Bostik completes Middle Sea Race

by Clémentine Chaignaud on 23 Oct 2008
By crossing the arrival line of the fortieth edition of the Rolex Middle Sea Race at 0331 UT (0531 ECT) this morning in Malta, Bostik has officially opened the Veolia Oceans® one-design Class in an international event of the Rolex Offshore Circuit and has at the same time written his name on the list of winners.

Bostik finished ninth, all classes taken into account, over 77 boats entered. A very honourable result. In fact, the test set of sails of the Veolia Oceans® one-design has to date been used on as many nautical miles as the equivalent of a circumnavigation and this competition was mainly raced in light winds conditions, conditions for which this Finot-Conq plan - specially designed for the SolOceans round-the-world race - has not been conceived.

The eight competitors preceding the 16 metres one-design (52.5 feet) on the arrival line are, either Farr and Reichel-Pugh maxi-monohulls between 80 and 100 feet, or pure regatta 65 feet prototypes. A Reichel-Pugh TP52 prototype naturally finished the race by crossing the arrival line just in front of Bostik's stem. A Farr Cookson 50 passed Bostik only a few miles before they arrive, because of a windless hole located just North of Malta.

First impressions of Charles Caudrelier, skipper of Bostik: 'Below 12 knots of real wind, it's hard against pure regatta yachts, especially without a mast head maxi spinnaker. With 15 knots, we start passing yachts. Above, we sail close to the bigger units and often sail faster than them when reaching'.

An update will be published on Friday 24 October at 1200UT (1400 ECT) with the reports of this Rolex Middle Sea Race by Charles Caudrelier and Bostik's crew, on our website www.soloceans.com.