There Is No Such Thing as a Dead Cert in Offshore Racing, as This Year’s Rolex Middle Sea Race Proved. Helen Fretter Reports.
Nature lays on the symbolism thick at the Rolex Middle Sea. Where else do you race past fire and brimstone, the bubbling uncertainty of a live volcano? Stromboli is just one memorable mark of what is widely regarded to be the most spectacular of all offshore race courses – starting among the towering ramparts of Valetta, to the tactically tricky Straits of Messina, past smoking Mount Etna, the beautiful Sicilian coast, before heading back out to open water and Lampedusa.
The Mediterranean is at its most deceptive at this time of year – fleets often set out in balmy conditions, only to face pulverising winds and seas later in the 608-mile circular course. The 2016 race saw a genteel start forecast to make way for Sirocco head winds for many on their return leg to Malta.
Trying times
Heading into this year’s autumn classic, all eyes were on the highly anticipated duel between two MOD70s: Lloyd Thornburg’sall-conquering Phaedo 3 , racing in ‘conventional’ MOD70 mode, and Giovanni Soldini’s experimental Maserati, which set off for Malta with a modified, ‘semi-foiling’ arrangement.
In the build-up to the Middle Sea Race, the Maserati team had the MOD70 foiling successfully (albeit only on port tack as the boat was trialling an asymmetric set up), and the event was intended to be her first competitive test in ‘flight’ mode. However, on her way to Valetta five days before the start, Maserati collided with something – the crew suspect a large fish rather than a rigid container – which ripped off the starboard rudder and much of the starboard steering gear.
Esta historia es de la edición January 2017 de Yachting World.
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Esta historia es de la edición January 2017 de Yachting World.
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wallywind 110 launches
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Irish skipper wins Figaro
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Youth AC puts on a show
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ATLANTIC BEYOND
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UNCONTROLLED
HELPLESSLY APPROACHING AN UNINHABITED ISLAND IN THE GALAPAGOS WITHOUT ENGINE OR ELECTRONICS, JON VAN TAMELEN FEARED BEING IMMINENTLY SHIPWRECKED
SECRET ISLAND
BEYOND THE FORBIDDING ENTRY RULES OF TAIWAN IS A CULTURE RICH IN SEAFARING HISTORY AND STUNNING LANDSCAPES, FINDS CAMERON DUECK
LAND OF THE BIRDS
SKIP NOVAK DESCRIBES THE PERILS, CHALLENGES AND JOYS OF A CRITICAL EXPEDITION VOAYGE TO SURVEY SOUTH GEORGIA'S ENDANGERED WANDERING ALBATROSS
FIRST STEPS TO BLUEWATER
YOU CAN GET INTO WORLD CRUISING FROM A STANDING START AND EXPERIENCE THINGS NO OTHER TRAVELLERS DO. CATHERINE LAWSON AND DAVID BRISTOW TALK TO FOUR COUPLES WHO PROVE IT
HARD CHOICES
IN AN EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT FROM HER NEW BOOK, PIP HARE REVEALS WHAT DROVE HER ON WHILE RACING THROUGH THE SOUTHERN OCEAN IN THE 2020 VENDÉE GLOBE.
INTO BATTLE
COULD THIS BE THE MOST COMPETITIVE VENDÉE GLOBE EVER? HELEN FRETTER FINDS OUT WHAT THE SKIPPERS WILL BE FACING.