VIDEO: Rolex Middle Sea Race 2022

Published on December 10th, 2022

Competitors in the 2022 Rolex Middle Sea Race had to negotiate extremely light winds, requiring crews to demonstrate supreme patience and perseverance to maximize every opportunity to maintain momentum.

Eric de Turckheim’s French yacht Teasing Machine was the overall race winner, just reward after coming close to victory at several Rolex-partnered offshore races in recent years.

Race details – Tracking – Entrants

About the Race:
The 43rd edition attracted a fleet of 118 entrants from 24 countries, getting underway October 22, 2022.

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.