Testing the conditions

October, and the yachting world shifts to Malta for one of the final events on the offshore racing calendar, the Rolex Middle Sea Race, organised by the Royal Malta Yacht Club, which gets underway tomorrow morning.

The 606-nautical mile offshore race starts in Grand Harbour and goes anti-clockwise around Sicily, the Aeolian Islands, the Egadi Islands, Pantelleria and Lampedusa to port, and finishes back in Valletta.

This year, for the 32nd edition of the race, 81 boats from 18 countries are making the trek from around the Mediterranean, as well as the UK, Australia and South Africa.

Wednesday was a warm-up of sorts, as 16 boats from the fleet, in two IRC classes, competed in a coastal race, a chance for visiting crews to experience some of the prevailing conditions and for locals to fine-tune their boats.

The fleet represented a cross section of the overall entries, with boats from Malta, Italy, France, the Netherlands, UK, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Russia and Slovenia.

The 35.6-nautical mile Coastal Race for the Malta Rolex Cup started off Fort St Elmo in Valletta in an 8-12 knot southerly, which took the fleet down to the southern end of Malta, around the island of Filfla to starboard and then back up to Marsamxett.

First across the finish line was Esmit Europa 2, the 100-foot super-maxi skippered by German Olympic medallist, Jochen Schumann. The Slovenian entry eventually corrected out to win overall as well.

The Xp44 Vikesha II is a recently-launched performance cruiser.

Owner Oleg Evdokimenko, from Russia, is a Dragon class sailor, as is many of the Russian crew which also includes grand-prix and Olympic sailors.

The lone Maltese sailor on board, Timmy Camilleri, brings local knowledge and a wealth of experience, having competed in the offshore race 16 times, and as part of a winning crew on three occasions.

Evdokimenko and Camilleri are competing in their third RMSR together, and this year with a new boat, they should be one to watch.

The boat was well-sailed on Wednesday finishing second overall and first in the IRC 2 division.

Camilleri said: “The MSR has become one of the biggest offshore races on the circuit. So now, when you get to race against the top teams, it’s too important to miss. It’s always different and always a challenge. Last year was the first year I didn’t do it, and it was hard to sit on shore and watch.”

Basic returns

Finishing third overall in the Malta Rolex Cup was Goranko Fizulic’s Karuba V (Hong Kong), an X-65 Performance sloop.

Fizulic, the former head of the Croatian Sailing Federation, is an avid competitor who formerly competed on an X-61 that he eventually sailed around the world.

Tactician on board Karuba V is Tomislav Basic, a former 470 Olympic sailor who has moved up to ‘big boats’ and now sails on the RC44 circuit.

Basic operates as coach and skipper as well, and he was pleased with Wednesday’s performance, especially given that the crew has not sailed together before.

As to why they chose to enter this race, Basic said: “I sailed in the Rolex Middle Sea Race for the first time five or six years ago, on a Volvo 60 (ex-ABN Amro). I like offshore sailing and with this kind of boat it’s really good for this.

“The Middle Sea is a really beautiful race.”

A crew party was held at the Royal Malta Yacht Club last night and today there will be a skipper and weather briefing.

The current RMSR record was established in 2007 by George David’s 90-foot Rambler (US) with a time of 47hr, 55min and 3 secs.