Today is the start of the 2010 Rolex Middle Sea Race and for the crews of the 75 boats registered there are different approaches to be battle ready. Most of the boats have been onsite in Malta for the past week and despite some rough conditions early on, they have been able to get out a few times to practice. Though with some crews not arriving until yesterday, quite a few boats were off the dock yesterday afternoon to check sails and practise some manoeuvres in advance of today’s 11am start in Valletta’s spectacular Grand Harbour.

First warning signal is at 10.50am in Grand Harbour, Valletta. There will be five starts, beginning with Multihulls (of which there is one) and continuing though four IRC classes, beginning with the smallest through the largest.

Back on the dock in the Grand Harbour, the discussion yesterday was about weather and what the fleet might encounter. As usual, several forecasts were in circulation and it was up to the navigators to sort out their plans for the race.

On Andres Soriano’s 2009 Rolex Middle Sea Race winner, Alegre (GBR), that task falls to Welshman Will Best.

Best described the expected conditions, saying, “It’s looking quite good for us weather-wise, we know we’re quite competitive in the lighter stuff, so we’re quite happy with the weather at the moment, but obviously, we all know with the Rolex Middle Sea Race, things change and we’ll see a bit of everything. But, at the moment it’s teeing up for a sub-15 knot race.”

“We’ve doing a lot of work to widen our range so we’re a lot more competitive in the heavier ranges. When it’s really windy we’re competitive, and also we’ve upped our game in the lower teens and even the higher teens now. Certainly upwind we’ve made big changes to the boat, so it’s a lot stiffer.”

What many like about the race is that it covers different ground, and Best says, “I like this, there are a lot of corners, so it’s not ‘there and back’. It’s quite nice geographically as well, and there are some spectacular sights, when you’re stuck under an erupting volcano at night – there’s something going on all the time. And you do get a massive variation in weather, not just sea state and wind, so it’s good fun.”

Best discussed the current strategy and said, “It’s a little different competition this year. But we still have two bigger boats, two boats that are a lot faster, so obviously we were going to try to keep our time on them. Best is referring to the two biggest yachts in the fleet, the 30-metre Esimit Europa 2 (SLO) and the 2009 Rolex Middle Sea line honours winner, the Farr 100, ICAP Leopard (GBR).

Tactician Tiziano Nava reviewed the weather conditions they are expecting and said, “The forecast talks about light conditions of 8-12 knots at the start from noon to midnight. We expect the new wind will be the mistral, northwesterly and probably and we’ll find this wind after Stomboli and Palermo. For the second or third day, we expect strong winds from the mistral of 25 -30 knots. It’s important for us to make a big distance in the first part of the race, because the second part will probably be better for the small boats that should have strong winds to the finish line. With this weather forecast, the change between the southeast and the northwest is important. I think that’s the point that can decide the race.

“Probably we have to stay near Leopard to understand what is the difference in strong or light winds. The numbers say we have to sail a little faster in light to medium conditions. In heavy winds, particularly reaching, Leopard will probably be faster.”

The Rolex Middle Sea Race course has been described as one of the most beautiful in the world – with the volcanoes of Etna, Stromboli, and Vulcano along the way.

The final prize giving is at noon on Saturday, 30 October at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta.