What a race it was! The 2007 Rolex Middle Sea Race strated from Marsamxett Harbour, Valleta, Malta, on Saturday 20th October on a course of 607 miles. 60 Yachts were registered and 57 started after the sobering weather briefing given the day before. 4 more chose to retire after the start leaving 53 in contention.

The fleet was divided into five starts, the first group of the smallest yachts setting off at 1100. The Maltese ‘Elusive Medbank’ was first out of the harbour and round the turning mark off Tigne Point. Two other Maltese boats followed- ‘Primadonna’ and ‘Jammin’. The second start in front of the cheering home crowds on shore saw ‘Geisha’ take off. ‘Kerisma’ got off to a very good start. In start three ‘Superfast Racing’ led the start after ‘Cippa Lippa’ crossed early. Start four saw the bigger yachts appear. ‘Loki’ had a good start closely followed by ‘Titan XII’. ‘Rambler’ started further back but soon shot forward. The fifth and final start involved the two multihulls, ‘Skywalker’ and ‘High Q1′ Shortly after Tigne Point, ‘Skywalker’, possibly the most potent and fragile weapon in the fleet, retired citing the forecast weather as the reason.

First yacht to the mark at St Paul’s Bay was once again ‘Elusive Medbank’ skippered by Arthur Podesta for his 28th edition of this famous race. On the first day at 4.45 p.m. in the afternoon ‘Rambler’ was abreast of Sicily making 12 knots, with ‘Titan 12′ behind and then a chasing pack comprising ‘Superfast’, ‘Ourdream’, ‘Damiani’, ‘Whisper’, ‘Atalanta II’, ‘Valkyrie’ and ‘Loki’ about three miles further back.

On the second day conditions were very harsh leading to 22 retirements including big yachts like ‘Titan 12′, ‘Valkyrie’, ‘Whisper’ and ‘Ourdream’, leaving thirty-five still racing. Race leader ‘Rambler’ reached Capo Passero shortly after 1700 on Saturday evening. George David’s 90-foot supermaxi with Ken Read as skipper belied her name and strode up the eastern seaboard of Sicily, springing out of the Strait of Messina at 0100 on Sunday morning. Rounding Stromboli at 0435, she has made reasonable progress across the top of Sicily and was just north of Favignana at 1600, making 19-knots.

Shortly before 1730 on Sunday evening the yacht ‘Loki’ lost her rudder north of Golfo di Castallammare, just to the west of Palermo on the northern coast of Sicily. A coordinated rescue involving Race Control and the Italian Coastguard Services resulted in the crew being lifted to safety by a helicopter operating out of Birgi Airport.

George David’s 90-foot super-maxi ‘Rambler’ (USA) took line honours in the 28th Rolex Middle Sea Race at 11.45.03 on the morning of 20th October, 2007. In doing so, ‘Rambler’, skippered by Ken Read took 16 hours off the previous course record set by Zephyrus IV in 2000.

The weather was cruel for Rambler too. Ken Read does not strike one as someone prone to hyperbole, and when he describes the race as ‘really windy’ you get the feeling he is not letting you in on the whole truth. This is confirmed when he continues, “when we went around the north west corner of Sicily heading out to the islands we actually took the mainsail down for almost twelve hours. With a storm jib and mainsail in 45-knots it was white out, you couldn’t see. The boat was literally just flying off waves. We found a really nice rig a bit unexpectedly, it was a storm jib on the front-stay and a genoa staysail on the middle-stay.”

Rambler’s record breaking run was exceptional. She did the first half of the course to Favignana in 1 day 5 hours 26 minutes, having had a great run all the way to Messina and beyond to Stromboli. The second half of the course took 18 hours, with a drastically reduced sail plan - for good reason as Read explained, “ the hardest part of the race was day two, waiting for the front to come. The anticipation, that nervous feeling in your stomach [when] you know 50-knots is coming. We had squally weather all day. We got through it and were reefed down enough that when the front finally hit and we saw 40 knots straightaway we were storm jib and triple reefed so we did not have that panic that we’ve got to get stuff squared away…waterspouts were forming all around us and we had one fully coned waterspout pass about a half-mile away from us.”

The preparation was 20/20 vision because at this point that trouble really hit, as Read continued, “then the forward hatch blew off for the second time. The guys got it bolted back on, literally through bolting it back on again. It was leaking like a sieve and had a big crack in it. My big fear was if that hatch went. It was only a matter of time before that thing came loose again and if it did we had a couple of plans but I’m not sure any of them were going to work.

We were taking tons of water over the bow every time it goes down a wave and without a real hatch we had to back off. The waves would pile up on these shallow shelves that go from very deep water to quite shallow water so the waves were big and breaking. You just start down into the tunnel and there is no way out. If you are going too fast you can’t steer through it. So that’s when we backed off and made sure we had steering ability to be able to keep the bow from burying in. We sailed under storm jib and staysail for probably10 hours, through most of last night. I’m glad we had the preparation.”

Read was impressed they had taken so much time off the record given the conditions and the circumstances of the boat. “I think for a record pace run we had too much wind, you cannot effectively sail the boat in that much wind and at some point you are going to have to pull back for the safety of the boat and the safety of the crew.”

Read’s final remark says it all about knowing when to hold and when to fold, “we could have taken two more hours off [the record] but then again we could be out there getting air-lifted off.”

For Loki the drama was truly life threatening. Sailing along in 35-knots at 15/16 knots of boatspeed there was a sudden bang and the crew saw the rudder floating away behind the boat. Talking to owner Stephen Ainsworth earlier today he explained how they brought the boat under some semblance of control and made contact with Race Control to report their circumstances at 1730 on Saturday evening. Tomasso Chieffi, a last minute addition to the crew of Atalanta II, the Italian mini-maxi of Carlo Puri Negri, made the seriousness of the situation absolutely vivid. On hearing of Loki’s distress, Atalanta diverted back to see what assistance she could offer, as Chieffi explained, “sailing along side with Loki, Lucas Brown finally was able to get in contact with them over the phone. We heard that the rudder blade was broken. The first idea was to tow them but we did not have a rope that was strong enough to do so. Furthermore, the sea was so high that sometimes the waves were breaking over the mast. It was very difficult to go too near to Loki, the rolling motion was so huge that it was absolutely too dangerous.”

The Italian Coastguard scrambled two boats, but even the larger of the two was unable to do more than standby the wounded Loki. With the lee shore of Golfo di Castallammare fast approaching and the weather conditions atrocious the decision was eventually taken to evacuate the crew by helicopter. The Italian Airforce Base in Trapani sent a Sikorksy HH3 F from 15 Wing to undertake the lift. Such was the motion of Loki and height of her mast that the crew had to get into a liferaft for the lift. The first eight crewmembers were picked up at about 10.20pm and the second batch at midnight. Before leaving the stricken yacht an anchor and about 200-feet of rode were laid and this morning it appears that the anchor had held with Loki spotted floating off the coast in reasonably deep water. Ainsworth reported that attempts to get back out to the boat were being hampered by the continuing bad weather in the region.

That everyone was taken off Loki unharmed is testament to the skill of the Italian Airforce Crew who were flying in peak winds of 45-knots and reduced visibility due to the intense rain and thunderstorms. The height and motion of Loki’s mast meant a lift straight from the yacht was untenable. A rescue diver, Antonio Di Domenico was dropped into the water to manage the transfer from yacht to liferaft and then to the helicopter. Twice.

Arthur Podesta’s Elusive Medbank was the first Maltese boat to finish the 28th Rolex Middle Sea Race, crossing the line at 4.09 this morning. Podesta’s crew of nine, including his three children - Maya, Aaron and Christoph ghosted over the line in very light winds. A complete contrast to the conditions experience in the first part of the race where they experienced 57-knots at the peak.

Remarkably, Podesta has competed in all 28 of the races held to date. According to Podesta, “it must have been the toughest Middle Sea Race we have had so far, undoubtedly.”

The 28th edition of the Rolex Middle Sea Race drew to a close with numerous crescendos of noise, entirely in keeping with a race that has rightfully claimed its place in the pantheon of offshore classics. The noise started at 1.45AM as the final yacht crossed the line in Marsamxett Harbour and ended with the victor receiving his spoils at the prize giving held this afternoon overlooking an ever changing seascape that reflected the essence of this wonderful race.

George David’s Rambler is the Overall Winner of the Rolex Middle Sea Race 2007; she also set a new Course Record of 47 hours 55 minutes and 3 seconds.

Robert McNeill’s Zephyrus IV established the previous Course Record of 64 hours 49 minutes and 57 seconds in 2000.

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