Maxi competitors in this year’s Rolex Middle Sea Race got to use their complete sail wardrobes.
Taking place mid-autumn in the Mediterranean, the race is renowned for varied conditions but 2024’s was even more extreme. On the first night competitors received a pummelling as a violent thunderstorm brought gusts of 60+ knots. 24 hours later it was flat calm.
The Royal Malta Yacht Club’s season ending 606 mile offshore race, the opening event of the International Maxi Association’s 2024-25 Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge, as usual provided no shortage of drama.
The first night conditions took their toll on the fleet with much sail damage and several dismastings. Further east, the lead maxis saw 40-45 knots, and this claimed two, including the race’s defending champion, Andrea Recordati’s Wally 93 Bullitt.
After the dramatic start from Valletta’s Grand Harbour, leaving Malta in an awkward sea state had already cost Bullitt one spinnaker. Then, as tactician Joca Signorini explained: “We had a major broach and ripped the kite, damaged the jib and the mainsail and some stanchions, so we decided it was better to turn around.”
In IRC 2, Luigi Sala’s Vismara 62 Yoru saw 60+ knots and three water spouts. “We could see the storm coming from the north – we dropped all the sails,” said Yoru’s main trimmer Claudio Valessi. “It hit a lot of boats and many retired. Fortunately everyone on our boat was okay.” For two hours the Italian team valiantly stood by the Scuderia 65 Hagar V, after she’d dismasted. Sadly Yoru herself suffered a hydraulic issue forcing her to retire.
Ahead, the 100s – Remon Vos’ Black Jack 100 and Seng Huang Lee’ Scallywag 100 – were making headway. “We saw 40 knots and a sustained 35, which in a 100 footer is enough,” commented Scallywag skipper David Witt. During this the middle of their A3 had flapped itself to destruction on the furler.
Meanwhile Black Jack, staying west, had built a solid lead entering the Strait of Messina. In the gale they had seen 42 knots under three reefs and J4, hightailed it downwind at 30 knots. “It was beautiful. At night, we had thunder storms, everything – Mother Nature was expressing herself!” commented skipper Tristan le Brun. But in the Strait, encountering foul tide, the others caught up, including the 72ft Balthasar.
Exiting the Strait at 0330 on Sunday morning the frontrunners restarted. Again staying west Black Jack edged into the lead and was first turning west to pass Stromboli at 0700.
Pain followed as the wind went soft passing northern Sicily. Bryon Ehrhart’s Lucky (ex-Rambler 88) briefly led having edged south, the four then tacked north in search of pressure. Here Balthasar was left behind. Tactician Bouwe Bekking explained: “They were two miles ahead of us and got the breeze and we were just stuck.” On board they hoisted a crew aloft to spot wind.
As dusk fell the front runners floundered as Balthasar found the breeze and closed. Overnight Scallywag made steady progress, leading Black Jack past the tricky headlands west of Palermo, having put 18 miles on Lucky and Balthasar. Approaching Favignana, she found pressure to the west to lead south to Pantelleria but here Black Jack did well in the east as Lucky and Balthasar, locked in combat, closed from behind with pressure.
At 0100 on Tuesday Black Jack led around Lampedusa, the southerly turning. Here differing tactics between the 100s decided the race’s outcome. Witt explained: “I thought we were going to tack but Juan [Vila, navigator] said ‘we are going into that cloud – it will look terrible, but we will come out on the other tack and be 30° high’. When Juan Vila says that, you do what Juan Vila says. And Black Jack, for the first time in 550 miles, let us go.” Sure enough, exiting the cloud the wind veered from northeast to southeast, leaving Scallywag to windward, laying the Comino Channel.
On a starboard fetch Scallywag led through the Comino Channel and on upwind to the finish at Valletta’s Marsamxett Harbour entrance. She took line honours finishing at 09:43 followed by Black Jack at 10:01.
“It is a huge relief for me, for the owner and the team, after our bad luck in the Rolex Sydney Hobart race breaking the bowsprit twice,” commented Witt. “To come here for the first time and get this result is fantastic. This is one of the toughest races I’ve done in a 100 footer. I am very proud of the team and navigator Juan Vila – if he wasn’t on board, we’d still be out there…”
Lucky relished the fetch back from Lampedusa, enabling her to close on the 100s. Owner Bryon Ehrhart said they had ‘taken a moment’ approaching Pantelleria, the scene of their dismasting last year. On the first night they saw 47 knots and they had spent an hour sailing with two reefs alone. Tactician Brad Butterworth recalled: “It was squally and kept building as the rain came through. It lasted longer than we thought…” Subsequently the beamy Lucky did well keeping up with the slender 100s and Balthasar in the light.
Balthasar won IRC One and looks on track for a top 10 finish in IRC Overall. “The first day was difficult as it was for most boats,” commented skipper Louis Balcaen, a veteran of two Volvo Ocean Races. “We had the big squall and then we broke a kite, but otherwise we managed to protect the gear and were able to sail to Messina in a straight line doing 20 knots.”
In the light conditions being the chasing boat allowed them to follow the progress of the boats ahead. Here Balthasar proved herself in 3-7 knots. “It is very slippery in that. The whole stretch across the north of Sicily we were still in touch with the 100s,” said Balcaen.
In IRC Two, Jean-Pierre Barjon’s 65ft Spirit of Lorina, plus the Vismara 80 Luce Guida and Nacira 69, struggled alongside 50 footers. Spirit of Lorina had won her class and finished second in IRC Overall in the 2022 Rolex Middle Sea Race after she’d won the IMA Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge winner over 2021-22.
During this year’s race she saw 44 knots on the first night and then experienced another gale rounding Lampedusa on the final night. “It was an epic race,” commented a tired Barjon. “But the first night was not good, nor the last.”
During the race Spirit of Lorina used all of her sails save her A5. They also blew a kite on the first afternoon thanks to the lumpy seastate. “It was really interesting because we had all conditions, strong wind, beautiful weather, Brittany weather!” commented co-skipper Benjamin Epron.
The 2024-25 IMA Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge resumes next year with La Larga, the offshore race of Palmavela on 26 April.
