largest single mast yacht in the world

One of the world's largest sailing yachts arrives on Vancouver Island

One of the largest sailing yachts in the world cruised into a small Vancouver Island community this week, drawing a constant stream of onlookers to the Mill Bay Marina.

At 78 metres long and nearly 90 metres tall, the sloop M5 is hard to miss.

According to Boat International magazine, the Cayman-flagged vessel is the largest single-masted sailing yacht in the world.

The M5 sailed into the Saanich Inlet marina on Sunday, with a floatplane housed on its rear deck.

Built in 2004 by U.K. shipyard Vosper Thornycroft at an estimated US$50 million, the vessel is owned by Texas oil billionaire Rod Lewis, according to Boat International.

Marina staff say the vessel is due to depart on Friday.

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Cool San Diego Sights!

Colorful photos of San Diego places and events.

World’s largest single-masted yacht returns!

The world’s largest single-masted yacht has returned to San Diego!

The M5 , originally called the Mirabella V, is now docked on the Embarcadero near the Maritime Museum of San Diego. You can find it directly across from the County Administration Building.

I spotted the towering mast while walking nearby, so I had to go take a look. That mind-blowing mast, over 290 feet high, is visible from many streets downtown!

I first saw the M5 in San Diego eight years ago behind the convention center and blogged about it here . Read that old blog post (including its comments) to learn more about this incredible sailboat.

It took these photographs this morning. It’s hard to depict the staggering size of this sloop-rigged super yacht. Suffice it to say, the mast rises higher than many downtown San Diego buildings!

You can see the mast from the other side of the County Administration Building in the next photo. (The exterior of the historic building is being painted.)

The first weekend of October I noticed the M5 had moved to a spot behind the San Diego Convention Center–where I first saw it eight years ago…

Yes, it’s enormous!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter !

You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!

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Richard Schulte

Downtown San Diego has been my home for many years. My online activities reflect my love for writing, blogging, walking and photography. View all posts by Richard Schulte

One thought on “World’s largest single-masted yacht returns!”

I love my hometown of San Diego! I lived in an old Victorian at 5th & A St as a child, but was raised 4 blocks from the beach in Imperial Beach. The photo shot from behind the county building gives a great perspective of the height of that impressive mast!! I love to sail so I can only imagine being on that boat! Thanks!!

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Yachting World

• Digital Edition

Perini Navi’s new 60m sloop Perseus^3 boasts the world’s largest single sail

• Elaine Bunting
• May 26, 2015

The new Perini Navi sloop Perseus^3 has the world's third largest carbon mast and her A2 spinnaker is the world’s largest single sail, bigger than all the giant Maltese Falcon’s 15 sails combined. Mike Owen and Rob Peake report

Perseus^ 3 is the second in Perini Navi’s new 60m series, launched earlier this year and in Palma for her first regatta and she is likely to turn heads, if only for her sheer scale.

This line is designed with performance much higher in mind than any previous Perini flybridge yachts, as already demonstrated by Seahawk, the first of the range, at the Bucket this year and last. Perseus^3 (Perseus Cubed) clearly goes a step or two further.

She is sloop rigged and her carbon mast stands third tallest in the world. Her Doyle inventory comprises a whopping 10,000m2/107,640ft2 of sails, and her A2 spinnaker is the world’s largest single sail, measuring 2,602m2/28,010ft2. For scale, this one sail alone is bigger than all the giant Maltese Falcon’s 15 sails combined.

The new 60m Perini Navi, Perseus^3

Doyle reports that initially there was simply no existing fabric capable of this job, so they developed their own new cloth, blending Polyester with Dyneema to give the cloth high strength and tear resistance, as well as light weight and enough softness for easy handling.

Future Fibres was responsible for the 16.4-tonne mast, one of the three tallest ever built, saying: “We have managed to produce a tube with a perfect exterior surface and a flawless Clearcote gloss carbon finish with zero filler – which can add up to three per cent to the weight of a mast.”

A new rig load monitoring system will use strain gauges to detect the loads acting on the carbon fibre rig components.

To manage this massive sailplan, Perini has been busy creating its own new generation of fast, quiet captive winches and furlers with variable-speed motors, a max loading of 30 tonnes for headsail, and varying line speeds aboard between 40 and 110 metres a minute. Forward there’s a carbon sprit, also a first for Perini, for the huge flying sails, the Code 0 calling for Future Fibres’ largest ever top-down furler.

But Perseus^3 has more than one focus. Her owner sailed his previous Perini, the 50m/164ft Perseus (now Silencio) in a circumnavigation with his young family. They enjoyed the cruising and also competed in the Hamilton Island Race Week. Charter was useful, too. All this will continue with Perseus^3 , perhaps just faster.

There’s a top bluewater and race-experienced permanent crew on board, vital to the safe handling of such an immense rig, and the accommodation is well suited for private and charter use.

Bruce Brakenhoff of Perini Navi USA explains: “When it came to planning his new, second Perini, the owner said: ‘I really love cruising, having my family aboard the boat, having a successful charter boat and I really love doing Buckets, so I want a boat that has as few compromises as possible to cover all of those bases.’

“When we started from that blank sheet of paper, not only with the engineering systems and changes like chainplate relocation for the sloop rig, I remember a meeting with Ron Holland with the owner saying what else can we do to make this even faster? Ron had just delivered a twin-rudder boat he’d had good experience with and suggested this. The owner thought it a great idea.

“But at the same time as it’s fast, this boat will be as popular a charter boat because it has a fantastic layout, an amazing owner’s suite, a humungous flybridge, and it’s got a pool, one of those lap pools where you swim against the jets – the thing’s like eight metres wide, it’ll turn into the biggest spinnaker pit you’ve ever seen!”

That could come in handy with that huge spinnaker.

With a centreboard Perseus^3 still can cruise in the Bahamas, but she will not manage the Panama Canal as she is too tall to fit under the Bridge of the Americas.

LOA 60m 197ft

LWL 50.4m 164ft

Beam 11.4m 37ft 5in

Draught 4.3-12.3m 14-39ft

Displacement 570 tonnes

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• Local & State

Super yacht docked in Portland Harbor among world’s largest

The M5, at 277 feet long and 54 feet wide, is the largest single-masted sailing yacht in the world, and as of Thursday, it's moored at DiMillo's Marina.

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The largest single-masted sailing yacht ever built is docked in Portland Harbor and towering over DiMillo’s Marina in the Old Port.

Called the M5 and measuring about 277 feet long with a beam 54 feet, the massive pleasure craft arrived Monday, a DiMillo’s employee said.

Where it’s headed or who’s aboard has not been publicly disclosed, but according to MarineTraffic.com, the vessel sailed to Maine from Newport, Rhode Island.

But one thing is for sure – the owner is likely wealthier than your wildest dreams.

“The guys who have the money and the wherewithal to do this have large egos and it takes a very large yacht to carry them,” said John Hanson, publisher of Maine Boats, Homes and Harbors magazine. Advertisement

Hanson said the original owners of boats this size are typically open and public about it, while those who buy them “used” tend to be more discreet. “The first owner builds it as a way to show how big and powerful he is,” Hanson said.

In this case, the M5 was commissioned by Joseph Vittoria, the former chairman and CEO of Avis rental car company. It was completed at a British shipyard and launched in 2004 under the name Mirabella V, but was renamed in 2012 after the boat changed owners.

The original price was not reported at the time it was launched, but was later estimated to be $50 million by people in the maritime industry.

Vittoria reportedly sold the sloop in 2011 for $25 million, according to Fortune magazine and other sources. The buyer was Rod Lewis, a billionaire Texas oil-and-gas tycoon.

The vessel has a master bedroom suite on its main deck and six cabins that sleep up to 12 people. Running the boat requires a crew of more than a dozen, according to a 2010 Greenwich Time story .

And if mooring it isn’t possible, there is a smaller yacht stored inside the hull that can be launched to ferry passengers and visitors back and forth to shore from an anchorage. Advertisement

If water travel isn’t appealing, there is even space to park a small sea plane on the stern, thanks to a retrofit that extended the M5’s overall length.

Hanson said that many boats this size are often chartered, and at great cost.

As of 2005, the yacht’s charter rate per week was about $420,000, and if it was rented 14 weeks a year, the rental revenue of about $5.9 million would equal its annual operating costs, the Greenwich newspaper reported. Whether those figures still hold true is unknown.

While larger sailing yachts with more masts have been constructed, M5 still ranks as the largest of the single-mast variety, according to BoatInternational.com, a clearinghouse for news and advertisements for yacht sales, rankings and charters and other expensive maritime hobbies. The Greenwich paper reported that the mast is nearly 290 feet tall, nearly the height of the Statue of Liberty and too tall to fit under the Golden Gate Bridge, according to Forbes.

Hanson said Maine is a popular destination this time of year for wealthy, seafaring travelers.

“There’s no place better to have your boat in August than the coast of Maine. Seriously,” he said. “Maine is the most awesome cruising grounds in the world. And that’s why they’re here. You can explore the coast of Maine in a 24-footer you get on Craigslist, and have the same experience. Well, not quite the same experience. You might be drinking out of a beer can. But the view is the same.”

Matt Byrne can be contacted at 791-6303 or at:

[email protected]

Twitter: MattByrnePPH

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World’s two tallest masts of sailing yacht Salute and superyacht M5 serviced by Marine Results

• Inspiration

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• Yacht Charter & Superyacht News >

Written by Chelsea Smith

Marine Results, an international rigging and structural inspection company has just carried out service work on the masts of sailing yacht M5 and superyacht Salute – two of the world’s tallest masts.  Marine Results inspected the rig of fast cruising sloop Salute which has the world’s tallest aluminium mast at a towering 75 metres.  But even that measurement was dwarfed by the next project on the schedule, that of the giant 89 metres high rig belonging to the 75m yacht M5 (ex Mirabella) .  Sailing yacht M5 is not only the world’s largest sailing sloop but she has the world’s tallest carbon rig.

Marine Results personnel work on the gigantic M5 sailing yacht mast.

“We have worked extensively with both yachts since they were launched,” comments Jon Morris of Marine Results. “Following completion of the two most recent projects we reflected that we had just carried out work on the world’s two largest rigs in their particular construction category.  We are pretty proud of that achievement and the way that it illustrates our capabilities.”

In the case of the 56m Perini Navi yacht Salute, Marine Results carried out an extensive inspection after the team un-stepped the rig at the Perini Navi yard in La Spezia, where she was originally built.  Marine Results then worked with Perini’s mast division to complete the inspection on the mast and rigging systems. Marine Results specialises in a range of non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques to check for concealed stressing and damage.

The second of the two record breakers, the M5 yacht had her mast pulled out as part of a substantial one-year refit at Pendennis Shipyard in Cornwall.  Marine Results was called in to unstep the rig prior to an extensive modification programme which is expected to last until the end of 2012.

“Unstepping the rig was no small job,” said Morris. “The rig weighs a colossal 46 tonnes. To give you an idea of the size of the job, when we removed the boom vang, this alone was 9.5 metres long and weighed 900 kg.

“One of our strengths is our ability to deploy our teams around the world to carry out service work on dozens of the world’s most advanced racing and cruising superyachts,” concludes Jon Morris.  Marine Results is based in Hamble, England and La Ciotat, France .

Please contact CharterWorld - the luxury yacht charter specialist - for more on superyacht news item "World’s two tallest masts of sailing yacht Salute and superyacht M5 serviced by Marine Results".

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• MaineBoats Blog

World's largest sloop sails the Maine coast

Thursday, september 13th 2018.

A sailboat reputed to be the largest single-masted yacht in the world was spotted recently cruising along the Maine coast, making stops in Portland and off Camden, where it was too big to fit into the harbor.

The 277-foot boat was designed by Ron Holland and built in 2004 in England at the Vosper Thornycroft yard for Joseph Vittoria, the former chairman and CEO of the Avis Rental Car Company. He named it Mirabella V (it has since beeen renamed M5) and chartered it out for $420,000 a week, according to an interview Vittoria gave to the Greenwich (Ct) Times in 2010.

Vittoria sold the boat in 2012, and according to the website Superyacht Fan, the new owner was Texas-based oil and gas billionaire Rodney Lewis.

M5’s mast is almost 300 feet tall and the boat has a beam of over 49 feet. The boat has a lifting keel and draws 33.5 feet with it down and 12.5 feet with it up. The sail area is a whopping 25,670 square feet with just the main and a working jib. Vittoria told the Greenwich Times that the boat was capable of sailing at 20 knots in a stiff breeze, but other reports place the top speed at 12 knots. According to BoatInternational.com, M5 is the largest single-masted sailing yacht in the world.

The vessel has a master suite and six additional cabins, and requires a crew of more than a dozen. It has room to carry Lasers, jet skis, and a 29-foot tender to carry passengers to and from the shore.

When M5 anchored off Camden, its mast could be seen towering over Curtis Island. Schooners sailing past looked like small rowboats in comparison to the massive yacht. According to the marine tracking app MarinTraffic.com, the vessel sailed to Portland from Newport, Rhode Island, to Boothbay and then to Camden.

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The largest yachts competing in the St Barths Bucket 2024

The St Barths Bucket 2024 is fast approaching, with the yachts competing for the coveted regatta title now confirmed. For the first time in its nearly 30-year history, several superyachts have also registered as non-competing "social entrants" . This includes the iconic 88-metre Maltese Falcon and the 33.5-metre Mousetrap , which has stirred further excitement for this year's competition. BOAT takes a closer look at those vying for the top spot...

Builder : Vosper Thornycroft Year : 2004

Top of the list is M5 (ex Mirabella ), the world's largest single-masted sailing yacht. Her top speed is 16 knots, though owner Rod Lewis has said 22 knots is his fastest, at which point it feels like "flying on the water". Her exterior is owed to Ron Holland Design , whilst a 2019 refit saw RWD step up and refurbish her interiors – including a bar top made from ancient Egyptian red jasper.

Hetairos – 66.9m

Builder : Baltic Yachts Year : 2011

Two-time St Barths Bucket champion (and World Superyacht Awards finalist) Hetairos will also be competing this year. Dykstra Naval Architects was part of an international team of experts in charge of the design, which features a carbon composite hull, a lifting rudder and nearly 3,000 square metres of sails. She was most recently refitted in 2014, overseen by Vitters .

Maximus – 59m

Builder : Vitters Year : 2023

Maximus is the newest competitor on the list, having been delivered in December last year . She is now the third-largest Vitters built after the 85.9-metre Aquijo and 66-metre Anatta . Described as a "wolf in sheep's clothing", the performance cruiser has naval architecture by Germán Frers and benefits from twin rudders and a lifting keel with a minimum draught of five metres.

Aquarius – 56m

Builder : Royal Huisman Year : 2018

Aquarius was delivered to an "exceptionally clear" owner's brief – they wanted a yacht as well suited to Bucket regatta racing as to round-the-world family cruising. Her clean, "relaxed" interiors were handled by Mark Whiteley Design and inspired by the shipyard's earlier 51.6-metre build Meteor . Aquarius  also has capacity for a 6.2 metre jet drive tender and an Aero sailing boat.

Melek – 56m

Builder : Perini Navi Year : 2010

A number of innovations separate Melek from her sisterships. The yacht features a foredeck with a built-in hydraulic tender garage and an aerodynamic superstructure optimised for better navigation performance. The yacht is sure to turn heads in St Barths this year, owing to her grey-chrome exterior by Ron Holland Design. Leisure highlights include a Jacuzzi spa tub on the flybridge and a collection of sunloungers.

Panthalassea – 56m

Panthalassea has something to prove this Bucket. She recently underwent a refit that has brought her back to her "original racing potential" and is now ready for her "second wind" on the regatta course, according to Amsterdam Yacht Service. Exteriors are by Ron Holland, whilst an "extraordinarily light and airy interior" has been created by Norman Foster & Partners , with 12 guests able to sleep across the sailer's flexible accommodation.

Rosehearty – 56m

Builder : Perini Navi Year : 2006

With several trophies to her name, including the winning title at the 2017 St Barths Bucket, Rosehearty will be looking to replicate her success this year. Some 1,560 square metres of sail area ensure nimble performance and a 2020 refit has left her ready to catch attention on the racing circuit. Rosehearty was delivered as Audace in 2007 and went on to win the Voyager's Award at the BOAT International World Superyacht Awards in 2019.

Adela – 55.1m

Builder : Pendennis Year : 1995

Originally launched in 1903 (and fully rebuilt in the 90s), Adela is a veteran competitor designed by Dykstra Naval Architects . She has enjoyed numerous refits at the Pendennis shipyard over the years. Custom-made blocks and winches, concealed state-of-the-art communications and a modern climate control system all provide the comfort and convenience one would expect on a modern superyacht.

Red Dragon – 51.7m

Builder : Alloy Yachts Year : 2008

Red Dragon is another fast cruising sloop designed by Dubois, who also completed the naval architecture. She's fitted with a 62.5-metre high modulus carbon fibre main mast, rig and boom, as well as custom winches by Alloy Yachts. The yacht represents the culmination of experience gained by the owner aboard his previous Red Dragon, a smaller sloop built by Vitters.

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Linda and Regis travel...

Enjoying the gifts of the day with two dogs

Charleston and the World’s Largest Single-Masted Sailing Yacht

Posted on June 26, 2024 by Linda

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Regis had to fix the alternator on the boat, so we stayed in Charleston an extra night. We had dinner last night at California Dreaming and it was delicious. After arriving back at the at the marina, we witnessed a beautiful sunset.

There are a couple Cruising Tiki’s boats docked on the same dock as us.

Today I saw a Beer Barge.

Most interesting of all is the enormous sailboat berthed at the next marina. We saw this large boat coming into our marina and took some pictures and we were awed by the plane on the back of the boat. Regis did some research on it and according to an article in the Post and Currier , it is the largest single-masted sailing yacht in the world. The article states that the mast is nearly 300 feet and “the mast is about the length of a football field, minus the ends zones. The sail? A little over the square footage of one end zone to the 50-yard line.” Here is a photo I took to give perspective of this boat and the other sailboats in the marina.

The photo at the beginning of the post and the following were taken when we arrived.

We have 307 miles to go. We are planning on around 40 miles a day. It gives us time to anchor or dock before afternoon thunderstorms which is the norm in the summer. We will likely take one more day off since it was nice to have a day without cruising. I am enjoying our day off, but I think Regis enjoys it even more. He has been doing this longer than me. For me, I am thoroughly enjoying this cruise, but I would not do it again. There are a couple spots with lots of wildlife I wouldn’t mind visiting again, but not by cruising like this to get there. I am fascinated at how tiring it is to cruise. I am not working out, but being in the wind and sun takes its toll. I do not know how Regis did this by himself. We can rotate who steers which was not possible for him alone. So far, we have been stopping in the same places on the way back he took on the way up. That will change after we leave here. With 40 miles a day as a possibility, we will be looking at new spots to anchor or dock. I think we are both ready to get back home. I miss my collies. I hope they remember me!

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Category: Uncategorized Tags: boating life , Charleston , Charleston Beer Barge , Charleston sunset , Cruising Tiki's , trawler life , world's largest single-masted sailing yacht

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Steve Jobs' former yacht Venus collided with another superyacht off the coast of Naples

• Venus, the yacht built for Steve Jobs , collided with another yacht off Italy's coast.
• It's unclear which yacht struck which or when exactly the crash occurred.
• With a minimalist design, Venus is one of the world's most iconic superyachts.

Venus, Steve Jobs' former superyacht — now owned by his wife, the philanthropist and investor Laurene Powell Jobs — has collided with another superyacht off of the Italian coast.

A spokesperson from Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective who spoke with a crewmember confirmed to Business Insider that Venus, the 78-meter yacht Steve Jobs commissioned, had collided with Lady Moura, a 105-meter yacht. The collision happened on July 22 off the coast of Naples, Italy.

The spokesperson said that only crew were onboard the yacht and that both boats were anchored when a sudden change of wind led to the collision.

Venus is cruising in the Ligurian Sea, while Lady Moura made its way to Mykonos on Wednesday, based on publicly available tracking data from Marine Traffic.

Videos posted on social media show the strikingly minimalist Venus and the Lady Moura coming into contact. It's not clear from the videos which superyacht struck which, though someone who said they were aboard the Lady Moura seemed to blame Venus' crew on social media, SuperYacht Times reported. The person said the damage was "only a scratch, albeit a significant one that will be costly to repair."

Others on social media said that the Venus appeared to be moored and that Lady Moura seemed to have swung into the boat. BI hasn't been able to independently verify either claim.

Related stories

The Italian Marina Militare didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. The owner of the Lady Moura couldn't be reached.

No matter how little damage may have been done, insurance will probably cover it. Yacht insurance , which can cost six figures each month, is one of the largest costs incurred by yacht owners.

Venus, built by the top yacht-builder Feadship, was delivered after Jobs died in 2011 and was worth $130 million upon completion. The Apple cofounder was heavily involved in the design process alongside the French architect and decorator Philippe Starck.

"Venus comes from the philosophy of minimum," Starck said of her design. "The elegance of the minimum, approaching dematerialization."

Jobs and Starck spent four years working on her design, the designer told Vanity Fair , holding monthly meetings to discuss her specifications. She has six identical cabins, was built to maximize absolute silence, and, upon delivery, included the most up-to-date technology.

"There will never again be a boat of that quality again. Because never again will two madmen come together to accomplish such a task," Starck told the magazine. "It was not a yacht that Steve and I were constructing, we were embarked on a philosophical action, implemented according to a quasi-religious process. We formed a single brain with four lobes." August 7, 2024 — This story has been updated with a statement from a Laurene Powell Jobs spokesperson.

Watch: Migrants who died in Italy shipwreck paid 8,000 euros each

• Main content

Calmer winds and reinforcements offer hope against Greek blaze which left one person dead

Topic: Wildfires

Greece's worst wildfire of the year that killed one person and reached Athens' suburbs is no longer active, according to local fire departments. 

A woman was found dead in a burned-out factory after the fire reached Vrilissia, around 14km from central Athens.

What's next?

The fire no longer has any advancing fronts thanks to calmer winds and reinforcements of water-dropping aircraft and firefighters from abroad. 

Greece's worst wildfire of the year that killed one person and reached Athens' suburbs is no longer active thanks to calmer winds and firefighting assistance from abroad, according to local fire departments. 

Some 700 firefighters, backed by 200 fire engines and nine aircraft, were battling the blaze on Tuesday, local time.

The fire broke out on Sunday near the village of Varnavas, 35 kilometres north of Athens.

It torched homes, vehicles and swathes of bone-dry forest since.

Local newspaper Proto Thema said the damage spanned 100 square kilometres and 100 homes.

But with strong winds dying down overnight, the fire department said the fire no longer had any active, advancing fronts and firefighters focused on extinguishing hundreds of slow-burning areas. 

Reinforcements of water-dropping aircraft and firefighters were arriving from abroad after Greece requested assistance from Europe's joint disaster response mechanism.

Hundreds of firefighters have been battling the blaze. ( AP: Michael Varaklas )

Dozens of homes and businesses were reported to have burned, although authorities did not yet have an exact number. 

Winds strengthened again on Tuesday afternoon, but no new major flare-ups were reported.

The blaze leapt from Varnavas into suburbs of Athens on Monday, choking the city with smoke and ash and stirring panic in neighbourhoods that had not seen such a fire so close in decades.

It scaled Mount Pentelikon, also known as Mount Pentelicus, which overlooks the capital, and moved towards suburbs that are home to tens of thousands of residents, including Nea Penteli, Palaia Penteli, Patima Chalandriou and Vrilissia.

Flames as high as 25 metres tall were spotted.

The blaze has choked Athens with smoke and ash. ( AP: Petros Giannakouris )

Three hospitals were forced to evacuate, and there were power cuts in parts of the wider Athens region.

Mobile phones in the area got at least 30 push alerts warning people to flee.

"The wind would go in one direction and then in the other," Dioni resident Spyros Gorilas said.

"The smoke was suffocating. You couldn't see. Your eyes teared up. You couldn't breathe."

"Even the helicopter that dropped water, you couldn't see it."

"You could only hear it."

Three hospitals have had to be evacuated. ( AP: Michael Varaklas )

Police have helped evacuate more than 250 people. Some residents spent the night in shelters. Sports halls and hotels were also turned into evacuation centres.

Authorities said some people who refused to leave their homes later became trapped and required rescuing, endangering the lives of firefighters.

Passenger ferries heading to the port of Rafina, north-east of the capital, were diverted.

The Athens Medical Association warned those with chronic conditions, the elderly, pregnant women, children and those with respiratory and heart problems to be extra cautious.

'Many active localised blazes'

Firefighters are battling "many active localised blazes", a spokesperson said. ( AP: Michael Varaklas )

Fire department spokesperson Colonel Vassileios Vathrakogiannis said firefighters were longer battling a single front but "many active localised blazes", mostly around Marathon and Pendeli.

The Marathon area was the site of a famous battle between Greeks and Persians in 490 BC. It hosts a museum and archaeological site but there were no immediate reports of damage to either.

One woman was found dead in a burned-out factory after the fire reached Vrilissia, around 14km from central Athens, the fire department said.

"Thirty-five years living here, a fire had never reached this area," resident Meletis Makris said.

"My house was utterly destroyed, even the walls fell down. There's nothing left," Vrilissia resident Sakis Morfis added.

"The only thing I cared about was saving my dogs, so I left everything [else] behind."

At least 66 people have been treated for injuries. Two firefighters have also been hurt.

Greece has activated the European Civil protection mechanism and is expecting France, Italy and Czechia to provide aircraft and firefighters.

Spain and Türkiye have also offered help.

Greece on high alert for wildfires through to Thursday

Recent lighter winds and firefighting efforts have reportedly helped reduce the blaze's intensity. ( AP: Aggelos Barai )

The country will remain on high fire alert until Thursday amid strong winds and temperatures forecast to reach up to 40 degrees Celsius.

Recent lighter winds and firefighting efforts have reportedly helped reduce the fire's intensity.

Costas Tsigkas, head of the association of Greek firefighter officers, told state television ERT that firefighters were "at a better level across the front" but were expecting winds to worsen the fire again.

"Every hour that passes will be more difficult," he said.

The cause of the wildfire has not yet been determined.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is expected to chair a ministerial meeting later on Tuesday. 

The Greek government has announced compensation and relief measures for those who have lost homes or property.

Opposition parties accused the government of not doing enough to prevent the disaster. 

Syriza, the leftist main opposition party, questioned the number of aircraft battling the blaze. 

The socialist Pasok party said Greeks were paying the price of poor fire prevention policies.

The cause of the wildfire has not yet been determined. ( AP: Aggelos Barai )

The destruction has revived memories of the July 2018 fires in Mati, a coastal area near Marathon, where 104 people died in a tragedy later blamed on evacuation delays and errors.

Last year, wildfires in Greece killed more than 20 people, including 18 migrants who became trapped by the flames as they trekked through a forest in north-eastern Greece and were caught by a massive blaze that burned for more than two weeks.

Wildfires have been a common feature of Greek summers for years, but climate change has brought hotter weather and less rain — ideal conditions for large-scale fires.

Dozens of other wildfires also broke out in several parts of Greece on Monday.

"Firefighters have been working at full tilt for months," Nikos Lavranos, head of Greece's main firefighters' union, said of the situation.

"They are exhausted."

"The wildfire had all the characteristics that we, as firefighters, don't want a forest fire to have. A combination of hot, dry and windy [conditions]."

"It was extremely aggressive, difficult to manage and unpredictable."

The southern European country experienced its warmest winter on record this year and was on track for its hottest summer, with scant rain in many areas for months.

The worsening situation was mirrored across southern Europe, including in Spain and the Balkans.