Dotting 'i's and crossing 't's

Last preparations underway for tomorrow's start of the Rolex Middle Sea Race

The 70 crews finally entered in the 30th Rolex Middle Sea Race, which starts tomorrow morning from Grand Harbour, Malta, have spent their last day readying themselves for what looks to be a challenging race. The frontrunners are modelling course times between two and three days, with the likelihood of an extended period of 35-knots of wind on the topside of the course, to the north of Sicily. This is the Mediterranean, a notoriously fickle environment, this week more so than ever with a constantly evolving picture. The navigators and strategists throughout the fleet have been following intently the developing weather patterns over the past few days and talk of encountering heavy weather at some point. One word has kept coming up interviews over that past 24 hours. Preparation.

Australian Tom Addis was part of Team New Zealand in the last America's Cup and was on the Telefonica Blue team during the Volvo Ocean Race. He knows a thing or two about preparation. He is sailing as navigator on Roger Sturgeon's STP65 Rosebud/Team DYT with whom he also sailed when she won the 2007 Rolex Sydney Hobart. Addis competed in the storm-swept 2007 Rolex Middle Sea Race too.

"This race is always very interesting," he says. "You don't get many 600-mile races with this number of corners and land effects. Quick changes in conditions, very local changes especially going up through the Strait of Messina. There's always something to be working on next with no big straight lines," comments Addis, the afternoon before the start. "Conditions are not dissimilar to 2007, in some ways, in that we have a low pressure system just north of Sicily that we're going to have to deal with. It looks like we've got pretty good pressure all the way, which makes for a good fast race."

Malcolm Park, the Project Manager for Rosebud/Team DYT, is another who recognises the value of preparation and acknowledged the expectation of some tough conditions. "It is nothing we can't handle. We've five or six guys on the crew who did the last Volvo. We all know what is required," he comments. "We've sat down and discussed our latest assessment of the situation. We're taking appropriate steps such as ensuring all crew have short [safety] tethers and that the sails have redundant systems in case of failure at attachment points."

Around the dock there is clear evidence amongst all crews that they anticipate experiencing strong winds. The presence of orange coloured sailcloth on the pontoons and foredecks being checked and packed, checked again and repacked, confirms not just the mandatory presence of storm sails, but that boats expect to use them. Mainsails with two or three reef points are being preferred to those with one. The smallest sized racing headsails are being included in the inventories.



Another of the pro-teams is Karl Kwok's 80-foot Beau Geste, led by Gavin Brady (above) and Francesco de Angelis, with the highly experienced Andrew Cape as navigator. Kwok may be new to the Rolex Middle Sea Race, but he is also a Hobart race winner and holds the course record for the Rolex China Sea Race. Beaten by ICAP Leopard to line honours in this year's Rolex Fastnet Race, Kwok's hopes are high, but typically humble for this quietly spoken gentleman of the grand prix racing circuit.

"Preparations have been pretty good. This morning we had a lot of wind out there, so we've been testing bits and pieces, including different sail configurations. It's good wind, hopefully we're going to have it throughout the race," comments Kwok. "Of course everybody wants to be a winner, but not everyone can do that. I've heard of the Rolex Middle Sea Race for such a long time and my hope is that I finish it once in my lifetime," he adds with a smile.

While Rosebud/Team DYT and Beau Geste represent the elite professional end of the fleet, the 36ft Otra Vez Fexco is typical of the more Corinthian entry. Edward Gatt Floridia, the skipper, is embarking on his sixth race and his first as an owner. Floridia is just as conscious of the importance of preparation. "The hardest bit of this race is being skipper. Everything else is the same. We have the same crew exactly as in previous years; we've all sailed together, we all know what to do," explains Floridia. "The only difference is that I am the skipper and have responsibility for boat and crew."

Floridia is taking this newfound responsibility very seriously, professionally in fact. "Boat preparation is very important so you are ready for any conditions that you might encounter whether they are very heavy or very light. You need to be prepared for any breakages you might have, especially those that can be repaired so you can continue the race. I don't think there is any difference between the small and bigger boats in managing the crew. If the weather is rough, it is harder for certain and more uncomfortable. We have a set watch system and we will be flexible depending on conditions and needs on deck."

Floridia is working on a six-day race, a stark contrast to Rosebud where the expectation is 48 to 60 hours. "We've been following the weather patterns since the first forecasts for Saturday came out. They've been changing every day and in fact every hour. We think we know what we are going to get tomorrow, but two-three days ahead at this time of year is very hard to be accurate. However, it looks to be strong for a couple of days and light for a couple too. One thing for certain is that we'll get a bit of everything. It never stays constant on this racecourse," says Floridia.

Aldo Quadarella is the skipper of Ricomincio da 3, a couple of feet shorter than Otra Vez and another of the more Corinthian entries. Quadarella finished in sixth overall last year, having been in the lead on handicap at Pantelleria. He is also taking preparations seriously, encouraged by their 2008 result, "last year it was going well until Pantelleria, when we got caught in some stormy weather. We were going fast, but more in the direction of Tunisia than Malta. The whole team wanted to do the race again. We are more familiar with the boat, have replaced some of the sails and even the rudder to be more competitive. We are well-prepared this year." Ricomincio da 3 is another boat trusting in the powers of Parmigiano. Quadarella adds good coffee and pre-cooked pasta to his list of secret weapons.

The Rolex Middle Sea Race has proven over the years to suffer no fools. This year will be no exception. It is a strong fleet heading to the start line tomorrow, all the crews are capable of sailing well. The conditions will be testing and what will be demonstrated by the results at the end of the week is not only those that have sailed the best, but those that have best prepared themselves and their equipment.

The 2009 Rolex Middle Sea Race starts from Grand Harbour at 11.00 CEST on Saturday, 17 October.

Entries:

Boat	Skipper/owner	Nat	Type
AIRMALTA FALCON	Peter Spiteri Gonzi	Malta	Beneteau 40.7
ALBA BLU	Giuseppe Barone	Italy	Beneteau 40.7
ALEGRE	Andres Soriano	United Kingdom	Mills 68 mini maxi
AMPLIFON WANDERLUST	FRANCO FERLUGA	Italy
APEPAZZA H3O	Claudio Bagante	Italy	Grand Soleil 45
ARTIE	Lee Satariano	Malta	J/109
ATAME !	Beppe Bisotto	United Kingdom	Fast 42
AURORA	Bruno Roberto	Italy	Canard 41
AZIZA	Sandro Musu	Malta	Grand Soleil 40
BARCANOVA	Joao Costa Pereira	Portugal	Jeanneau Sun Fast 3200
BEAU GESTE	Karl Kwok	China	Farr 80 maxi
BELLA MENTE	HAP FAUTH	United States of America	Reichel Pugh 69 Mini maxi
BERENICE	Marco Rodolfi	Italy
BIG ONE	Damir Repac	Croatia	Volvo 60 (Chessie Racing)
BOV KERISMA	Sonke Stein	Germany	Ker 11.3
CALIPSO 4	Piero Paniccia	Italy	Cookson 50
CAMBO III	Michael Clough	Spain	Hunter Mystery 35
COMANCHE RAIDER II GASAN MAMO	Jonas Diamantino	Malta	Judel Vrolijk ILC 40
CORAL	Valentin Zubkov	Russia	Shipman 63
CYMBA	Isidoro Santececca	Italy	Jeanneau Sun Fast 3200
DSK PIONEER INVESTMENTS	DANILO SALSI	Italy	Swan 90
ELUSIVE 2 MEDBANK	Arthur Podesta	Malta	Beneteau 45
ERICSSON	Aegyd Pengg	Austria	Ericsson VO70
ESTE40	Matteo Miceli	Italy	Class 40
FEVER	Rrosario Vannucchi	Great Britain	Swan 45
GEISHA	David Pizzuto	Malta	IMX40
GEOMETRY	Tim Reid	Virgin Islands (Brit)	Shipman 72
GLOBAL YACHT RACING EH01	Andy Middleton	United Kingdom
HIGH Q1	Hans Nagel	Germany	31ft trimaran
HOOLIGAN VI	Edward Broadway	United Kingdom	Farr 40
ICAP LEOPARD	Mike Slade	United Kingdom	Farr 100 supermaxi
IN DIREZIONE OSTINATA E CONTRARIA	Luca Zoccoli	Italy	Open 35
INTERMATICA VO70	LORENZO BODINI	Italy	Volvo Open 70
KING'S LEGEND	Gijs van Liebergen	Netherlands (Holland)	Swan 65
KUKA	Franco Niggeler	Switzerland	Sly 42
LEGALLY BRUNETTE	Cathal Drohan	Ireland	X-41
LIBERTINE	Marco Paolucci	Italy	Comet 45R
LUNA ROSSA	Torben Grael	Italy	Judel Vrolijk STP65
MANANA	Kevin Dingli	Malta	Oceanis 523
MANDOLINO	Colombo Guido	Italy	Swan 45
NADEJDA	Simon Tubby	Russia	Shipman 72
NEMESIS CREDAL	Mark Shranz	Malta	Grand Soleil 50
NIKATA	Matt Hardy	United Kingdom	52ft
NISIDA	Peter Hopps	United Kingdom
NIX	Arthur Bugs Baer & William A. Dunn	Netherlands
OCEAN OF SMILES	Christophe Bullens	Belgium	ex Fuji III Open 60
ONE	Gosta Pongratz	Austria	Salona 42
OTRA VEZ FEXCO	Edward Gatt Floridia	Malta
OXYGENE	TOMMASO CERULLI IRELLI	France	X362
RAN	Niklas Zennstrom	United Kingdom	Judel-Vrolijk 72
REBEL	Jost Merten	Malta	X-50
RICOMINCIO DA 3	Quadarella Aldo	Italy	Beneteau First 34.7
RISTAKER	Peter Jebsen	Great Britain	Swan 68
ROSEBUD/TEAM DYT	Roger Sturgeon	United States of America	Farr STP65
SCIARA	FILIPPO MASSIMO LANCELLOTTI	Italy	Beneteau First 44.7
SEAWOLF OF SOUTHAMPTON	David Latham	Gibraltar	Pronavia 38
SHAMBALA	Paolo Bordogna	Italy	Latini 52
SILVER CHILLER	Richard Mueller	Germany	Trimaran
SPIRIT OF PLEASURE	Márton Jozsa	Hungary
STORM	MASSIMO COLOSIMO	Italy	X-43
STRAIT DEALER	David Anastasi	Malta	J/125
THREE SISTERS	Milan Hajek	Czech Republic	Beneteau 40.7
TON TON SURFSIDE	Jonathan Gambin	Malta	Dufour 44
TONNERRE DE BRESKENS 3	P.W. Vroon	Netherlands	Ker 50
VELADO'	Olivia Ennio	Italy
VIKESHA	Oleg Evdokimenko	Malta	X-41
VITO-NCP CHARTER	Darko Prizmic	Croatia
WHISTLER	Michael Montanaro Gauci	Malta	Beneteau 42S7
WIZSOFT	Guy Tzarfati	Israel	Beneteau 47.7
YES ACHAB YACHT CLUB	Santolini Roberto-Sergio Papagni	Italy	X-46
ZIZANIE	Bruno Vari	Italy	Alpha Ketch 42