The Royal Malta Yacht Club yesterday evening confirmed that Vincenzo Onorato’s Cookson 50 Mascalzone Latino is the overall winner of the 37th Rolex Middle Sea Race.

Whilst a number of yachts are still racing, none of them have the possibility of beating Mascalzone Latino’s corrected time, the race organisers said.

The Mascalzone Latino team will be presented with the Rolex Middle Sea Race Trophy and Rolex timepiece on Saturday at the prize-giving ceremony to be held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta.

The winning boat’s race crew was a mix of Italian and British sailors who have raced all over the world under the Mascalzone Latino banner and with great success.

It felt like unfinished business after coming so close to winning last year

– Ian Moore

Last year, they came agonisingly close to adding the Rolex Middle Sea Race to their roll of honour. In the absence of owner Onorato, this year the boat was skippered by Matteo Savelli.

The afterguard included Adrian Stead, Lorenzo Bressani and Branko Brcin.

Ian Moore was the navigator. The sail trimmers were Leonardo Chiaruigi, Pierluigi De Felice, Stefano Ciampalini and Andrea Ballico. Daniele Fiaschi and Davide Scarpa shared bowman duties.

“Twelve months ago we cherished the possibility of victory but it was not to be by a nine-second gap,” Savelli said.

“But our belief in success at this event in Malta was simply delayed until this year. And now, we can say we couldn’t expect more.

“Everything has worked properly and the job went off without a hitch. The crew commitment was remarkable. Indeed, the only regret was the lack of Vincenzo Onorato on board.”

The 2016 Rolex Middle Sea Race will be marked in the ever growing race legend as a tactically demanding one, with huge pressure on the tacticians and navigators to keep the yachts moving in the face of changing conditions.

“It felt like unfinished business after coming so close to winning last year,” boat navigator Moore said.

“But past performance is no guarantee of future success. We knew if we wanted to win this race we would have to sail really well and get a little bit lucky with the weather.

“In the end, our luck held, and the guys sailed well despite tough conditions.”

Before, tension at the club base had heightened as the door opened by Rambler 88’s finish in the early hours of Tuesday was widened further by more arrivals, including Mascalzone Latino.

At first it was a trickle of finishers but there was drama just the same as the battle to secure class wins and post a claim to the overall title raged on.

With the forecast suggesting a period of fading breeze on the course area, the race pendulum was swinging in favour of the bigger, faster yachts. The incentive to keep pushing to the finish was evident.

Despite sailing in the rapidly disappearing wake of Rambler 88 in the second half of the race, the remainder of IRC Class 1 yachts could scent an opportunity for a class win, having kept pace with the mighty US maxi at least until Trapani.

Trifork were sitting on top of the pile until Marton Jozsa’s Hungarian RP60 Wild Joe and Clarke Murphy’s Carbon Ocean 82 Aegir crossed the line ten minutes apart on Tuesday.

While Wild Joe were delighted in beating Aegir, their elation in terms of the class were short-lived and their hopes for the overall win soon became even shorter.

First, the smaller Mascalzone Latino crossed the finish line half an hour later to post an unassailable claim for the IRC 2 class trophy and, more importantly, a robust statement concerning the overall standings.

The arrival of the Swiss mini-maxi Caro completed the dampening.

Outside the time required to beat Mascalzone Latino, Maximilian Klink’s Botin 65 had done enough to correct out four minutes ahead of Wild Joe.

The arrivals of Green Dragon and Laetitia added to the general atmosphere, but did nothing to alter the standings.

Instead all eyes were fixed on the free spirits on-board Quentin Stewart’s Infiniti 46 Maverick.

Making its debut in the Rolex Middle Sea Race, the smallest boat in IRC Class 1 had turned a few heads with its performance in this their first classic 608-nautical mile Mediterranean offshore.

After enduring a painful final few miles as the wind faded, Maverick crossed the line at sunset to snatch the IRC 1 Class victory by just 19 seconds from Caro.