Josef Schultheis’s Xp44 “Xp-act” has been a regular and successful contender in the last 3 years of this race, with a class win in 2012 and a 3rd in 2013. Josef’s great leadership skills assembled a talented crew which included X-yachts dealer Timmy Camilleri (4x winner MSR), X-yachts speed guru Jochem Visser and Barry Hurley, a keen two handed sailor, amongst a dedicated and strong international crew!
The race started with the usual light SE conditions, you normally expect. After the passage through the Messina straight and the spectacular Volcanic Island of Stromboli the competitor’s patience were tested with very light winds and slow progress toward the western end of Sicily…….calm before the storm??! !
Jochem Visser: “We already knew that the Southern remains of Hurricane Gonzalo, which effected Northern Europe, was looming around the corner. Due to the moist conditions in the Med coupled with the warm waters this generates the typical N-Westerly Mistral conditions. Originally it looked like we would be able to outrun most of the wind forecasted but as progress was slower than predicted towards the western tip of Sicily we knew we were in for a bit of hardship on the latter part of the race. The stretch from Sicily to Pantellaria, Lampedusa and Malta are notoriously unprotected when the Mistral conditions set in.”
As the wind started to increase it quickly took its toll on the 129 strong fleet of competitors. Jochem:“It’s actually quite funny to see what happened when the winds reached over 35-40 Kts when you replay the tracker. It looks like a swarm of flies escaping a fire”
The fleet was quickly reduced and only 49 boats managed to reach the finish!!!
Skipper Josef and his crew did incredibly well it these testing conditions and managed to gain place after place by relentlessly pushing the Xp44 in winds that topped at 50 Kts! Jochem: “I must give great credit to the design and robustness of the boat. We really pushed her in some of the biggest waves and breezes I’ve seen in my career. It’s comfortable to know that the gear and boat you are using is not going to let you down. We didn’t have a single gear failure which caused so many others to retire.” Although Jochem and the rest of the crew all agreed that 22.9 knots of boat speed, a top speed they reached when barreling down one of the big waves, is definitely the upper limit of Danish quality and design!!
The crew efforts were well worth it with a win their class and a 2nd overall in this prestigious event. Josef Schultheis made his children, keen and successful Opi sailors, very proud.
For Jochem there is still some unfinished business……….as a navigator he has acquired an impressive array of overall wins in the Fastnet Race, Sydney Hobart, Newport Bermuda, Round Britain & Ireland………but the Middle Sea Race will have to wait for another year. As he remarked with a sigh “……who wants to be 2nd!”
Full results click here.
