For the ones who don't know it, the Middle Sea Race is the most important of all Med races, an IRC race that started more than 50 years ago and that on this edition counted well over 100 entries, and boats like Comanche, Rambler, the new Swan 125ft racer and 3 trimarans MOD 70.
This edition was great, with varied and strong winds, and, when all the yachts that had potentially the possibility of winning the race had arrived, the victory was provisorily attributed to Sunrise, a relatively small JPK 11.80, that had made a fantastic race and an incredible final part.
Mysteriously, several hours after the victory be provisionally attributed to the JPK 11.80, they changed the classification and the victory was now attributed to Comanche, the maxi yacht that now is owned by the Australian millionaire Jim Cooney.
For several days no explanation for this change was given by the organization, till they come out with an unbelievable one: Sunrise, the JPK 11.89 would have in fact won the race if they had not shortened it to an alternative finish line, one that was never used in the 53 years of this race, not even in editions with far worse weather conditions.
To make all this even more strange, the finish line was changed after almost all racers have finished the race, and only 19 yachts finished the race on the alternative finish line (that shortened the race) and probably all, or almost all would not have any problem in finishing the race because the conditions were disagreeable (wind on the nose) but far from being dangerous or impossible.
What really surprises me is that this very strange abnormal "situation" did not deserve any special comment from the nautical press, as if this was all normal, as well as an official explanation is given only 3 days after they have changed the leader from Sunrise (JPK 11.80) to Comanche.
They said on 20/09: "Despite a tricky final few miles to and through the South Comino Channel, the JPK 1180 has squeezed into the overall lead of the 2021 Rolex Middle Sea Race and is on the cusp of a remarkable double. Needing to finish by 1338 CEST on Tuesday to beat Comanche, nearly three times her waterline length and rating almost twice as high, the British yacht passed Race Control at Tigné Point at 1323 CEST, to grab a 16-minute lead in the overall standings."
And 3 days later: The 30.48m/100ft Maxi Comanche (CAY) has been confirmed as the overall winner of the 42nd Rolex Middle Sea Race....Comanche finished the race on the morning of Monday 25 October and was in pole position until the arrival of the JPK 1180 Sunrise on the afternoon of Tuesday 26 October. The race narrative then altered in the early hours of Wednesday 27 October, with some 23 boats still on the racecourse. A serious and adverse change to the weather forecast led the Royal Malta Yacht Club Race Committee to invoke the alternative finish line, as per the sailing instructions.
....“ SI 11.3 enables the Race Committee to use an alternative finish line in the South Comino Channel if severe weather conditions make it unsafe to enter Marsamxett Harbour. The rule was written specifically in anticipation of the forecast severe north-easterly, which would have made Marsamxett Harbour extremely dangerous to enter. For that reason, we made the call, which was announced to all competitors whether finished or racing, in accordance with rules.”
According to available records, this is the first time in the 53-year history of the Rolex Middle Sea Race that the alternative finish line has had to be used. 19 yachts have been able to finish the race using this line. As a consequence of the decision, all yachts taking part have been scored for the purposes of time correction using the alternative finish line. Competing in IRC Class One, Comanche’s corrected time to the alternative finish line of three days six hours 30 minutes and 20 seconds has proved just over an hour faster than second-placed Sunrise (IRC Class Five).....
You can see here on the race tracker the conditions that supported the shortening of the race for safety reasons, that "north-easterly, which would have made Marsamxett Harbour extremely dangerous to enter", mostly 25kt on the nose, and you can see that ALL YACHTS, except one, entered the Marsamxett harbour (after having finished the race). They all passed Comino Channel, did not enter Gozo port (that is on the Channel), and all entered Marsamxett harbour.
25kt de vent dangereux??????????????????? Triste.
ReplyDeleteWell...we all know the two golden rules of yacht racing:
ReplyDelete1. The fastest boat wins and the richest guy owns the fastest boat
2. The richest guy makes the rules
Alex
Money talks, as always.
ReplyDeleteVery weird situation. Everyone knows that Sunrise won the race and did the double. Congratulations to them.
ReplyDeleteFarevela was the only sail magazine that questioned this situation. Cheers to them! They published two articles about this, one before this post and another after, good articles that deserve to be read. They are in Italian but it is easy to use the google translator (you have to copy past the links):
ReplyDeletehttps://farevela.net/2021/10/29/rolex-middle-sea-race-confermata-la-vittoria-overall-a-comanche-una-decisione-che-fa-discutere/
https://farevela.net/2021/11/01/rolex-middle-sea-race-un-esito-su-cui-riflettere-laltura-non-puo-essere-solo-maxi/
It seems it is not yet finished. Sunrise crew appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The statement deserves to be read in full, it brings more details to this dark affair: https://sunrise-racing.com/rmsr2021.html#statement
ReplyDeleteJust a minor correction/side note: Cooney sold Comanche after beating Wild Oats on the 2019 Sydney Hobart to a Russian consortium - Sergey Dzhienbaev, the President of the Russian Yachting Federation is the principal; the main sponsor is a large corporation called Transmashholding which has a couple of billionaire owners - I suspect that's where the actual ownership resides too.
ReplyDeleteAs for the topic, it's a messed up situation. I have a hard time criticizing the RC for the decision to change the course even if the conditions didn't deteriorate as much as they feared - who wants to be a member of the RC that was cavalier about weather-related advice and then something tragic happens? In this time and era? You always have to act in the interests of safety.
As for the International Jury decision to not give Sunrise redress I think it's unfair from a moral and racing/sportif point of view, but likely the correct one per the sailing instructions (at least as I read them as well).
Of course, to complicate matters further, no boat actually raced the alternative course, round Valletta fairway buoy, so if one goes by the letter of the rules, as the IJ and RC did, I suppose all boats should be disqualified? Some good old "desenrascanço" and just declaring two overall winners and ask Rolex for a bit more cash might have made sense here.
Anyway, it does feel unfair for Sunrise's crew - they didn't write the SIs and were victims of badly written rules. Regardless, it'll never stop being mind boggling how fast these JPKs are, especially in short-handed categories. Jacques Valer and JPK are geniuses.