"That's pretty incredible!" said "Red Bandit" owner Carl-Peter Forster on Wednesday evening in Valletta. The Royal Malta Yacht Club had just confirmed that none of the remaining yachts in the 606 nautical mile Rolex Middle Sea Race would be able to better the winning time of the German TP52 of 4 days, 18 hours, 55 minutes and 17 seconds (sailed: 3 days, 12 hours, 22 minutes and 37 seconds) as calculated by the IRC.
Rolex Middle Sea Race: third GER victory
With "Red Bandit", a German yacht has won the grand prize in the Rolex Middle Sea Race for the third time after Albert Büll's "Saudade" (1983) and Hasso Plattner's "Morning Glory" (2006). Carl-Peter Forster said: "I am particularly proud of these young people, most of whom had never sailed a big boat four years ago. They have learnt to sail this machine so well, which is pretty, pretty amazing. I'm proud of this group and how they've stuck together as a team."
"This was my seventh race. It was the usual amazing, varied Rolex Middle Sea Race. Winds up to 60 knots in a thunderstorm, the fastest crossing of the Strait of Messina thanks to a six knot current that accompanied us, the usual light winds and good boats around us. There were good fights and strong competition the whole time," continues Forster.
Support programme for young offshore talent
The "Red Bandit" crew for the Rolex Middle Sea Race was formed by owner Carl-Peter Forster, Bouwe Van Der Weiden, Christian Buck, Frederick Eichhorst, Jacob Meggendorfer, Jesper Radich, Joshua Weber, Max Wentzel, Moritz Troll, Moriz Forster, Nico Jansen, Niklas Schubert, Oliver Oczycz and Sophie von Waldow.
The "Red Bandit" campaign offers a support programme for young athletes as part of the Forstar Offshore Foundation set up by Forster. The foundation enables high-performing dinghy sailors and other talented youngsters to gain experience in offshore racing and develop their skills.
With the exception of Forster and the highly experienced tactician Jesper Radich, all the crew on board the "Red Bandit" are under 30 years old. At the beginning of 2023, the TP52 was honoured with the German Offshore Award at Hamburg City Hall as the best German offshore yacht of 2022. At the time, "Red Bandit" had won the Giraglia, but had to retire from the Rolex Middle Sea Race with material damage. Which is why one thought immediately crossed Carl-Peter Forster's mind on the first stormy night of the current edition: "I hope the boat holds up!"
I think the boat was better prepared." Carl-Peter Forster
"They are delicate boats," explained Forster after the happy ending, "something can break on this boat in 43 knots of wind with every mistake. The mast, the sails... everything! But nothing broke." As the long-distance classic progressed, the crew on "Red Bandit" also masterfully parried lighter winds and a calm sea. "The light wind may have looked easy from the outside, but it wasn't," reported tactician Jesper Radich.
Rolex Middle Sea Race: strong GER results
The man who skippered the B boat for the Spanish challengers from Team Desafío Español in Valencia in 2007 and has already won titles in many keelboat classes as a professional explained: "It was mainly about making the right decisions because the wind was so fickle. Whenever we got a forecast, it was only 50 per cent correct. We really had to interpret which part was the right one."
The team had "a little problem" at Favignana and had to fight their way back up. "But overall," says Jesper Radich, "I think we coped very well with the light winds. Sailing upwind is not our strength. I would rather say that it is our weakness in 20 knots. Especially because we didn't have a heavy weather jib... We were struggling. The crew did an incredibly good job sitting on the edge for over 16 hours."
With the overall victory, "Red Bandit" naturally also won its own, strongly contested IRC Class 2 and relegated the French "Teasing Machine", which is used to winning, to second place. Stefan Jentzsch's "Black Pearl" took fifth place in the class and seventh place in the overall IRC standings. The performance of the fast Botin 56 design was even worth fourth place in the overall ORC standings. In IRC 3, Walter Watermann's GP 42 "X-Day" sailed to second place. The Lutra 52 "Aquis Granus IV" from the Akademischer Seglerverein Aachen finished tenth. In IRC 4, Stefan Hümmeke's Pogo 36 "Infinity" also finished the long distance in tenth place. In IRC 5, the Swan 441 "Best Buddies" took sixth place.
Line Honours for "Scallywag 100"
Huang-Seng Lee's "Scallywag 100" (Hong Kong) had already secured the line honours in this 45th Rolex Midlle Sea Race the day before in the 100-foot duel with an 18-minute lead over "Black Jack 100". The time sailed by the first crew at the finish was 2 days, 21 hours, 33 minutes and 29 seconds. Former Ocean Race circumnavigator David Witt was the regular skipper. After the stormy start, Witt said at the finish line: "That was one of the toughest races I've ever done in a 100-foot yacht. I'm really proud of the team."
Beaten "Black Jack 100" rival Tristan Le Brun, on the other hand, was disappointed, but found very respectful words: "Congratulations to 'Scallywag'. This time it went in their favour. 'Scallywag' was very strong. We were impressed. They started the race well prepared, sailed well. Their sail changes were fast, they navigated well. All that made it very difficult for us."
