Line honours for Esimit Europa 2

Ran 2 looking good for Class 1 in the Rolex Middle Sea Race

Late last night, Esimit Europa 2’s skipper Jochen Schümann showered the Maxi crew with champagne dockside at the Royal Malta Yacht Club to celebrate taking line honours for the third consecutive year in the Rolex Middle Sea Race. 

“That was a tough one,” explained Schümann. “We got caught up by Rán and Stig in the first parking lot at Stromboli, but it was by no means the last. Our primary goal was line honours and it was impossible to relax during any part of the race. We are delighted to have taken line honours and finish of a great season in style.”

It was nearly seven hours later when Niklas Zennström’s JV72, Rán 2 crossed the finish line, setting the bar for the rest of the fleet to achieve. Although this has been a slow race, Rán  put in a magnificent performance to lead a highly competitive Class 1 and lay claim to an overall win.

“Before the race we sat down as a crew and said this would be frustrating at times; at one stage we looked like we would finish on Friday and we only had food until Tuesday evening but we stayed together as a team and had plenty of time to tell a few more jokes over the last four days," said Zennström. "Clearly we were racing Stig this race because we are very similar boats and we were very very close until the second half of the race when we managed to get away from them. But the fact that we had someone to race against made the race much more fun. We are in good shape for our class and in reality that is all that you can do and the rest is up to the conditions, so now we will have to see what will happen.”

While Esimit Europa have line honours and Rán look very likely to win Class 1, the overall winner is very much undecided. All of the yachts in contention are now past Favignana, which gives a good indication of the fleet’s overall standings but only an indication. However, now that Rán has finished, we can state the exact time that others need to finish to beat their time.

In Class 4, Lee Satariano & Christian Ripard’s J/122 Artie RTFX with an all Malta crew were leading their class and the Rolex Middle Sea Race overall at Favigana. To beat Rán’s corrected time Artie RTFX need to finish on 26 October by 02:10:52.

The Class 3 leader, Josef Schultheis & Paolo Semeraro Xp44 XP-ACT was second overall at Favignana. On board are three Maltese crew; Sebastian Ripard, Timmy Camilleri and Zach Cassar Torregiani. To beat Rán’s corrected time XP-ACT need to finish on 25 October by 20:32:22.

Third overall at Favignana and second in Class 3 was the Sicialian Mylius, Zenhea Takesha, skippered by Natale Lia. To beat Rán’s corrected time Zenhea Takesha need to finish on 25 October by 14:04:25.

Fourth overall at Favignana and leading Class 2 was the South African entry, Hi Fidelity, skippered by Eddie De Villiers. To beat Rán’s corrected time Hi Fidelity need to finish on 25 October by 11:14:39

Fifth overall and third in Class 3 was Jonas Diamantino’s all-Maltese crew on Comanche Raider II Gasanmamo. To beat Rán’s corrected time Comanche Raider II Gasanmamo need to finish on 25 October by 19:58:29.