Middle Sea Race - Fleet endure slow and punishing journey

Rolex Middle Sea Race - Fleet endure slow and punishing journey

In the Rolex Middle Sea Race, the pontoons have rapidly filled at the Royal Malta Yacht Club throughout the past two days. With the line honours winner of the 2012 edition, Esimit Europa 2, arriving on Wednesday and the overall race winner, Hi Fidelity, confirmed yesterday evening, the focus shifted to welcoming home the first Maltese boat along with the remainder of the fleet following a slow and punishing 606-nm race. Early this morning (Friday), the first Maltese finisher and last year’s overall champion Artie, crossed the line. 'This is a difficult race. The first night makes or breaks it,' explained co-skipper Christian Ripard, a veteran of the race. 'We worked very hard that first night and got it right. Unfortunately we then got stuck in some big holes, which was very frustrating.' At Capo San Vito (the halfway mark) Artie failed to make the slight wind shift in t...

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