Peter Harburg was presented with the silver trophy for the MMOC at the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda during the recent Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup.
Despite his team being new to the racing in Mediterranean, Peter Harburg’s Black Jack team arrived from Australia with their 100ft maxi this spring and on their first attempt secured victory in the International Maxi Association’s annual Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge (MMOC).
Black Jack joins a prestigious list of past winners including Rambler 88 (2015-16), Atalanta II (2017-18), Vera (2018-19) and Spirit of Lorina (2021-22).
The seven-event MMOC began in October 2022 with the Royal Malta Yacht Club’s Rolex Middle Sea Race. It resumed in 2023 with La Larga, the offshore race of the Real Club Nautico de Palma’s Palmavela season opener in the Balearics followed by the Regata dei Tre Golfi, the offshore component of the IMA’s Maxi European Championship, from Naples to Sorrento.
Freshly arrived from Australia, Black Jack joined the MMOC series for its fourth event, the 151 Miglia-Trofeo Cetilar from Livorno to Punta Ala via the Giraglia Rock, in which she won line honours.
She rounded the famous rock off northern Corsica for a second time soon after in June’s Rolex Giraglia race, again securing line honours but with perennial winner, the 100ft Magic Carpet Cubed, close behind, just over nine minutes astern of her.
Missing the breezy Aegean 600, Black Jack rounded out her MMOC campaign again winning line honours in August’s Palermo-Montecarlo.
The present crew of Black Jack is led by Mark Bradford, with an afterguard comprising tactician Adam Beashel and navigator Alex Nolan, sailing with a crew often including as many as 20 including ex-Team New Zealand/Alinghi legends Brad Butterworth, Dean Phipps and Simon Daubney plus numerous other world champions and Volvo Ocean Race sailors.
Next up for the Black Jack team is the Rolex Middle Sea Race starting on Saturday 21 October.
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