Rolex Middle Sea Race

A record that isn’t about to be broken...

Even though almost all sailing records are now held by multihulls, the Rolex Middle Sea Race still resists: on this course of a little over 600 miles starting from Malta, making a big counter-clockwise loop around Sicily, the record set by the maxi monohull Rambler in 2007 of 1 day, 23 hours, 55 minutes and 3 seconds is still the best ever.

1 / 6

Published 17/10/2020

By Emmanuel van Deth

Issue: 174

Published: nov. / dec. 2020

Discover this issue

This time was tickled in 2016 by Giovanni Soldini and his Maserati Multi 70 with barely two hours more. The crew were to their revenge tomorrow, the start of the 41st edition... but the winds forecast to be light all along the course, not exceeding 9 or 10 knots. “It looks like it’s going to be a slow race, but we’ll do our best as always!” joked Giovanni, accompanied by six seasoned sailors. In the multihull category, five other competitors - some of whom are not just making up the numbers - are in the running: the MOD 70 Mana (formerly Spindrift), skippered by Brian Thompson; Antoine Rabaste's Ultim Edition 2; Shockwave (Jeff Mearing and Scott Klodowski); the Multi 50 Primonial (Sébastien Rogues); and finally the Outremer 55 Light Asia, skippered by Marcello Patrizi.