Brits challenge leader Morning Glory

by Giles Pearman on 27 Oct 2006
After a long wait for the bulk of the Rolex Middle Sea Race fleet to arrive back in Malta, a constant trickle of yachts has crossed the finish line in Marsamxett Harbour throughout today. A succession of small and mid-sized yachts came close to threatening the Max Z86 Morning Glory's overall lead on IRC handicap. However, the only yacht still racing that could possibly take victory from the German Maxi is a J/105, Slingshot. Sailed just two-up by Britons Shaun Murphy and Ric Searle.

Although Hasso Plattner finished two days ago, such is the handicap system that a number of small yachts could have overhauled the Maxi if they had arrived just a few hours earlier today.

Strait Dealer, David Franks's J/125, was the first Maltese boat to cross the finish line at 10:38 this morning. Taking first place in the local fleet is always a source of pride among the island's tight-knit yachting community, although the crew had hoped that maybe they could win overall - even against the professional crews of the SuperMaxis.

Co-navigator and one of the helmsmen David Anastasi commented: 'Top Maltese boat is great, although we were hoping for the overall win too of course, but we are happy. We worked hard all the way but it wasn't our conditions. We need a long stretch of fast downwind sailing, which we didn't get this year. We were hoping for a fast leg back from Lampedusa to Malta but it was a close fetch so we only averaged 8 knots. If the wind had turned another 20 degrees, that might have made the difference.'

Last Monday as Strait Dealer was negotiating the windless northern coast of Sicily, it was owner David Franks's 60th birthday. Bowman Andre Rossignau said the crew had managed to sneak a bottle of champagne on board the 41-foot boat. 'Before the race David had told us, 'No bottles, no glass,' so he gave us a telling off about having the extra weight on board when we brought out the bubbly!' laughed Rossignau. The crew even enjoyed birthday brownies and apple pie.

After Strait Dealer, a number of other Maltese yachts came close to threatening Morning Glory's lead, including Arthur Podesta's Elusive and Lee Satariano's J/109 Artie.

However, the only yacht still racing that could possibly take victory from the German Maxi is a J/105, Slingshot. Sailed just two-up by Britons Shaun Murphy and Ric Searle, it seems unimaginable that two men in a boat could possibly challenge a fully-crewed professional Maxi for overall honours and yet the clock is still ticking. Much depends on whether or not the wind continues to blow after the sun sets over Malta.

As for other boats in the 68-strong fleet, there are many moments to savour from the past week. Andrea Casale, the mainsheet trimmer on Swan 45 DSK Comifin from Italy, was pleased just to reach Malta, although the team performed very well on handicap too. 'The goal was just to complete the course. We knew it was a hard race after how few boats finished last year. I think we had the best conditions for this boat because the winds were not too strong, and I think we played all the decisions very well. We had good navigation and good weather calls.'

Some sailors found the lack of wind frustrating. To justify the canting-keel on the Irish Cookson 50 Chieftain, skipper Gerard O'Rourke would have liked more wind, but he was still pleased to have participated: 'The highlight has been the scenery, a great race course, lovely yacht club, lovely people, lovely place to come to Malta.' Peter Harding, skipper of DK46 Fidessa Fastwave from Great Britain, commented: 'We're definitely coming back here next year, with a TP52. We've got 12 happy crew members, we've enjoyed brilliant sunshine, beautiful scenery and a great race track. This has been the highlight of our racing for the past three years. It's very good tactical racing.'

This was Sofia Bekatorou's first taste of offshore racing, a far cry from the 45-minute races that she is used to sailing in small dinghies. But the 2004 Olympic Champion from Greece said she loved every moment of the 608-mile course, racing on board George Vassilopoulos's Farr 52 Brave. 'We were hoping for more wind, but the conditions were different every leg. The most wind we had was 25 knots. This morning we had fog, a little rain sometimes, but generally a very nice experience. We had many points during the course when the race started again. It was very exciting, there were many chances to make some new choices even if you already made some mistakes. Over 600 miles it is very important to have a good team spirit, and we had that on board Brave. When things went wrong we dealt with the problems very well.'

With thirty-seven boats finished and four retired, 27 yachts are still racing.