The Mayor of Rhodes, Mr. Fotis Chatzidakos, welcomes you to the Aegean Regatta 2017

With great honor and satisfaction, we welcome the organization of the Seventeenth Aegean Regatta 2017 sailing boat race in the Dodecanese.

I am confident that this year's race with the starting point in Patmos, crossing Astypalea, Nisyros and ending in Rhodes will be successful. To this common objective, the Municipality of Rhodes provides its practical support in cooperation with the Open Seas Maritime Club of Rhode, which is the coordinator of the event.

From 2001 until today, the uninterrupted conduct of the Aegean Regatta Race has made it an institution that takes place in the blue waters and the beautiful Aegean islands. A Maritime Route whose beauty is interwoven with the history of Greece and especially of the Rhodians, as a naval people.

About three millenniums ago, since the time of the mythical king of Athens Aegeus, from whose name came the name of our Pelagos, as the Aegean Sea to today, navigation has been identified with the evolution, history and economy of our islands and our civilization.

The Aegean Regatta as an institution confirms that navigation is a timeless activity that interacts with island culture and turns the Aegean Sea from the sea that surrounds and constrains our islands to an aquatic pathway that unites them.

The mayor of Rhodes

Fotis CHATZIDIAKOS