Sailing-Scallywag 100 first over line in Middle Sea Race
:Hong Kong tycoon Lee Seng Huang's yacht Scallywag 100 crossed the finish line of the 2024 Rolex Middle Sea Race on Tuesday to become the first monohull vessel to complete the challenging course.
The supermaxi finished the 606-nautical-mile offshore race, which starts and finishes in Valletta, Malta, in two days, 21 hours, 33 minutes and 29 seconds to claim Monohull Line Honours - a prize awarded to the fastest monohull to cross the finish line, irrespective of its handicap rating or "corrected time".
"That’s one the toughest races I’ve done in a 100 footer," Scallywag's Australian skipper David Witt said after docking in Marsamxett Harbour, home to the Royal Malta Yacht Club.
"We had 40-knot rain squalls, trying to keep the boat in one piece and not tip it over. Ninety-degree wind shifts and glass outs. More sail changes than anyone else and the boys never made a mistake.”
While securing Line Honours is a significant achievement, it does not guarantee overall victory. The overall winner of the Middle Sea Race will be determined based on corrected time, which factors in a yacht’s handicap, allowing smaller or slower boats to compete fairly with larger, faster vessels.
The race, known for its challenging course around Sicily, attracts a global fleet and is considered one of the premier offshore regattas, alongside the Fastnet and Sydney Hobart Yacht Races.
Scallywag is a supermaxi, or high-performance racing yacht typically measuring 100 feet or more.
The yacht had been among the favourites to finish first in the monohull class, contending with variable Mediterranean weather conditions and strong competition from other top-tier entries.
Second over the line was Black Jack 100, some 18 minutes behind, after the two boats had been locked together for much of the race.
Key for Scallywag's triumph had been a crucial call by navigator Juan Vila, skipper Witt said.
"Plenty could have lost us the race but the critical point was rounding Lampedusa. I thought we were going to take a tack but Juan pointed to a cloud and said: ‘We are going over to it’.
"He said: ‘We are going into the cloud, it will look like it is terrible but we will come out on the other tack, we’ll be 30 degrees higher, and we will have a shot’. When Juan Vila says something like that, you do what he says.”
Spanish former round the world race winner Vila said the pivotal call had been a throw of the dice.
"We constantly had to figure out what the wind was going to do next. It was a very intense race. The last opportunity at Lampedusa to split against Black Jack was one of the biggest moments. We had to try our luck, and it worked out well for us.”
First held in 1968, the Middle Sea Race was founded by members of the Royal Malta Yacht Club and the Royal Ocean Racing Club. Its circular course starts and finishes in Malta and passes two active volcanoes - Mount Etna and Stromboli.
Yachts will continue finishing over the next 24 hours and the leaderboard will take shape according to the handicap system.
