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Wind Spotting

Unknown

Type of Yacht: 40 ft cruising yacht

Type of Sail: Mainsail

Age: 5 years old

Material: Dacron

Lived in: Marina Alimos, Attica

Distance Travelled: Over 4000 nm (or a sail from Piraeus to Tromso, Norway via the Gibraltar straits)

Places most visited: Milos, Santorini, Leros, Rhodes, Koufonisia, Hydra, Spetses

Wind Spotting, Aegean style.

The Hellenic Offshore Racing Club has been running the Aegean Rally for just over half a century. A good friend of ours (a sea of knowledge, who we tend to call, mostly, when stuck with no wind in the middle of a race) has taken part in over 40 of them. The Aegean Rally is one of the world’s great regattas mixing hard racing with hard partying, sleepless nights, and blustery northerly winds.

Taking part means becoming a member of a long movable feast, one that extends over ten days and more than 300 nautical miles. When becalmed in the middle of the Aegean the second or third thing you do (we can’t say what the first is) is look for boats sailing in the distance. It gives you a heads up on the coming weather, it’s like a teaser trailer on what’s going to happen. This sail came to us from a creature often beheld in the Aegean. The sail of a portly and well-stocked cruising yacht. Spotting one of these creatures is often the difference between winning and losing a race.

Enjoy the sea.