Aegean600, an Italian boat wins in Greece. The Scuderia 65 (20m)

Destined to become one of the great Mediterranean classics, the Aegean600 offshore race this year was won by a 100% Italian boat, the Scuderia 65 Hagar V.

Aegean600, the triumph of Scuderia 65 Hagar V

This 605-mile offshore race, the name says it all, takes place in the Aegean on a course that is fascinating to say the least. The Aegean600 starts at Cape Sunion, the furthest point of the Gulf of Athens, and winds along buoys that are nothing less than some of Greece’s most fascinating islands: Santorini, Karpatos, Rhodes, Kos, Kalimnos, Mikonos, Kea just to name a few, for a total of 605 miles of slalom in the Aegean archipelagos.

Learn all about the Scuderia 65 that won the Aegean600

The Scuderia 65 Hagar V that won in both the overall IRC and ORC standings is all-Italian. The owner is Gregor Stimpfl of South Tyrol, the boat is built by Maurizio Testuzza’s Fano-based Adria Sail yard and designed byItalian-Austrian Harry Miesbauer, who has a home in Como. In command of Hagar V was Dede De Luca of the tricolor multinational sailmaker One Sail.

• Read also: All the secrets of Scuderia 65

Also unmistakable is the Italian-ness of the crew with Giacomo Conti at the bow with Giulio Maccarone, Aldo Scuderi (commander/drizze), Enrico Turrini (trimmer/watch captain), Michele Franceschini (mainsman), Alessandro Alberti (navigator). There was no shortage of Gregor Stimpfl (who has garnered great results with his boats named Hagar: in 2013, for example, he won the Centomiglia on a small carbon catamaran) and Harry Miesbauer doing the steering wheels.

Aegean600: why he won the Scuderia 65

The Aegean and Meltemi did not betray the expectations of the 2022 Aegean600 that took place July 7-15. Highly varied conditions, characterized by moments of complete becalmedness with many hours in the stern with Meltemi between 15 and 25 knots and an upwind rise with periods of very challenging conditions of wind over 30 knots and a formed wave.

The Scuderia 65 excelled under these conditions, as designer Harry Miesbauer explains: “I designed the boat specifically for long races like the Aegean600 and for windy conditions like this year’s. The water lines of the Scuderia 65 so powerful definitely gave us an advantage over Leaps & Bound 2 in the long crossing from Agathonissia to Mykonos“.

Hagar V team manager Dede De Luca says there was not a moment’s respite with such variable conditions: “As soon as it seemed like we could catch our breath, there was immediately a surprise. The boat and sails allowed us to always push to the limit in what was a continuous comeback over significantly better-performing boats in the carrying gaits that characterized the first part of the race. Especially In the last eight hours we realized that we could do it.”

Aegean600: what boats beat the Scuderia 65

The Scuderia 65 Hagar V did not beat nothing boats. In second place on compensated time overall came a super racer such as the Elliot 52 ss Rafale and in third place was the Vismara/Mills 62 Leaps&Bound 2, which is none other than the former Supernikka, winner of several world mini maxi championships, fresh off excellent results at the Rolex Giraglia.

At the Aegean600 there was another boat flying the Italian flag, Jacopo Ferrari Bravo’s Swan 112 Erastothenes, which finished 11th in the overall ORC.

• Check out the full Aegean600 rankings here.