The 47th Rolex Middle Sea Race starts from Grand Harbour at 11:00 on Saturday 17 October 2026, with the fleet sailing the 606-mile course around Sicily and back to Malta. For many of the boats, the finish line is also the end of the season.
The end of the season for a lot of boats
The Royal Malta Yacht Club’s offshore classic sends the fleet out of Grand Harbour, anticlockwise around Sicily via the Strait of Messina and Stromboli, past the Egadi Islands and Pantelleria and Lampedusa, and back to Malta. It is one of the best-known 600-mile races in the world, and after a week of hard offshore sailing, a lot of boats and crews are ready for a rest.
Some boats deliver straight home. Plenty stay on in Malta for the winter — afloat in Marsamxett, or lifted out at one of the yards — because the island is a natural place to winter in the middle of the Mediterranean. That’s when the post-race jobs start.
What a race does to a boat
Six hundred miles of offshore racing leaves a boat salty from masthead to bilge. Sails are wet and crusted, running rigging is stiff with salt, winches and clutches are gritty, and the interior is damp from a week of wet gear. If the boat is then left as it is for the winter, all of that sits and does its damage.
The jobs are the usual ones, done properly: a thorough freshwater washdown, sails off, dried and stored or sent to the loft, running rigging washed, winches serviced, the interior emptied and dried, and the bilge pumped and dried out.
Covering a race boat for winter
Race boats are often stripped down and light, with open cockpits, deck hardware everywhere and hatches that weren’t designed to stay dry for months. A full cover over the deck and cockpit keeps rain and dust off the deck gear and out of the hatches, with vents for the damp air coming up from below and a door if the crew need to get aboard during the winter.
If the boat is lifted out for winter work — antifouling, keel work, repairs — the cover can stop at the waterline so the yard and contractors can get at the hull while the deck stays protected.
