First teams finish in AEGEAN 600, but one team suffers tragic loss

After passing through the gate at Santorini in the early morning hours (the fastest boats had already passed in the night), the bulk of the fleet was heading downwind en route to the southern end of the course towards the passing point at Kassos. The multi-national crew on board HEAVEN were reportedly struggling with their spinnaker in the late afternoon, and while on the bow assisting with the sail two crew members fell overboard.

The team immediately activated their man-overboard procedures and managed to retrieve one crew member who was severely injured within 7-8 minutes and the other soon thereafter. The team called for emergency help given the severe internal damage they observed in the injured crew, and a rescue helicopter was called to the scene. However, the injured crew remained unresponsive to revival attempts so a Hellenic Coastguard vessel stepped in to accompany the boat to make port on Kassos.

The boat HEAVEN while passing through Santorini’s Caldera

“We believed our team mate was unfortunately hit by the boat’s rudder,” said skipper Andrii Prokopenko. “The water was full of blood from the impact and we did our very best to treat this severe injury. We are devastated by this terrible accident.”

“We take safety preparation very seriously,” said Ioannis Maragkoudakis, Commodore of the Hellenic Offshore Racing Club (HORC). “This is why we offer seminars and provide a thorough and informative guidebook for both safety and weather conditions of this race to help teams comply with the safety regulations and learn more about this course. Regardless, sometimes accidents can happen, such as today. We and all participants in the event will mourn this terrible loss on board HEAVEN, and we extend our deepest condolences to the friends and family of this lost sailor.” Ongoing attempts are being made to inform the family of the passed sailor.

Meanwhile towards eastern edges of the race course the battle royale continued between the two MOD 70 trimarans, with dozens of sail changes and gear-shifting needed on the teams of Erik Maris’s ZOULOU (FRA) and Jason Carroll’s ARGO (USA) as they swapped positions for the lead. Boat captain Chad Corning on ARGO described the action.

“This was an exceptional effort at staying in the right mode with the right sails, and the conditions were changing so rapidly we always get we were a little behind,” he said. “The short legs on the east side of the course provided few passing opportunities if you got behind. We did have a spectacular final push at the final leg to the finish, with both of us using full Mains and J1 headsails at the very edge of control, but neither of us dare change to slow down.”

At 03:18:52 EEST this morning, it was ZOULOU (FRA) that crossed the finish line at Cape Sounio to set a new Multihull Elapsed Time Record of 1D 13H 18M 52S, an average speed of 16.2 knots around the course, with ARGO only 1M 21S behind.