While it was the Chris Sherlock skippered Leopard 3 that reached Marsamxett Harbour first, Bullitt at least has the consolation of winning IRC 1 on time correction.
Andrea Recordati’s Bullitt arrived 1 hour 49 minutes later, second on the water, but vitally leading IRC One by almost 2 hours on corrected time.
Back out on the course, the battle is still raging. All other class prizes are still up for grabs, and most importantly the overall prize has yet to be decided.
Several maxis suffered gear failure during the race included Guido Paolo Gamucci’s canting keel Mylius 60 Cippa Lippa X and Hungarian Márton Józsa’s DSS-equipped 60 footer Wild Joe, both of which broke running backstays, just before and just after Stromboli respectively.
However by far the worst incident was the dismasting of Lucky, a boat which knows the course very well having previously been George David’s serial line honours winner Rambler 88.
At 07:00 Monday, while having just passed the Egadi islands off west Sicily, Lucky’s mast broke a few metres above her first spreaders. No one was hurt and they have motored back to Malta.
Third to finish was Roy P Disney’s heavily turboed former Telefonica VO70 . . .
Compared to an in-class VO70, Pyewacket has deeper draft (5.5m), 1 tonne lighter bulb, has water ballast to make up for her ‘lack of stack’, plus powered winches, taller rig, 2m longer boom, longer J measurement and longer bowsprit.
Despite having a deeper keel, huge rig and sail plan (reefed, Pyewacket 70 has the same sail area as a regular VO70), Isler still felt that on the bumpy first night their round the world race boat was the best suited to the brutal conditions.
