Sailing: Will the Med Max be the real launch for offshore racing in the Mediterranean ?

Les Ocean Fifty, des bateaux qui font aimer la course au large. Midi Libre – François Rivier

As it sets off on Sunday, September 29, from Port Camargue, the race could give new impetus to the discipline. 

He has been dreaming about it, imagining it, working on it for years, and next Sunday, this crazy idea of ​​organizing an offshore race on the Mediterranean starting from a port on the Languedoc coast will be a reality.
Kito de Pavant will give the start of the Med Max from Port Camargue to Morocco and Saïdia at noon. A culmination for him but also for all the people who fight to make races on “big” boats exist on the Big Blue. But also the starting point of a larger program.

“We have some projects”, the organizer does not hide. “We would like to develop here, in Occitanie, a tour of Oc on the model of the “Tourduf”, the tour of Finistère. There are interesting things to create."

A great playground

The Med Max must mark the revival of offshore racing in the Mediterranean. "It's a start for lots of things. There is a Mediterranean racing circuit on Class 40 which is interesting and accessible. When I say accessible, it's still too expensive…" The message that Kito de Pavant wants to convey is "that you don't need to live in Lorient or La Trinité-sur-Mer or Saint-Malo to do offshore racing. I really want to stress that. I was kind of the only one doing offshore racing being in the Mediterranean".

For him, it is possible to perform well in races around the world if you live in La Grande-Motte, Toulon, Marseille or Sète. “You don't need to go into exile to do offshore racing. We have a great playground, you can do lots of things.” He regrets that a Montpellier native like Achille Nebout was forced to go to Brittany to make his place in the industry.

The skipper who has always been based in Port Camargue therefore hopes that the start of this race “will create some vocations. I hope that there will be young people who will say to themselves that's great, why didn't we do that? I'm sure that there are plenty of young people who want that. When they come to the port, their eyes will shine and they will say to themselves that it's possible. And that there is no need to be Breton”.

What could be better than the Ocean Fifty, these 50-foot multihulls, to make future sailors dream? These boats that we were able to discover through a docu-series in several episodes on Canal + and which are dictated by sporting and technological performances on the other hand.

A Class 40 barycentre?

The Class 40s are also worth the trip and make you want to to set sail. For Anthony Streicher, whose boat is moored in La Grande-Motte, “The Med Max can help to energize the class in the Mediterranean. It can be one of the unifying moments and I hope that there will be a 2nd, a 3rd and a 4th edition.”

He and his co-skipper would like others to follow in their footsteps and come and settle in the Mediterranean. “It's a beautiful sea and we need to show it off more”, explains the owner of Ha Plus Pme – Phoenix. “There are also good skippers”, don't forget to mention François Verdier, referring to Mickaël Mergui, Laurent Camprubi, and Mathieu Claveau based on the Big Blue but also to Achille Nebout who left for Brittany. “The core of sailing is up there, so there is no choice.” Despite everything, they want to believe with Anthony Streicher that a future is possible in Occitania. “That's a bit of a bet. The challenge of creating a second barycentre in metropolitan France."

It is this common and shared desire that could allow offshore racing in the Mediterranean to take off.

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