seen in the Atlantic, and very fun: a great course, very intense, some tricky places in terms of wind, and very technical. Everyone is very happy and happy to finish because this was very tiring!"
The remainder of the fleet is scattered across the northern and eastern reaches of the course, with more finishers expected tonight and then thoughout the day tomorrow and tomorrow night.
The overall standings in IRC scoring remain nearly the same as yesterday, with PALANAD on top, followed by DAGUET and now AIOLOS in third. In ORC scoring the overall leader is still Paval Stole's JPK 10.30 MARY S (CZE) but second place is now held by Patrick and Vincent Harris's MOWGLI of PORTSMOUTH (ESP) with Paris Kyriacopoulos's XR 41 XIPHOS (GRE) in third.
The Harris brothers lead the ORC Double Handed division, while Massimo Juris and Pietro Luciani racing on their JPK 10.80 COLOMBRE (ITA) maintain their lead from yesterday in IRC scoring and Stuart Austin's Outrider 4x QUICK DECISION (GBR) has taken the lead in the Multihull division.
This race can be followed using the YB tracker system available at pro.yb.tl/aegean6002026, and using this system and other resources a daily race analysis is being provided by veteran offshore race commentator Dobbs Davis of Seahorse Magazine.
Learn more about this year's race and all previous editions of the AEGEAN 600 at aegean600.com.