In an audio update sent through to Boating New Zealand, Hall described what happened.
“It wasn’t the fantastic run we were hoping for on the first night. We had a good run going, but we weren’t quick enough getting the code zero down and blew the tack out of it,” Hall said.
“We’re just coming into the beautiful island of Santorini as the sun comes up. This will be the first time we’ve been through the middle of the volcano!”
Hall is the only New Zealand sailor in the 6th edition of the 605-nautical mile race, organised by the Hellenic Offshore Racing Club and Olympic Marine, which started on 5 July from Lavrion, Greece.
Fast start to the 2026 Aegean 600, Andrew Hall and Aether settle into the pack
The fleet remains in strong breeze on the second day of racing, with the Meltemi holding between 15 and 20 knots through most of the course, giving boats fast reaching and downwind conditions since the start from Lavrion on 5 July.
Provisional YB Tracking data, current as of the early hours of Tuesday (NZ time), has Aether sitting fifth in the IRC Double Handed division, 332 nautical miles from the finish, holding a VMG of 7.8 knots with a 24-hour run of 192 nautical miles. Their estimated corrected finish time sits at 3 days, 5 hours and 31 minutes, roughly two hours and forty minutes off provisional IRC division leader Colombre (Massimo Juris and Pietro Luciani), with Pneuma, Libertine, Optimum 4 and Lavoro III rounding out the rest of the class. On ORC scoring, a separate system run alongside IRC, the double-handed lead belongs to Pneuma’s Andrzej Rozycki and Maciej Marczewski.
Line Honours Monohull (provisional)
Claudio Demartis’s Reichel/Pugh 90 Prosecco Doc Shockwave 3 (ITA) holds the provisional line honours lead among the monohulls, just 9 nautical miles ahead of George Procopiou’s Aiolos (GRE), the two having match raced through much of the previous day and into the night, including through the Santorini caldera, before Shockwave extended its lead in the wind holes off Rhodes. At the halfway point of the 605-mile course, Shockwave’s average pace of 12.6 knots sat just shy of the 13.6-knot pace the Farr 100 Leopard 3 held while setting the monohull course record in 2023, a mark still in reach if the Meltemi holds for the rest of the race. France’s Daguet 5 and Palanad 4 sit third and fourth, with Russ Whitworth’s Final Final (USA) fifth and Slovenia’s Big Sky sixth.
IRC Overall (provisional, corrected time)
At the 30-hour mark since the start, Daguet 5 leads on IRC corrected time, from Palanad 4 and Final Final, with the Czech Republic’s Mary S fourth, Bogatyr (UAE) fifth and Cocody (FRA) sixth. On ORC scoring, Mary S (Pavel Stole) currently holds the overall lead instead, rounding the southern end of Karpathos, ahead of Greece’s Xiphos and Poland’s Pneuma.
Line Honours Multihull (provisional)
Britain’s Quick Decision leads the multihull line honours race, ahead of Italy’s Lynx and Belgium’s Albatros, though on corrected time it’s Lynx, sailed by Michalis Aftias and Stathis Balomenos, holding the class lead. Finland’s DSS-equipped Infinity 52 Tulikettu was among five boats forced to retire in the opening 24 hours, alongside Greece’s Ageras, which also sits at the back of the current multihull standings having pulled out. “We had to retire from the race after damaging our foil in order to avoid further damage to the yacht,” said Tulikettu’s Arto Linnervuo, adding that the team felt this was their race and are looking forward to returning to AEGEAN 600 to finish the job.
