There have not been so many tasks in the Rolex Middle Sea Race for a long time. And certainly not for this reason: it was so dull! Almost half the fleet had already withdrawn from the race before the end. The teams were unable and unwilling to have the patience for the stress and hunger test in the slack conditions and would not have reached the finish line in time. In this Rolex Middle Sea Race, it was mainly the big and fast boats that made it through.
"Leopard 3" took the line honours, the record remained out of reach
The team secured the line honours on the Farr 100 "Leopard 3" after what was, by their standards, a leisurely 70 hours, 34 minutes and 29 seconds. The monohull course record of 40 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds set by "Comanche" in last year's Rolex Middle Sea Race was never achievable due to the light wind conditions. In the Mocras, five out of nine participants came through. In the battle for the multihull victory, the MOD 70 "Mana" finished a good ten minutes ahead of "Maserati Multi 70".
Eric de Turckheim's French NMYD 54 "Teasing Machine" secured the overall IRC victory based on calculated time. This is the first major victory for the 600 nautical mile race enthusiast after many good performances and class victories in recent years. De Turckheim said: "I have a passion for these 600 nautical mile races. It's like running a marathon. It's this mixture of having to be fit 24 hours after 24 hours, having resilience and teamwork. This was our seventh participation. Experience counts for a lot here."
The Botin 65 "Spirit of Lorina" and the RP 60 "Wild Jo" finished second and third overall in the 43rd Rolex Middle Sea Race.
The best German boats in the initially large field of almost 130 boats from 24 nations were the Botin 56 "Black Pearl" with skipper Stefan Jentzsch in seventh place in the overall IRC rankings and the Berlin "Rafale" of Henri de Bokay with skipper Philipp Kadelbach in eleventh place. More than five days after the start, many boats were still at sea. However, the majority had given up because the finish was no longer achievable within the time limit. Click here for the IRC, ORC and individual class results.
"It's not possible to reach the goal by Sunday evening"
This is how the Austrian mini-sailor Christian Kargl from on board the XP-44 "Aqua Nomis" described it for the team around skipper Ursula Berger and helmswoman and mini-sailor Lisa Berger in one of his always cheerful and informative logbook entries: "The race will end in a circular resolution on 26 October 2022, 18:00. It is not possible to reach the finish by Sunday evening and the forecast leaves us no other choice. Unfinished business. And we all agree that we'll be back for the next edition! After all, the title of 'Last Austrians standing' belongs to us."
Kargl and many others had already known before the race that it was going to be an extremely choppy affair. "Not for the faint-hearted", "meteorological guru" Mike Burgstaller had told him before the start and postponed his own return flight three days later on suspicion. Kargl had vividly summarised his findings from studying the forecasts: "The weather models show more wind holes than there are manhole covers in Vienna."
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Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
