As three more yachts crossed the finish line of the Rolex Middle Sea Race 2007 to rapturous applause from the crowd gathered at the Royal Yacht Club yesterday, the big news is that George David’s Rambler (USA) has added Overall Winner on handicap to the Line Honours trophy and Course Record secured on Monday.

The treble was last achieved in 2000 by Zephyrus IV, whose Course Record has been so emphatically crushed by Rambler.

The first of the three boats to finish yesterday was the 66-foot Rubino (GBR) at 11.51 this morning, over 24-hours after Rambler slid through the line in Marsamxett Harbour. Rubino was followed 15-minutes later by Roaring Forty – a forty-foot yacht sailed by four Belgians. Rubino and Roaring Forty have enjoyed a close race for much of the course rarely separated by more than a few miles over the whole 607 nautical mile course. Vineta (GER) was fourth boat home at 2.16pm.

Thomas Streit has sailed in all kinds of conditions with Rubino since she was launched in 2002, with plenty of rough weather particularly in the Pacific and was clearly well prepared for a difficult race when they set off on Saturday, “Rubino has covered 20,000 miles, she has been through quite a few hard seas and strong winds so we knew we had a good boat and that we can do it, maybe with not too much sail up, and that’s the way we managed it. We were confident in the boat, confident in the equipment and confident in the crew.”

Streit and his crew, including a mix of keen Australians and Kiwis, clearly enjoyed the race and overall experience despite the weather.

A big surprise for Streit was the close proximity of the Open 40, Roaring Forty – skippered by Michel Kleinjans. Kleinjans’ race was not without its problems, but again he seemed to benefit from a complete understanding of his boat, his crew and the best way of keeping both in one piece – well, all except some of the electronics, as he explained, “we have a computer with our SSB on it and the GRIB files, but the first night our mouse stopped working so we had a nice computer but could not do anything with it. And when the log stopped working things like true wind speed and angle were no longer accurate.”

Kleinjans won the Rolex Fastnet in 2001 as crew on another Lutra design, Tonnerre de Breskens, and also competed in the Rolex Middle Sea Race that year. He saw a lot more of the scenery that time, but got his fill of Stromboli this time too when just after rounding the volcanic island they fell into the centre or eye of the depression along with Rubino and actually parked for seven or so hours. As for finishing third, it was a complete surprise, as was the number of boats that had retired.

For all his experience, Kleinjans admitted to one incident that had him on edge, and readily recognised that it could have been worse as they approached the northwest corner of Sicily. As he explains, “the wind was north, even a bit east of north, so we tried to keep our height because when the wind would go north west we knew we were going to be headed. We went six or seven miles north of the rhumb line. We managed quite well until in the last 10-miles we decided we could go straight at the turn. Two miles before we had to round Levanzo we got hit by a squall with hail, 45…50 knots. We had to go hard on the wind to get around the corner. We wondered if we should dump the main and gybe to go back. We decided not to. It was so very tight and we just got round. If we hadn’t I also think we would have been in the newspapers.”

At the time of going to press, 14 yachts are still competing in the race, with the next yacht Peter Hopps’ Nsida (GBR) due last night. Behind her are Tai Shan (SUI) and Medbank Elusive – the first of the three Maltese yachts on the course. While all yachts to finish receive a big cheer as they cross the line, you can bet your house that when the first local boat arrives home the citizens of Valletta on the other side of the Marsamxett Harbour will know about it. Especially if it is Arthur Podesta who is sailing with his son and daughter, and, is competing in his 28th race. Last boat on the course is Muzyka, currently just passing Palermo.

The saddest news of the day was confirmation that the crew of Loki was unable to recover the yacht before her anchor gave up the battle and she was blown onto the rocky shoreline of Golfo di Castellammare. Whether or not she is now recoverable at all has yet to be ascertained. Even though the wind conditions have moderated, the shore continues to be battered by surf driven by the strong winds of the past 48 hours.