Rolex / Kurt Arrigo
RMYC / Andrea Azzopardi
Black Jack 100 returns to the Rolex Middle Sea Race as firm favourite to defend her Monohull Line Honours title. This year, her skipper says, the target is wider.
“This year we are racing in a different way,” says Tristan Le Brun, who skippers Remon Vos’ Reichel/Pugh design. “We have set up the boat differently to have a little crack at corrected time.”
The 47th edition starts from Malta’s Grand Harbour on Saturday 17 October, sending an international fleet on a 606-nautical-mile course around Sicily, past the Strait of Messina and Stromboli to Favignana, Pantelleria and Lampedusa, before finishing at the Royal Malta Yacht Club.
Black Jack 100 completed the 2025 race in 65 hours, 44 minutes and 7 seconds. Previously racing as Esimit Europa 2, the yacht took line honours in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014, after an earlier victory in 2006 as Alfa Romeo II. Her fastest Rolex Middle Sea Race came in 2010, in 54 hours, 52 minutes and 32 seconds. A regular programme of modifications has since transformed the 100-footer.
“The changes have been quite significant,” Le Brun explains. “The hull design, increased ballast, longer keel fin, lighter rig, different sail configurations and a longer bowsprit. A lot has changed.” Since 2025 the boat has received a new sail wardrobe and modifications aimed at IRC corrected-time performance.
The monohull benchmark remains Comanche’s 2021 course record of 40 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, which requires an average of more than 15 knots over the shortest course distance. “We would need the same conditions as Comanche,” says Le Brun. The current forecast suggests a record-breaking passage is unlikely.
Seven former round-the-world racing yachts will try to deny Black Jack. Johnny Vincent’s Volvo Open 70 Pace won both Monohull Line Honours and IRC Overall in the 2026 RORC Round Britain and Ireland Race, including a 486-nautical-mile day. The Dutch Volvo Ocean 65 JAJO finished second overall under IRC in the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race and won IRC Super Zero in 2025. They are joined by the Volvo Open 70s Dinzer Doo, Ocean Breeze and Il Mostro, and the Volvo Ocean 65s Sisi and Wind Whisper.
“Pace can be extremely fast at reaching angles in more than 20 knots of wind. They can almost stick with us,” Le Brun says. “As soon as there is less than 15 knots, the bigger sail area and longer waterline of the 100-footer make a difference.” A major wind transition, he adds, could let the chasing fleet close the gap, a scenario that contributed to Black Jack’s narrow defeat by Scallywag 100 in 2024.
Two further boats could threaten in lighter upwind conditions: Filip Balcaen’s Mills 72 Balthasar, the defending IRC Overall champion, and Giovanni Lombardi Stronati’s Wallyrocket 71 Django 7X, the 2025 Rolex IMA Maxi Grand Prix World Champion, making her debut in the race.
Four-time overall winner Christian Ripard prepares for a record 36th participation aboard Lee Satariano’s HH42 Artie III. “You have to be prepared for everything,” he says. “Right now, the forecast is predominantly light winds, but thunderstorms could completely change that picture. Every 30 to 50 miles you can find yourself in different conditions, needing different sails.”
The Race Management Team of Martin Azzopardi, Chris Jackson and Nigel Biggs expects a fairly light downwind start, with the breeze shifting right and easing through Saturday into Sunday morning, and possible holes in the wind overnight on the way to the Strait of Messina.
Four multihulls will compete. Cesare Dania’s Kinetic 54 Garbina J, sailed by Alfredo Mecozzi, is the highest rated under MOCRA, facing the ORC 50 Calamity, sailed by Kimmo Nordström with Ryan Breymaier aboard, and the Outremer 5X Luke Seawalker, sailed by Łukasz Komierowski with Jens Lindner in the crew. Turbolenta, with the lowest MOCRA rating, could contend for the overall multihull win on corrected time.
Five Class40s from France, Czechia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Austria will race for first across the line. Among them is Optimus Prime, owned by former Olympic skiing star Ivica Kostelić and skippered by Matic Vrečko, which took line honours in the Cannes-Malta Race earlier this month.
Before the main event, the Yachting Malta Coastal Race on Wednesday 14 October has drawn 45 entries for a course of about 30 nautical miles.
The Rolex Middle Sea Race is organised by the Royal Malta Yacht Club, with Rolex as title sponsor since 2002. Support comes from Yachting Malta, Transport Malta, the Malta Tourism Authority and the Armed Forces of Malta, with the Italian Military Mission assisting race coordination in Italian waters.
