High-octane sailing in high seas.

The 2009 Rolex Middle Sea Race, organised by the Royal Malta Yacht Club in association with the Royal Ocean Racing Club, and under the auspices of the Maltese and Italian sailing federations, is on 17 October. Since it starts and finishes in Grand Harbour (usually it’s Marsamxett, but not this year), spectators can get great, frontline views if they get to the Valletta’s bastions early enough – the race starts at 11am.

It’s not for nothing that The Rolex Middle Sea Race, one of the great classic offshore races, is mentioned alongside counterparts like the Rolex Fastnet Race and the Rolex Sydney to Hobart. Competing in it demands so much more from crew and yacht than a normal race. It is about setting personal goals and achieving them whatever the conditions. This 30th edition of the race is one anticipated by many amateur and professional crews and boat owners and skippers from across the world. The 606-mile course round Sicily and its neighbouring islands has more than lived up to the expectations of its masterminders and competitors. It has given us also many stories of great seamanship, unwavering courage and, perhaps above all, passion.

Many competitors have already registered for the race and this year it seems we are going to have a bigger fleet of super yachts competing. Apart from winning the race, these boats compete to break the record of the fastest time around, which at the moment is held by Rambler, skippered by Ken Read which took over 16 hours off the previous course record set by Zephyrus IV in 2000.

This Middle Sea Race is my third, and I am looking forward to seeing what surprises it has in store for us. Three years ago was my first taste of the Middle Sea and I was astonished by the spectacular views this race had to offer. When you compete, you really begin to realise just how long a race it is as well. One of the unexpected highlights for me during the race was when we arrived in the straits of Messina and we sighted two whales which surfaced for a few seconds and then disappeared.

Also, on one of the nights, we were stuck with no wind next to Stromboli and in the pitch darkness of the night, I could see hundreds of shooting stars. The last two days of the race were quite intense as the wind picked up to a constant 25 knots, but at least we were making headway.

Last year we had all kinds of weather during the race. We started off with ideal sailing conditions with winds of a constant 15 knots. On the second night, the wind died down and we spent at least five hours moving with just the current of the sea. On the fourth day, the wind picked up to 25 knots and at around 4pm we saw some boats turning back and heading to Lampedusa harbour; one of them had a broken mast and the others had ripped sails.

We got ready for the worst and, as we predicted, a squall hit us. The wind picked up to 45 knots and hale was coming down. Visibility was practically nil and we immediately reduced our sail area in order to keep the boat under control. It’s at times like these you realise what it is to have a good crew, and to appreciate your team mates. We all worked hard together and kept our racing spirits high. We finished the race in a very respectable third place out of eighty boats, and first in our class.

Here’s to this year’s Middle Sea…we’ll be filming it, so will update this post with some footage all being well. Wish me and the crew of Elusive luck!

Andrew Agius Delicata is an architecture student, an avid and experienced yachtsman, and a sailing instructor with Vikings Sailing Club.

See also related article on learning to sail in Malta.

Photo: courtesy of The Rolex Middle Sea Race

Share this

Night flowering cactus, a fleeting treat of autumn

It’s amazing to experience, however many years you live here. Autumn is Malta’s second spring and real treat after several months of parched, dust-bowl landscape.

On my first visit to Malta 20 years back, I flew in at the beginning of September. Looking down as the plane came into land, I saw only gaping stony holes – the quarries near the airport, shimmering white in the heat. All seemed barren; only hardy trees like Aleppo pines and carob gave a hint of green. By the time I left two weeks later, Malta had had its first real storms to break the summer heat. Immediately, greenery had dusted itself down and sprung to life, and flowers were back in business after their summer dormancy.

The Maltese Islands are at their best right now. The searing heat has passed for good, the air is fresher and the sky is a deep cobalt. Summer’s warmth now tempered makes an ideal climate for outdoor activities – cycling, walking, tennis and golf are all back on the agenda big time. The sea is wonderfully warm still and you can enjoy the beaches now without the masses. Yachtsmen rejoice as the autumn brings some of the best, if at times unpredictable weather for racing and pleasure sailing. The upcoming Rolex Middle Sea Race has seen everything from mill-pond conditions to hail and ‘force goodness knows what’ in past years!

For most islanders autumn is a brief interlude to relish. The Mediterranean really has only two seasons – summer and winter – with a few fleeting weeks of spring and spring’s second coming in autumn. My humble patio garden suddenly leaps into life come autumn, providing some seasonal surprises – the huge flowers of the cactus above come out at night, only to die by sunrise the next day. Get out and about to catch the best of autumn while you can. It’ll be over all too soon.

Share this

Valletta's harbours, a mix of history and safe haven for the novice sailor

I’ve lived in Malta 15 years and have had my bouts of ‘island fever‘. But it’s only in the past year and a bit that I’ve found a way to survive despite the islands’ restrictive space – and surprise myself by seeing Malta in a different light. All thanks to sailing.

It’s obvious really that if you don’t have space on land, you should take to the sea. A UK friend of mine living here said that one of the first things she wanted to do on arriving in Malta was to learn to sail. After all, water sports are what this place lends itself to; so play to its strengths, give up hoping that acres of peaceful countryside will materialise here, and start looking to the horizon instead.

Anyway, you can’t miss the sport in Malta, even in urban areas. You’re bound, at the very least, to drive past spanking new yachts, gleaming in the various marinas – Birgu, Msida and Portomaso. But for the most part of my landlubber life here in Malta, sailing seemed something of an elite sport requiring a good deal of cash to get in to; the super-yachts seemed a bit off-putting to a wannabe novice sailor.

But how wrong I was, and how I wished I’d made the effort earlier to learn to sail. Because sailing has given me a breath of air, time away from the frenetic, hectic madding crowd on land, and also shown me vistas of the islands I’d never have seen.

If like me, you’ve been here a while and not taken to the seas, here are the steps to find out if sailing is something that might grab you and give you a new perspective on life in Malta:

Sailing lessons
If you don’t conveniently have a friend with a boat and the patience to have a green crew member on board, then sign up for some sailing lessons. Perhaps do this anyway as it is a good way to get a grounding, both theoretical and practical, in the sport. I did a four-afternoons’ course last summer with Vikings Sailing Club, based at Haywharf, Marsamxetto Harbour, just below the Excelsior Hotel and the Public Library in Floriana. Vikings is a non-profit organisation developed to promote sailing to a wider public.

It usually runs two or three adults’ courses and a couple of junior courses (for kids generally aged 10 years +) each summer. Fees are very reasonable, and you get a lot of hands-on time on the water as well as some serious theory in the club house before each session out sailing. The club uses Lasers, and an instructor accompanies you (four people per boat). There are other clubs around, in St Paul’s Bay for instance, and most coastal five-star hotels offer dinghy hire and lessons, but usually just Easter-October.

Just note that kids’ courses vary in approach. Some offer courses for children aged 7+, and without an instructor really close at hand in the boat with them. This is fine for some kids, but not for others and can put the less confident children off the sport right at the outset.

Adults would be wise to ask around for their ideal course too. Always check out the credentials of instructors, and ask for detailed information on the course’s approach.

Sailing courses are mostly summer affairs, but sailing in Malta is pretty much an all-year-round sport, as winter weeks can be just as ideal for novice and fair-weather sailors. You’ll need minimal investment in some outer garb.

What a novice gets out of sailing
It can seem a tough sport to master, and to be a real pro, it is. But the beauty of joining a club is to enjoy sailing without a huge investment in gear; you can get what you want out of sailing when you want, and on your own terms.

You can learn to sail with the aim of pro status, or, like me, to just enjoy some ‘me-time’ away from chores, work, commitments, and have the chance to get some real fresh air and space around you. When you’re concentrating at the helm, you don’t have time to think about emails or clients!

Sure, it’s going to take me a bit more time to feel that sailing is second nature, like driving a car, but I also know that sailing is something that will never be routine. No two sessions out are the same – there are so many variables (wind, current, swell, my mindset and so on, even without a tide in the Med to think about).

The principles that apply to learning to sail a Laser, or Topper Topaz size boat, are the same as apply to larger craft, and there are thrills and adrenalin rushes to be had at every stage in the learning curve.

See Malta differently
One of the most startling side benefits of sailing is to see the islands differently. For the first time in 15 years, bar one catamaran trip to Sicily, I’ve seen Valletta’s bastions as they are meant to be seen – from the sea. There are inlets, nooks, crannies, forts and fortifications (WWII pill boxes as well) that you’d never know existed. For that alone, learning to sail has been worthwhile. From the sea, you can really appreciate what makes Malta special!

Share this