It was ABN AMRO ONE’s turn to drift across the finish line of the Rolex Middle Sea Race yesterday afternoon, almost 24 hours after the trio of SuperMaxis finished on Tuesday.
Mike Sanderson always knew that it was going to be a big challenge bringing a rough, tough ocean racing boat like a Volvo Open 70 into the predominantly light airs of the South Mediterranean, and so it proved. “It was a very light air race to take four and a half days to do 600 miles in a Volvo Open 70, that’s very slow,” said Sanderson, smiling as he stepped ashore. “It was the same for everyone, of course, just not ideal VO70 conditions.
“We had a really good first day and first night, at one point we were right next to Alfa Romeo, so 20 hours into it we were in good shape, but then we got dropped. While we drifting around doing 1 or 2 knots, they must have been doing 10. Then we got parked near Stromboli for six or seven hours and then the whole fleet moved up to us. Eventually we stretched away but the damage was done by then.”
Although the gaps to the rest of the fleet are large, if a new breeze arrives by today it could bring the smaller boats within striking distance of handicap victory. However Hasso Plattner’s 86-foot canting keel Maxi, Morning Glory, is tightening her grip on the race lead under the IRC corrected time system, and the number of yachts that can threaten her position at the top of the leaderboard is dwindling by the hour.
Jim Swartz’s impeccably sailed Swan 601 Moneypenny is well placed on the water having passed Lampedusa yesterday afternoon. The professional crew from America have been focused 24 hours a day for the past five days on taking every small gain available. Moneypenny finds herself in a breakaway group of three near Lampedusa, along with last year’s winner, the 70-foot Atalanta II from Italy, and the Russian TP52 Rusal Synergy.
The food on board Moneypenny was high quality for the first few days, but slow progress has forced Swartz’s crew to break open the dreaded sachets of freeze-dried food. Not only that, but they are starting to ration the portions for fear of running out of food altogether.
The Irish Cookson 50 Chieftain really needs breeze to make her move, and for a brief time yesterday afternoon the fleet was charging along in 20 knots of breeze.
Damiani Our Dream, the Italian Maxi skippered by Australian/Dutch Olympic medallist Mitch Booth, retired from the race yesterday and is making straight for Malta. Perhaps their wine rations had expired. As Booth explained before the race: “The crew work on the basis that each of us consumes half a bottle a day, and we packed 50 bottles of red wine, enough to keep us going for five days.” Now the five days is up, and the Italians are on their way back, presumably in search of a Maltese wine bar.
One crew that was always ready for a long, slow race – indeed who even relished the prospect – was the double-handed entry Slingshot, a J/105 from Great Britain.
Close to the back of the fleet is the Swan 44 Selene, whose skipper Mark Jephcott is concerned about reaching the finish line before the 8 am cut-off on Saturday morning.
With four boats finished and three retired, 61 yachts are still racing.
The Rolex Middle Sea Race final prize giving is at noon on Saturday in La Vallette Hall at the Mediterranean Conference Centre.