Rolex Middle Sea Race: Six wind chests downwind, "Red Bandit" in the lead
Tatjana Pokorny
· 21.10.2024
Dramatic fluctuations in wind and sea conditions characterised the 45th edition of the Rolex Middle Sea Race. 112 yachts from 30 nations started the long-distance classic over 606 nautical miles off Malta on Saturday. While the photographers took spectacular pictures, the crews had to overcome tough tests. In the meantime, 32 crews have abandoned the race.
Brutal conditions at the start
A heavy thunderstorm front passed through on Saturday afternoon. The crews sometimes experienced wind gusts of up to 60 knots. On Wolf Scheder-Bieschin's Hamburg-based "Vineta", the crew experienced peak winds of 50 knots. Arnt Bruhns reported six squalls downwind. The team led by owner Wolf Scheder-Bieschin, Sönke Stein, Julius Hornung and Arnt Bruhns was joined in this challenge by Class 40 ace Melwin Fink. However, the strong run the North Germans had hoped for after a very successful start failed to materialise because the port suspension of the rudder broke.
The "Vineta" crew reached the harbour of Marsamemi under their own steam. In the meantime, the still young Judel/Vrolijk 43 WB is back in Valletta, where several boats without masts are to be pitied. In addition to "Vineta", "Snowwhite" and the XP 54 "Phoenix" are among the 32 boats that had to abandon the race, some of them with injured sailors.
"Red Bandit" leads the battle for overall victory
Stefan Jentzsch's Botín 56 "Black Pearl" and Carl-Peter Forster's TP52 "Red Bandit" were in a strong position around two days after the start. The two boats flying the German flag finished in fifth and sixth place on Monday afternoon. This meant that "Red Bandit" had even taken the lead in the battle for overall victory in this 45th Rolex Middle Sea Race according to the calculated IRC time. At this point, "Black Pearl" was ahead of "Red Bandit" on the water, but the slightly larger racer had a calculated lead of around five and a half hours.
"Red Bandit" was attacked most fiercely in the IRC handicap classification on Monday morning by Erick de Turckheim's 52-footer "Teasing Machine". However, two days after the start, the Frenchmen had already accumulated a calculated gap of around three hours in the IRC ranking to the fiery red "Red Bandit", which had sailed so furiously up to that point. "Teasing Machine" had won the 43rd Rolex Middle Sea Race 2022 and is also regularly among the podium crews in other classic races.
Duel of the 100-foot bullets
As expected, the two centipedes "Scullywag 100" and "Black Jack 100" fought a thrilling duel in the battle for line honours on Monday. In the end, the "Scullywag 100" crew led by skipper David Witt had built up a lead of around half an hour. Bryon Erhart's 27-metre Juan K design "Lucky" was in third place after the time sailed. At this point, the front runners still had a good 200 nautical miles to go to the finish.
The video of the start
Cannon start! Here are the pictures from the start of the 45th Rolex Middle Sea Race:
