The 47th Rolex Middle Sea Race starts from Malta's Grand Harbour on Saturday 17 October, sending an international fleet on a 606-nautical-mile lap of Sicily that has made this one of the most demanding offshore classics on the calendar. Light winds are forecast at the start, but as always in the Mediterranean, that could change fast.
Remon Vos's Black Jack 100 returns as defending Monohull Line Honours champion and overwhelming favourite to repeat. Skippered by Tristan Le Brun, the Reichel/Pugh 100-footer completed last year's race in 65 hours, 44 minutes and 7 seconds, and carries a long pedigree under her earlier name Esimit Europa 2, with line honours wins in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014.
This year the boat is set up differently. "We have set up the boat differently to have a little crack at corrected time," Le Brun says, pointing to a new sail wardrobe and changes aimed at IRC performance as well as outright speed.
Seven former round-the-world raceboats will chase her down. Johnny Vincent's Volvo Open 70 Pace heads that group, fresh off a Monohull Line Honours and IRC Overall double at the 2026 RORC Round Britain and Ireland Race, where she posted a 486-nautical-mile day. The Dutch Volvo Ocean 65 JAJO is another to watch, having finished second overall under IRC in the stormy 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race. Also in the fleet are the Volvo Open 70s Dinzer Doo, Ocean Breeze and Il Mostro, and the Volvo Ocean 65s Sisi and Wind Whisper.
Le Brun doesn't underestimate them. "Pace can be extremely fast at reaching angles in more than 20 knots of wind. They can almost stick with us," he says. Below 15 knots, he reckons the 100-footer's bigger sail area and longer waterline take over. The real danger, he believes, lies in a major wind transition, the kind that let Scallywag 100 pip Black Jack 100 in 2024.
Two outsiders could also trouble the front-runners in lighter upwind conditions. Filip Balcaen's Mills 72 Balthasar, the defending IRC Overall champion, and Giovanni Lombardi Stronati's Wallyrocket 71 Django 7X, making her race debut after being crowned 2025 Rolex IMA Maxi Grand Prix World Champion, both carry strong light-air potential and world-class crews.
Comanche's 2021 course record of 40 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds still stands untouched. Breaking it would need sustained speeds above 15 knots around the entire course, something the current forecast doesn't support.
Four multihulls will race, three of them genuine Line Honours contenders. The Italian Kinetic 54 Garbina J, owned by Cesare Dania and sailed by Alfredo Mecozzi, faces the ORC 50 Calamity, sailed by Kimmo Nordström with offshore veteran Ryan Breymaier aboard, and the Polish Outremer 5X Luke Seawalker, sailed by Łukasz Komierowski with Spanish sailor Jens Lindner on the crew. The fourth entry, Turbolenta, rates lowest under MOCRA and could instead prove the multihull threat on corrected time.
Five Class40s from France, Czechia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Austria make up a tight division where first across the line takes the win. Among them is Optimus Prime, owned by former Olympic skier Ivica Kostelić and skippered by Matic Vrečko, which took line honours in this month's Cannes-Malta Race.
Before the main event, Wednesday's Yachting Malta Coastal Race has drawn 45 entries over roughly 30 nautical miles. Navigator Mike Broughton, racing aboard Jens Kellinghusen's Ker 56 Varuna VI, is picking northerly or north-westerly winds up to 14 knots, easing through the afternoon. With the fleet this deep and the forecast this fickle, Saturday's start looks set to decide far more than just who leads around Sicily first.
