Rolex Middle Sea Race – Rising to the challenge amid Mediterranean’s wild beauty

The 606-mile Rolex Middle Sea Race is considered unique in offshore sailing. Rather than a straight course from A to B, it's an anti-clockwise circuit, starting in Valletta, rounding Sicily, before returning to Malta's capital. A 360-degree test that can encompass everything the sport can throw at a sailor. In this Middle Sea merry-go-round, the spotlight is on navigators and tacticians to complete the circle. It's extremely challenging. I really love all the different 600-mile races, the Fastnet, the Antigua 600, the Hobart, they're all fantastic races. But this one is something special, because it's super technical, super complex, and you really need to be at the top of all your skills in this race. Just a huge variety of conditions, great opportunities for boats of all sizes to do well, and some absolutely spectacular scenery along the way. To me, it's a bit of a mythical race in that it goes from the Messina Strait, Stromboli, the islands over there, around Sicily, so there are lots of corners, lots of landmarks that I enjoy going around. It's normally a massive mix of wind conditions, and then set to a sort of stunning Mediterranean backdrop, so it's just a very cool race to do, and it's attended by some of the coolest boats in the world, so you know you've got some good competition. The run line is always on these sailors' minds. The distance they must deviate off the shortest path to find the wind is at the core of winning or losing. The goal is always, obviously, to get from one corner to the next one as quickly as possible, and it's very rare, particularly in this race, that that is a straight line. By going off course, you can gain a lot of speed, so you balance that against sticking close to the run line, and yeah, just trying to balance that risk. There's much more navigation to do, sort of avoid real estate, basically. You're not going across the Atlantic, you can sort of go, let's go for this low, let's go for this high. This is more turn all the corners and deal with all the little nooks and crannies. The course is kind of a big loop, and you have these kind of pinch points where you're always going to end up coming back together at a certain point, so there's a lot of choice on the legs for which way to go to try and beat your peers. Very aware of the fact that, you know, the more you go away from the run line, it reduces your options of where you can go for the rest of that leg, so yeah, there's a lot that goes into it. Who will come full circle and come out on top? Like two sides of a coin, there are two sides to Malta. Where old world charm meets new world pleasures. Where one night you relax at the pre-race party, while on the next you get serious at the race briefing. Last year, 20 knots and grey clouds greeted the sailors for the start. This year, it's less than five knots and blue skies for the 43rd running of the Middle Sea Race. The 118-yacht fleet from 24 countries make their way out of Grand Harbour in a series of seven starts. With light winds forecast over most of the course, patience is sure to be a virtue in this year's race. Be very vigilant about what's going on, use the information that we can from other boats and observations around, and potential to roll the dice a little bit and try and make something of it. In general, it will be quite a long race for us. The first leg, we will search for wind, but we should manage it and find a couple of places with more pressure. First thing is, don't get caught in something which will kill you. In terms of strategy and losing too much time, this is where you can win the race, is by not losing it. You can never relax in this race, really, even in light condition. It's mentally very demanding. If you have a good crew and you have a good plan from before, you should come out quite good at the end. It's a big feat. A lot of good sailors. A lot of good boats. The Middle Sea race attracts sailors from all backgrounds. On I Love Poland, Agnieszka Skripaletz is competing for the first time. A silver medalist of the Tokyo Olympics in the 470 class, the Polish sailor sees this race as her next big adventure in the sport. Actually, I didn't plan to start in this regatta, but I got a call like two weeks ago, and I had only one week to make a decision if I want to take a part or not. And I had no idea what the race is about. So I watched some movies on YouTube. I spoke to my boyfriend. I spoke to my parents. And they said, yeah, do it. You'll love it. So let's try. I don't know how to deal with the race, how to do it. If I manage to do it, but I want to try. I'm fully excited when I think about this race. And I'm also worried because I'm used to a different style, let's say, of sailing or dealing with the day. In our Olympic sailing, we have the daily routine. So waking up, eating the breakfast, going to the club, working on the boat, going for racing, then working on the boat, debrief, eating, sleeping in a bed. And here, everything is completely different. You know, I cannot wash my hair for now, I don't know, three or five days. It depends on the weather forecast. Here, I need to go outside of my comfort zone and try to deal with it. Try to get as much sleep as possible, especially that we don't know how many days we will spend on the sea. As expected, it's slow going as the fleet heads up the east coast of Sicily. In the multi-hull division, Manor leads Zulu and Maserati multi-70. While Stromboli's famous volcano erupted just a week before the race, it's a much calmer picture out on the water now. I think it's not only the course here in Malta that puts a bit of extra pressure on, but the uncertainty in the forecast. And, you know, we know right now that we're going into a fairly light patch as we go through Messina and around Stromboli. And that's the bit that I'm kind of worried about and think, you know, having trying to run through scenarios. There's definitely a lot of added complication with the middle sea race compared to some of the other 600s. In the contest for monohull line honours, Bullet takes the lead from pre-race favourite Leopard 3 with I love Poland in third. In such light conditions, every mile sailed is earned the hard way. In the Rolex middle sea race, you've got so many headlands you're trying to get around. It's going to be light and that makes it harder. It makes it, you're always trying to find where's the wind, what's going on. So it's technically a real challenge and a hard equation to crack and you do well and if you're not careful, you can get on a sort of snakes and ladder, you get a snake and you've got to get back. But there's a lot of snakes and ladders in this race and it makes it really fascinating and a challenge, particularly for skippers and navigators. As the fleet circumnavigates Sicily, so the people of Valletta get on with their daily lives. On a Monday morning, Anthony D'Amato opens his record shop in town. Said to be the oldest store of its kind in the world, the shop has been in D'Amato's family for five generations. The shop was opened in 1885 by my great-great-grandfather. He came from Naples and set up shop in this very spot in Valletta. It started as a furniture shop but we have documentation that around the 1890s, we started trading in music. That makes us the oldest standing record shop in the world. There are three speeds in records. There is the 78 made of shellac, there is 33 which is the vinyl material and there are the 45s, the single, the seven-inch small records. And by coincidence, my father was born in 1945, I was born in 78 and if you deduct 45 and 78, you get the 33 speed. So I was meant to be here. D'Amato isn't planning to let the music stop anytime soon. It means too much to him. The shop, it's become less like a business and more of a journey of the legacy of my father, his forefathers before him. So my hopes are there that it will carry on hopefully maybe a foundation. Just keep on going because it will be a pity to lose something which has been here for 137 years. There won't be any records broken in this year's Rolex Middle Sea Race but at least the wind has picked up along the northwest corner of Sicily. In an intense battle for monohull line honours, Leopard 3 has overtaken Bullitt to take the lead. On these racing machines, every decision is crucial. It's risk-reward analysis basically. You're trying to find the good occasions where the risk is pretty low and the rewards are handsome and try to go for those basically. I see any race as the guy that does well and wins is the one that made the least mistakes. Being too conservative doesn't get you to the top of the podium either. So but you have to do it at the right moment, at the right opportunity to sort of say now I can take a little bit more strategic risk. For these leading monohulls, a second night at sea awaits. Another sailor keen to challenge himself in the race is Chris Burtish on board Maverick. In we are. A waterman in the truest sense of the word, the South African left sailing 15 years ago to embark on new adventures. Since then, he's won big wave surfing competitions, wing foiled across the Pacific Ocean and recently became the first person to stand up solo paddleboard across the Atlantic. All to help raise awareness for marine conservation. It's really about being able to be comfortable across any platform and that's always been my mission. So as long as I'm in the ocean, no matter what I'm on, I can feel comfortable and I can feel confident and know that I can enjoy whatever sport to its absolute potential. Sailing's always been sort of the bedrock of all other sports and platforms that I've sort of competed across on multiple different levels. And I think it's been the greatest and best foundation for all other sports that I've done. It's just amazing the advancement in sailing and racing and technology and how the sport has evolved and how quickly you get left behind. I feel like I've gone back to school and I've got a hell of a lot to learn. Sailing big boats and in these kind of races is pretty unique. It sort of takes everything you've learned across a lot of different sports and puts it together and then the higher echelon of sailing and racing at this level is just like a whole other world. On the third night of the race, the leading multi-hulls arrive in Valletta. The closest finishes seen in the middle sea race, Manor crosses the line less than one minute ahead of Zulu, with Maserati Multi 70 a further 10 minutes behind. It was particularly satisfying for me to win because we maintained the boat in the original state, but it was a tremendous race. Tremendous race and frankly till the last few seconds we're not going to make it. We've been hunted for 400 miles or even more and constantly looking behind your back and we were really worried about Zulu. We managed to sneak away at one point and the boat goes very well in the light and so at one point we built quite a margin, but as you know in this race it evaporates in minutes because you end up in a wind hole and everybody piles up. So I think we had several starts. We managed again to continue to stay at the top, but it was very stressful. I lost my hair, you wouldn't believe it. Many attractions in Malta open their doors during the month of October, keen to share some of the spotlight that the middle sea race shines on the island. On Reefs and Eroded Lands We Danced is a contemporary performance from Malta's national dance company. When we launch the season we look at different spots during the year where there is more movement of people and indeed the idea of having the shows during this period was also that maybe some tourists that come for the race they come and experience the company. As the national dance company we do have a mission that is not only for the Maltese based audience but we also want tourists to come and not only enjoy the island and the beauty but also enjoy what the island can offer in terms of art and culture. The performance explores the conservation of essential elements to preserve life on earth. Malta's connection to water is central to this. The show starts with these two capsules that they contain life and when they open the first thing they encounter is water and all the first part it's all created through the idea of coral reefs. So we looked at how the reefs behave and we try to take those properties and translate that into movement with bodies. Of course the connection to water for us is very important as an island. In Malta we are literally 360 degrees sort of surrounded by it. The leading monohulls continue to dance their way around the course towards the finish in Valletta. Leopard 3 makes the most of her superior size to beat her rivals across the line finishing in a time of 70 hours 34 minutes and 29 seconds. It's the second time she's achieved this honour but a first for new owner Joost Schultz. We had one night where we had zero wind at some point and then we saw our competitor come by because they chose a line closer to the coast and they were still doing five knots but we were doing zero for a little bit until an hour later we caught some wind again and then we caught up with him again. Very tough race, extremely challenging. We had a few issues on board which we had to solve but the team did such a great job. At one stage we were quite a long way behind and the team just fought all the way. It's a bit of an emotional rollercoaster over three days and sometimes very frustrated and sometimes very happy so it makes it a very emotional finish to be able to do something like this and also now to win it is incredible. Over the next 48 hours just 17 boats of the 118 fleet make it to Valletto. The wind has offered few favours in this year's race. After Royal Malta Yacht Club rear commodore George Bonello-Dupuis feels the frustration of the remaining sailors still out at sea. It's never happened in the middle sea race in October at the beginning of winter and we've had boat speeds below zero every day. It's shocking that all around the racecourse we've had boats in the same position. I mean I remember looking at Stromboli for 10 or 12 hours they spent two, three days looking at Stromboli. It's crazy. You have to consider that the faster bigger boats did go around the racecourse and did not get stuck but we've still got a big part of the fleet out there and their story is going to be a different one. Wind dying at one o'clock tomorrow so we better be on time. With a lack of wind cancelling out the chances of victory for the smaller boats still out at sea French Yacht Teasing Machine is declared overall winner of the race. It was a difficult race due to the very light winds but you know the emotion is fantastic. It's such a great race. The Rolex Millions Race is very technical probably the most technical race of the 600 miles. More technical than the Fastnet or Sydney Hobart. Due to the complexity of the sites the difficulty of the wind patterns whether you are east, north, west, south of Sicily and right to the end where last night it took us 45 minutes to finish the race the last one and a half miles. We are very experienced. We raced together for several years so the motivation is intact from the first minute to the last but it's also keeping discipline not to make mistakes. You know it's like in any sport you can be the best but you know any mistake and you pay. That's why I always say you know sailing is a great sport because it teaches you never to be arrogant. In total 57 yachts complete the race with 66 forced to retire. The last boat in is Tatu who finishes in just under nine days. In a race as challenging as this year's edition trophies are richly deserved at the event's prize giving. Such as its importance in the sport of sailing and in the fabric of Maltese life that its future is in no doubt. This race is obviously a major contributor to put Malt on the map. After all these years it has become part and parcel of the calendar. I only hope that it will stay like that and if possible even be enlarged and become more prominent. When victory means so much to the winners this middle sea merry-go-round is sure to rotate again. Today we're very happy because we made such a great race as a team being consistent precise in what we were doing and that was a very good feeling. In the end you are rewarded of this by overall win which is absolutely great which I think the team deserves and we're very happy to accomplish this together. But the first great great feeling obviously is when you manage to race well and to have a good feeling a strong feeling out of a difficult race such as Rolex Middle Sea Race. Next time on the Spirit of Yachting SailGP is back and the racing has never been closer.