The 45th Rolex Middle Sea Race starts on Saturday at 11am from Grand Harbour, Valletta.
The Mediterranean’s most renowned offshore race looks set to deliver another classic race.
A diverse spread of yacht designs and crews are set against each other and a common foe… the weather, which is expected to test preparation, sail inventories, tactics, patience and resilience.
The 606-nautical mile, circular course is ready to honour its traditional promise to offer a real mix of wind angles and sea states.
Entrants range in length from 9.43 metres (31 feet) to 30.48m (100ft), and crews in experience from newcomers to hardened.
The overall winner of the Rolex Middle Sea Race and recipient of the magnificent trophy is determined by IRC Time Correction. Skill rather than size will be the determining factor.
A few core details: close to 1,000 crew from 42 nations are spread among 112 yachts representing 30 countries.
The oldest participant is 80, the youngest 14. The oldest yacht is Timothy Wilson’s El Oro, launched in 1974, the latest is Wolf Scheder-Bieschin’s Vineta from 2024. Seb Ripard and Daniel Calascione’s Calypso is the smallest.
The largest yachts, meanwhile, are Seng Huang Lee’s Scallywag 100 from Hong Kong and Remon Vos’s Black Jack 100.
Although on their debut appearances in current configuration and ownership, both yachts have history with the race, first appearing in 2006 as Maximus and Alfa Romeo II respectively.
Black Jack most recently changed owner this year, and comes fresh from line honours successes at the 243nm Giraglia and 437nm Palermo – Monte Carlo.
Tristan Le Brun, the racing skipper, is looking forward to a longer, more exacting course with tough competition, as Le Brun identifies: “We have some great competition this year, Scallywag in particular is similar to us, with a very competitive team. Lucky is also a canting keeler and can be fast in many conditions, so too Bullitt. That’s three boats we have to watch and try to keep behind us!”
For Scallywag, the Hong Kong to Hainan race record holder, the race is an opportunity to reveal her recently refreshed offshore potential.
Last year’s overall winner, Andrea Recordati’s 93ft Bullitt, returns for a third time with a reinforced crew that includes the experienced ocean racer and weather router, Marcel van Triest, and fresh from Barcelona, Francesco ‘Checco’ Bruni, Luna Rossa’s port-side helm. Lucky from the United States is the former five-time line honours winner, Rambler 88, and a potent threat if the wind is up. New owner Bryan Ehrhart has experienced the best and worst of the race. An overall winner in 2010, last year he suffered a dismasting with his latest steed.
Despite strong winds from the south predicted for the start, the general conditions do not look stable enough for an attempt on the monohull race record of 40 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds set in 2021.
“The forecast looks very different compared to recent years with quite a lot of wind, rain and scattered thunderstorms, plus some large areas of light wind,” advises race weather forecaster Mike Broughton.
“We have a low pressure centre moving across Sicily and a frontal system that is due to go through before the race start with a trough line behind it. Wind from three to 33 knots can be expected during the first 60 hours. This is going to be a hard race and tiring for all the teams.”
The fleet is packed with tried and tested class acts, and plenty of past winners. Eric de Turckheim returns to scene of his 2022 victory with Teasing Machine from France. Mitch Booth, a winner with Comanche in 2021, is part of Franco Niggeler’s Swiss crew on Kuka 3.
Niggeler has raced the course more than ten times: “There are two things unique to this race, in my view. The first is Malta, which is a beautiful place. The second is that it is the only race where you have so many meteorological situations you have to match. It is a marvellous race.”
Lee Satariano and Christian Ripard from Malta, triumphant together in 2011 and 2014, are competing once again with Satariano’s latest Artie.
“If you look at the current forecast, the first night is potentially difficult,” commented Ripard.
“The wind is not that strong, but the rain and thunder cloud are right where we want to go and that could cause things that do not come up on the forecast, such as big squalls.”
The Podesta siblings from Malta, Aaron, Christoph and Maya, return with Elusive 2, back-to-back winner in 2019 and 2020, while French sailor Géry Trentesaux, skipper of top boat in 2018, is also here, this time with Long Courrier.
From the boats on their first attempt at the course, astute eyes will be drawn to the iMaxi72 Balthasar.
While the boat is new to the race, the crew is stacked with seasoned offshore racing campaigners, including Bouwe Bekking: “The most appealing thing is that there are so many corners, so many islands to go around, so you have plenty of opportunities to do well. You sail in your class, but you race against the whole fleet because the trophy you sail for is the overall. Everybody is a competitor, and we saw that perfectly last year.”
At the other end of the experience scale is Pippa Bartolo Parnis on the 35ft J/109 Jarhead, entered by the Jarhead Young Sailors Foundation. She is one of the three youngest crew competing in their first ever Rolex Middle Sea Race.
“I am really looking forward to the race. I have done a couple of shorter offshore races this year, and love the sense of freedom being at sea offers. I also like the dynamic of the team and being part of a big family onboard,” said the 15-year-old Bartolo Parnis, who has been fully involved in preparing the boat.
Taking part in this race at a young age is a rite of passage followed by several Maltese sailors. The JYS Foundation based in Malta offers the opportunity for aspiring ocean racers to learn the skills and resilience required to take on such a testing examination.
A number of its graduates are scattered around the fleet, and Jarhead itself is led by 25-year-old Gary Mercieca, on his fourth race.
