Photos: Rolex / Kurt Arrigo ©Kevin Rio / Team Django 2026,
It began with a mast damaged in transit, and ended with a trophy lifted beside the harbour where it all started.
Valletta, Malta, 24 October 2026. Django 7X’s win was already a fight before the start. The offshore mast built for the Rolex Middle Sea Race was damaged in transport from New Zealand, and the shore team had very little time to modify and reinforce the inshore mast. Team manager Guillermo Parada gives them “huge credit” for the competitive boat they delivered.
Once racing began, Giovanni Lombardi Stronati’s wallyrocket 71 and defending champion Balthasar stayed within sight of each other for much of the 606 miles. Django 7X led by seven minutes on corrected time at Capo Passero and by 19 at Messina. Past Stromboli the wind softened, Balthasar closed in, and after more than 30 hours the gap was 3 minutes 36 seconds.
Off Trapani, the wind shifted while Matteo Ramian was at the masthead changing halyards. Django 7X changed sails at once, with Balthasar just 100 metres away doing the same. Michele Ivaldi, sailing his fourth Middle Sea Race, called it a turning point.
From Favignana the breeze built. The lead grew to about half an hour at Pantelleria and almost an hour at Lampedusa. Balthasar’s tactician Bouwe Bekking acknowledged that once the wind picked up and the reach began, Django 7X was simply faster.
The last 90 miles to Malta were upwind in steep seas of two to three metres, with the crew balancing speed against the risk of breakage. Django 7X crossed the line at 21:02 CEST on 19 October, 39 minutes ahead of Balthasar on elapsed time. On 21 October the Royal Malta Yacht Club confirmed that no remaining yacht could beat its corrected time.
On 24 October, the final prize-giving took place in the 16th-century Sacra Infermeria, overlooking Grand Harbour, where the race had begun. Django 7X collected the Rolex Middle Sea Race Trophy as overall IRC winner. For Parada, it was personal: he first won the race in 1996 aboard Alexia, and has now won it again thirty years later.
Team Django’s message afterwards: “Beyond proud, happy, and honored to lift this trophy with the incredible team that made it happen.” It thanked Balthasar “for the challenge within the challenge” and signed off with Ad maiora, “to greater things.”
