The Artie crew with the MSR Trophy. Photos: Kurt Arrigo/Rolex

With all mathematical possibilities exhausted for all of the yachts still racing, Lee Satariano’s Maltese J/122, Artie were declared the overall winners of the 2014 Rolex Middle Sea Race, yesterday.

After probably the toughest 24 hours in the 46-year history of the race, Artie finished the the 608 nautical mile challenge at 12:45am yesterday in an elapsed time of 4 days 13 hours 35 minutes and five seconds.

Artie was also declared the first Maltese yacht to finish the race and winner of IRC 4, ORC 4 and ORC overall. Godwin Zammit, Commodore of the Royal Malta Yacht Club, congratulated Lee Satariano and the entire Artie crew at the Royal Malta Yacht Club.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet,” smiled Satariano.

“But now having had the opportunity to reflect on the race, even more important than winning was the achievement of actually finishing the race in the conditions that we had out there.

“Even near the end my worry was not finishing, right up until the end, we knew boats were in difficulties, which was very unfortunate and that was playing on my mind until we crossed the finish line.

“I would like to emphasise that one thing we really promote on Artie, throughout the year, is that we have young dinghy sailors on board and a main objective is to get these youngsters out sailing, combining them with our regular crew to create the future sailors that will be representing Malta.”

Meanwhile, the RMYC has been a hive of activity both day and night, welcoming back yachts.

By midday yesterday 34 yachts had finished the race and 25 yachts had retired.

Each and every sailor that has taken part, including those that are still out there, has a story to tell for years to come.

The 35th edition of the race has been one of the most memorable in its history. The storm that arrived on the fourth night of racing was ferocious in its strength and lasted over 24 hours.

Thankfully, conditions have now abated somewhat and although there are broken boats and battered crew, the RMYC has received no reports of serious injuries.

The majority of the fleet were expected to finish yesterday.