As expected, near gale force winds arrived in the early hours of yesterday morning rapidly changing the character of the 38th Rolex Middle Sea Race. To the north of Sicily, yachts were experiencing sustained wind speeds of 30 knots with a significant sea state.
The Royal Malta Yacht Club race management team was busy through the night, monitoring the fleet's progress.
George David's Rambler 88 was expected to finish the Rolex Middle Sea Race last night to take line honours in the race for the third year running.
After a long hard beat during the night across the north coast of Sicily, David's American Maxi, Rambler 88, rounded Favignana around 0800 CEST yesterday morning. With 30 knots of wind and a sweet downwind angle, Rambler 88 took off like a scolded cat towards Pantalleria. Averaging over 20 knots of boat speed, probably surfing closer to thirty, Rambler 88 was finally in her element.
Just over an hour behind Rambler 88, the 100ft Maxi Leopard, skippered by Pascal Oddo, was in her slipstream.
James Blakemore's South African Swan 53 Music was the provisional race leader after IRC time correction, according to the tracker.
Yesterday morning some yachts were still passing through the Messina Strait but a nasty change in the prevailing winds awaited the crews. The Mistral driven breeze built waves of up to four metres and the Tyrrhenian Sea was a turbulent spot.
Elusive 2 battles on
The 2017 Rolex Middle Sea Race is providing brutal conditions, as the majority of the fleet beat into the teeth of a gale along the north coast of Sicily, over a third of the fleet has retired from the race. Over 50 knots of wind speed has been recorded on the race course, with waves in excess of four metres.
Despite the adverse conditions, one Maltese yacht was still in the game - the Podesta family racing Elusive 2.
Another Maltese entry - Josef Schultheis and Timmy Camilleri's Xp-ACT - was also in the race till yesterday afternoon, but later also had to retire.
On the third day of the race, the two Maltese yachts were battling huge seas and gale force headwinds, approaching the island of Favignana on the north west corner of Sicily, 300 miles from the finish in Malta.
At 3.30pm yesterday, 37 yachts had officially retired from the race, including four Maltese entries. Sean Borg's Xpresso, Jonathan Gambin's Ton Ton Malta Charters, Jamie Sammut's Unica, and Sean Arrigo's Otra Vez. All crews were safe and well.
"Every boat taking part in the race is fully prepared with safety equipment and fitted with satellite trackers just for this race. We monitor the race course 24 hours a day and keep in close contact with coastguard agencies around the course," said the Principal Race Officer Peter Dimech.