Today we check back in with Christoph Podesta on the Middle Sea Ocean Race. – which typically takes 2-3 days to complete. This year light winds prevailed creating many adjustments of strategy!
Elusive 2, skippered by the Podesta family came in first place and overall winner of the 2020 Rolex Middle Sea Race trophy, a Rolex Chronometer and a plethora of other prizes including the Transport Malta Trophy for being first Maltese boat home the Maltese Beneteau First 45, entered by Aaron, Christoph and Maya Podesta
The Rolex Middle Sea Race is one of the world’s most compelling and challenging offshore races. Supported by title sponsor Rolex since 2002, this year’s 41st edition will retain a distinct place in the annals of the race.
Organized by the Royal Malta Yacht Club (RMYC), the Rolex Middle Sea Race is a captivating platform which demonstrates the appeal and demands of offshore sailing, a discipline with which Rolex has been proud to be associated throughout the past five decades.
About the Race:
The Rolex Middle Sea Race was established as the result of sporting rivalry between great friends, Jimmy White and Alan Green, two Englishmen residing in Malta, together with Paul and John Ripard, two Maltese members of the Royal Malta Yacht Club. Jimmy, Alan (later to become the Race Director of the Royal Ocean Racing Club), Paul and John would eventually map a course designed to offer an exciting race in different conditions to those prevailing in the immediate Maltese coastal waters.
The 606nm course, essentially a clockwise circumnavigation of Sicily starting and finishing in Malta, would be slightly longer than the RORC’s longest race, the Rolex Fastnet. The resulting course is the same as used today, although sailed in the reverse direction. The Rolex Middle Sea Race course record has been broken on five occasions since the inaugural edition in 1968.
The course record, established by George David’s 90-foot Rambler (USA) in 2007, is 47hrs 55mins 03 secs. The multihull record of 49 hours, 25 minutes, 1 second was set by the Multi70 Maserati in 2016.
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