Malta rocks!
Just got back from Malta, covering the Rolex Middle Sea Race. What a fantastic place. Not much wind for the race - at least not until the big boats had finished, and then it started blowing a beautiful Force 4. Still, entries were at a record 68 and people seem to want to come back for more. I flew in the helicopter with legend photographer Carlo Borlenghi and legend-in-his-own-lunchtime cameraman Matt Conner and watched Alfa Romeo tearing through the fleet at a phenomenal rate (the smaller boats started first). The ability to make your wind - eg 5 knots boatspeed in 2 knots true wind - is pretty useful when the breeze is in short supply, but it wasn't enough to break Zephyrus IV's course record set in 2000. It's incredible the record has stood so long in the face of such massive advances in technology, but even SuperMaxis need a good breeze to get them really motoring. As it turned out, the 30 to 40-footers got the best of the breeze long after the Maxi crews had jetted home. Let's hope the big boats come back next year, and that they are rewarded with better breeze. Commodore Georges Bonello duPuis and his crew at Royal Malta Yacht Club do a great job and the event deserves to get even bigger. If you want to read my press releases from the event, go to www.regattanews.com