After an excellent Pantellaria to Lampedusa leg, Middle Sea Race defending champion Elusive 2 (Podesta family, Royal Malta YC) has just corrected into the overall lead, and up ahead the Volvo 70 I Love Poland (Konrad Lipski) has finally made the finish to take the monohull line honours, as Afloat reported here.
While Elusive 2 has always been in touch, and led on Corrected Time now and again, more recently the focus has been on boats around the 50 to 55ft mark as favourites to win in a demanding race in flukey winds, with some of the more austerely-provisioned now getting low on food.
But well-fed or not, for the last three turns of this 606-mile race - at Favignana, Pantelleria and Lampedusa - the top IRC placings have been shuffled between around eight boats, and at Lampedusa it was Elusive's turn to correct into 50 minutes ahead of the French-owned Ker 46 Tonnere de Glen, with another similarly similarly-sized boat, the Aquila 45 Katsu (once owned by Donegal-based Royal Ulster YC member Alan Hannon) in third, while the Marten 72 Aragon, with Crosshaven's Nin O'Leary in the afterguard, is staying in the picture at 8th.