Team Prospector Readies for The Rolex Middle Sea Race

The Prospector crew has gathered once again, this time in Malta, for the Rolex Middle Sea Race which starts on Saturday, October 17th. Prospector has been in Malta since early September after a 12 day delivery from Portsmouth after the Fastnet Race, or the Slownet Race as the Prospector crowd now calls it.

The Rolex Middle Sea Race is a 608 mile classic that starts in Malta and goes counter clockwise around Sicily and finishes back in Malta. The start is in the historic old harbor of Valletta, between the ramparts of the Saluting Battery and Fort St. Angelo. After the harbor start, the course turns to port (left) and heads northeast to Sicily. Leaving Sicily to port (at this point lets just say that Sicily will always be to the port/left) the course heads north passing through the Straits of Messina, then passing the (active!) volcanic island of Stromboli. At Stromboli the course turns left to the west past the Aeolian Islands to the Egadi Islands including Levenzo and Favignana on Sicily’s northwest corner. From there the course makes a sharp left to a southerly heading down the strait between Sicily and Tunisia, leaving the Africa to starboard – the right this time - and the islands of Pantelleria and Lampedusa to port. At Lampedusa the fleet goes northeast back towards Malta, through the South Comino Channel (with Malta to starboard/right and Comino to port/left) before making a final turn toward the finish in the Marsamxett Harbor.

The weather for the race will be dominated by the varied geography and topography that surrounds the course; on a large scale by Europe and Africa, and on a smaller scale by Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and the Italian Peninsula. Unlike the Transatlantic which was pretty much a straight shot with a few wiggles, this course has a lot of corners and frequent changes in wind and weather. The crew’s gonna be busy with a lots of sail changes, probably using every single sail on board – and that’s a lot of sails!

Based on the present forecast, we should (hopefully) finish in three to four days.

There’s a lot of information, some cool videos and a race tracker on the race website:

www.rolexmiddlesearace.com

or on our website, www.prospectorsailing.com at:

http://www.prospectorsailing.com/racetracking/

or on the Yellowbrick website at:

http://yb.tl/rmsr2015

Yellowbrick tracking is also available on the race website, or through the Yellowbrick app on iPhones, iPads or Android devices:

http://www.rolexmiddlesearace.com/tracker/ - pt

We will, as usual, post updates on our blog at:

http://www.prospectorsailing.com/latestnews

And photos on: