Canting keel Maxi Morning Glory left the Strait of Messina at 1 a.m. today to lead the charge for Line Honours in the Rolex Middle Sea Race. The powerful canting keel 86' yacht skippered by the owner's daughter, Kristina Plattner is close to a course record pace and is expected to extend on the rest of the fleet during the course of the day. Behind Morning Glory the battle rages for the overall win on corrected time.
After yesterday's spectacular start in Grand Harbour, Malta, the 99-strong fleet enjoyed a fantastic broad reach to the Sicilian Coast. The warm sirocco breeze gusting up to15 knots was on the beam, producing a fast exhilarating ride. Concentration on optimising boat speed rather than strategic tactics was the right call on the first day.
Unica skippered by Jamie Sammut, called in from the racecourse, as the all-Maltese team approached the Sicilian coast.
“I was so nervous at the start, real butterflies.” commented Jamie skippering his own yacht in the race for the first time.
“After we left Grand Harbour we just concentrated on boat speed and settled down. Right now we have a huge number of turtles around the boat, it is a magical sight, truly amazing, but we are trying to focus on boat speed and only that.”
As the fleet rounded Capo Passero, the southerly wind direction meant that the rounding was relatively straight forward but the approach to the Strait of Messina would be almost dead down wind. Beppe Bisotto racing Atame in the IRC Two Handed division called in to report “A beautiful Luna Rossa” as the sun set fire to the sky, west of Sicily.
At dusk on the first day, the bulk of the fleet had rounded Capo Passero and were constantly gybing their spinnakers to stay in the best pressure, requiring intense concentration from both crew and the tactician for each manoeuvre to succeed.
As conditions became calmer during the night, the need to focus on optimum boat speed would have become even more difficult; lack of light makes it harder to read the wind and sailing's black arts of 'feel and touch' replaced the lack of vision.
Tom Robinson racing on Volvo 70, Monster Project reported in just before dusk on the first night. “We’ve now rounded Capo Passero. The last few hours have been fairly shifty with the breeze going up and down by a few knots with every cloud that passes by.
"After the rounding we peeled from the Code 0 to the A2 but we probably should have carried out the manoeuvre about 10 minutes earlier. We’ve lost ground against Gaes and Caro. The upcoming 30 minutes to the next headland could be interesting. The breeze has built and sustained making our course very tight with this sail but we’re going to try and hang on to it. We can still see the 2 IMOCA 60’s, the 2 Mini Maxis and we think we can just about see Morning Glory on the horizon.”
Adding to the quest for the best wind was ocean current, the Full Moon has only just appeared and the current in the Strait of Messina will be running as much as four knots. The race leaders enjoyed positive assistance from the tidal stream for the entry into Messina but the bulk of the fleet would have suffered a negative effect. Never has the phrase, 'the rich get richer' been more exact.
At 9 a.m. today the bulk of the fleet had successfully left the Strait of Messina bound for the active volcano, Stromboli, enjoying a south easterly breeze of nearly ten knots, the constant gybing will continue for the best part of the morning.
20th October 9 a.m. - Current Class Leaders
IRC OVERALL
Infanta – Freddie Hall (GBR)
Otra Vez – Edward Gatt Floridia (MLT)
Artie-RTFX Lee Satariono & Christian Ripard (MLT)
IRC ONE
Otra Vez – Edward Gatt Floridia (MLT)
IRC TWO
Speedy – Hans Riegel (GER)
IRC THREE
Courrier du Coeur – Andrey Arbuzov (RUS)
IRC FOUR
Infanta – Freddie Hall (GBR)
To track the fleet and follow blogs from the boats, including photos and reports. Go to www.rolexmiddlesearace.com.
http://www.rolexmiddlesearace.com