The Raymarine Norasia Double-Handed figure of eight race is one of the Royal Malta Yacht Club's most popular races.

Covering the same distance as the Malta to Syracuse race, this regatta takes the fleet on a double-handed journey around the Maltese archipelago.

This year's race started in very light winds with some boats just over the line due to the lack of wind.

David Farrugia, the race officer, opted for the South-rounding course. All boats set their spinnakers and headed for the outer Munxar cardinal buoy.

Some boats struggled downwind, however, the fleet was once again bunched up between the fish farms and the Malta Freeport entrance.

The bigger entries namely Primadonna, Maltese Falcon, Elusive and Primavera were the furthest offshore boats and picked the breeze first.

The boats that stuck close to shore suffered and had to wait for the land breeze to fill in. Once round the island of Filfla, the leading boats had a very pleasant sail up towards the North Comino channel and eventually sailed round Gozo during the night and early morning.

The wind eventually died for the boats at the back of the fleet, forcing their retirement.

Some eventually set sail for Mgarr Harbour in Gozo while some other motored back to the Msida Marina.

Primadonna kept the lead from start to the finish to claim line honours and finish in just over 21 hours but on corrected time, it was Maltese Flacon who claimed class A and SS Claire were the winners in class B.

Results

Line Honours Winner: Primadonna

Challenge Prize Winner: Maltese Falcon