A great show at sea for the Rolex Middle Sea Race

By Wilfred Sultana

Last year the 34th Edition with 99 entries flying the flags of 16 different nations was recognised as a record entry year, yet 2014 sees the Rolex Middle Sea Race boost up its own legend and global recognition by attracting an epic racing fleet of 130 yachts from 23 diverse countries.

A record entry of 130 modern production yachts and purpose built racing yachts from all over the world crewed by enthusiastic seamen anxious to race and ambition to conquer a  606 nautical miles challenge of thrilling sailing that has been experienced by some of the largest and fastest racing monohulls on the planet, including Open 60s, Riviera di Rimini, Mistress Quickly, Zephyrus IV and Sagamore with protagonists at the helm the likes of Ted Turner, Eric Tabarly, Cino Ricci, Herbert von Karajan, Jim Dolan, Sir Chay Blyth and Sir Francis Chichester, names who enjoy stardom not on Hollywood’s red carpets but on the world’s mighty oceans.

Certainly a grand scenario with the Valletta Grand Harbour providing the unique backdrop for a spectacular start set for coming Saturday morning. 23 boats from the UK, 12 from Russia, 11 from Germany, five each from France and the Netherlands, with the largest contingent of 34 boats coming from Italy.

The Rolex Middle Sea Race 2014 enjoys global recognition indeed for further to above named countries this year the Race also drew participants from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Gibraltar, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, Monaco, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States. A rather long list yet aptly given out as a welcome gesture to the multinational crews in Malta for the Race - and a gratifying sign to the Royal Malta Yacht Club as organisers and to Rolex as sponsors.

In 1968, there were eight starters of which only one was Maltese. Over the years the number and quality of Maltese yachts has risen, where this year adding up the Maltese yachts and the Maltese sailors competing on yachts from overseas one finds there are over one hundred Maltese sailors taking part in the race and nearly all of them are members of the Royal Malta Yacht Club.

This year Malta will be represented by 13 yachts and will include Artie II, a J-122, owned by Lee Satariano and co-skippered by one of Malta's veteran yachtsman, Christian Ripard, the same winning team of the 2011 Edition.  In fact Christian Ripard has been the overall winner of the Rolex Middle Sea Race on three occasions, namely in 1996 on Big Foot, in 2001 on Strait Dealer and in 2011 on Artie.

A local yachtsman who enjoys a peculiar relationship with the Event is Arthur Podesta. Arthur was 22 years old when he raced the first Middle Sea Race in 1968.  Since then he raced on all past editions, undoubtedly a unique record. Throughout the 34 editions Arthur sailed on 20 or 22 different boats which varied in size from the 11mt Josian to the 24mt Nirvana. He was on the overall winning boat three times - In 1968 on Josian which was French owned and skippered by John Ripard, in 1970 on Tikka II  owned and skippered by John Ripard and in 1983 on Saudade owned and skippered by Albert Bull a German national. For this 35th RMSR Arthur will race on his 13.6mt boat Elusive.

Another sailor’s opinion about sailing in general and the Middle Sea Race in particular is simply singular. Commodore of the RMYC for 13 years (1977 to 1981/1988 to 1995), sailed in 13 Middle Sea Races, where he won the 1968 race on Josian, was 2nd in the 1969 race on Tikka, and again won the 1970 race on Tikka II; In 1975 he won the Martini Cruiser Race on Zizanie in a separate division open for cruisers in the Middle Sea Race itself. Yes, I am referring to John Ripard Sr., the President of the Royal Malta Yacht Club.

“As you know the Middle Sea Race had its ups and downs. It all started in 1968 with eightentries. The 1968 Prize-giving was noteworthy because the prizes were awarded by Sir Francis Chichester. This brought Malta and its Middle Sea Race to the attention of the sailing world; it also set the tone for the RMYC's professional approach to ensure that future MSR's get noticed internationally.  Financial problems were overcome after the Club succeeded in attracting Martini as the MRS main sponsor resulting in a steady increase in participants.

“This Martini sponsorship was terminated when the demise of the IOR handicap system negatively affected the number of entries; this made it unattractive for our sponsor to maintain financial support. Inevitably the Race had to be shelved for a number of years. The Race was reinstated some 12 years later and renewed international interest produced ever increasing entries, though nowhere near the numbers that have been patronizing our Race ever since the day that Rolex came on board.

“ Ted Turner's description of the Middle Sea Race course as ‘the most beautiful race course in the world’ was bearing fruit! There is no doubt in my mind that without Rolex's sponsorship and subsequent change of name to Rolex Middle Sea Race,  we would never have attracted the huge increase in international participants that we enjoy today,” Ripard said.

The RMSR Course Record Time is 47 hours 55 minutes and 3 seconds which was established in 2007 by George David's RP90 maxi, Rambler (USA) - the ex Alfa Romeo.