Line honors over for Middle Sea Race
Published on October 22nd, 2024
The 2024 Rolex Middle Sea Race started on October 19 for the 45th edition of the 606 nm race around Sicily from Malta. Here’s an update on October 22:
After a stop-start 48 hours, the Rolex Middle Sea Race sprang into life overnight, as the leading part of the fleet picked up the fresh southerly blowing from Malta up towards the Strait of Sicily. The net result for those boats that had passed or were passing Favignana yesterday afternoon was some solid stable breeze at long last.
For Seng Huang Lee’s Scallywag 100 from Hong Kong, it was just what the doctor ordered to propel the 100 foot Maxi to a hard-fought Line Honors victory. Crossing the finish line today at 09:43:29 CEST, the crew’s elapsed time was two days, 21 hours, 33 minutes and 29 seconds. If only it was so easy.
“First of all, I am really proud of the team. That’s one the toughest races I’ve done in a 100 footer,” said a clearly relieved David Witt, shortly after docking in Marsamxett Harbour home to the Royal Malta Yacht Club. “We had 40 knot rain squalls, trying to keep the boat in one piece and not tip it over. Ninety degree wind shifts and glass outs. More sail changes than anyone else and the boys never made a mistake.”
Trailing by 18 minutes was the 100-foit Black Jack was clearly disappointed, but philosophical in defeat. He was quick to congratulate the opposition. “Congratulations to Scallywag, this time it is in their favour,” he said. “Scallywag have been very competitive. We were very impressed. They came into the race very well prepared, the boat was functioning very well, they sailed well, their sail changes were fast, good navigation, all of which made life very difficult for us.”
Scallywag and the 100+-foot Black Jack were locked together for much of the race, as the splits around the course show:
Capo Passero: Black Jack by 14 minutes; Messina: Black Jack by 58 mins; Stromboli: Black Jack by 15mins; Favignana: Scallywag by 14 mins; Pantelleria: Black Jack by 22 mins; Lampedusa: Black Jack by 16 mins; Finish: Scallywag by 18 mins.
In a race with so many stops and starts, twists and turns, Scallywag’s hallelujah moment came with 110nm left to run.
“In terms of key decisions, plenty could have lost us the race, but the critical point was rounding Lampedusa,” shared Witt. “I thought we were going to take a tack, but Juan (Vila) pointed to a cloud and said: ‘we are going over to it’. He said: ‘we are going into the cloud, it will look like it is terrible, but we will come out on the other tack, we’ll be 30 degrees higher, and we will have a shot’. When Juan Vila says something like that, you do what he says.”
Clearly one of Scallywag’s best judgments ahead of the race was the appointment of Vila as navigator, as Witt confirmed: “What a decision to get him for the race for this race. We’d still be out there if he wasn’t on board. Black Jack did the smart thing at Lampedusa and tacked away from the cloud. Juan’s call was impressive, and it was a privilege to have him on board as our navigator. He’s a legend.”
Vila from Spain, a former round the world race winner, suggested this pivotal call was more a throw of the dice. “It is usual for the Rolex Middle Sea Race to be a difficult race. It is always very tricky,” he advised. “We constantly had to figure out what the wind was going to do next. It was a very intense race. The last opportunity at Lampedusa to split against Black Jack was one of the biggest moments. We had to try our luck, and it worked out well for us.”
The Spanish sailor is clearly someone to be listened to. “It is probably one of the toughest races I have had to navigate,” he remarked. “It was non-stop, one thing after another, lots of changes, lots of things to figure out and the weather models were not always right. There were a lot of things to look at, a lot of information and a lot of key moments to get right.”
The Black Jack crew were already keenly aware by the halfway mark at Favignana that they needed to find something special in the remaining 300 miles. It was not going to be easy, and frankly was in the lap of the gods. Wind from the southeast was due to fill the remaining course area, and the angle would be good for a muscular reaching Maxi like Scallywag.
“Going south, it was really calculated and fully in control,” explained Black Jack skipper Tristan Le Brun. “In an ideal world we would have pulled away further, because we were very aware that towards the end, reaching upwind in 20 knots is a strength of Scallywag. They are just faster. It was a smart tactical decision at Lampedusa. We thought what they did was the best. We did not have the gap we needed, tried to take a different route and tried to play with the luck. It did not work out.”
For Witt, the opportunity spotted by Vila was all Scallywag needed. “Scallywags never give up and we really needed this result,” he said. “As soon as we realized we had a sniff of a chance, everyone gave it everything. The Black Jack sailed their boat fantastically well. I thought they did an outstanding job. We are just lucky we never gave up.”
The faces of the Scallywag team showed this was more than just a race win. The yacht had undergone an extensive refit in 2023, and on its first real outing at the Rolex Sydney Hobart last December had to retire after breaking the bowsprit. This was an opportunity to prove the original and subsequent effort was worthwhile.
“This result is justification for everything,” said Witt. “We thought we had the package right, but until you get a result you don’t know. This is a really prestigious race, a fantastic race, and we would love to come back and do it again.”
Following the Juan K 88 Lucky’s third place finish, the Mills 72 Balthasar, with Louis Balcaen at the helm, finished in an elapsed time of three days, one hour, 30 minutes and 25 seconds, and currently sits atop the provisional leaderboard after IRC time correction. There is plenty left in this race, but the crew were understandably satisfied with their performance.
“Balthasar is a family project, the whole idea is to combine my friends who are amateurs with professional sailors such as Bouwe Bekking,” explained Balcaen. “The first night was a bit sketchy, we got caught by the thunderstorm going downwind and we had the kite up which proved very difficult to get down.
“We did a lot of research before we bought the Mark Mills design and we refitted it so we can do offshore and inshore events. This was the first big test, and the boat performed amazingly, the boat is very strong.”
Watch Captain Stu Bannatyne has competed in eight round the world races, winning four. “This was a classic Rolex Middle Sea Race in respect of the fact that there were occasions when you could win or lose a lot,” he commented. “In Messina, we managed to come with some nice breeze and stay close to the bigger Maxis, that was really nice to have those boats as tell-tales up ahead and to keep our motivation high.”
Things became trickier between Stromboli and Favignana: “We just lost touch with the leading pair, and they got away in the breeze. The smaller boats caught us up with wind coming from behind, which was frustrating, but it is what you expect in this race. We did manage to catch up to Lucky a couple of times. We didn’t quite pass them, but it was good motivation. We just pushed hard all the way to the end.”
By tomorrow evening, there should be a clearer idea of who has a chance of overall victory under IRC time correction.