Organisers of the Rolex Middle Sea Race and the Royal Malta Yacht Club confirmed the start in a joint social media post, shared by Lovin Malta along with footage from the departure.
There is a plainness to the news that suits it. A race started; boats left; the course now does the talking. That matters because this event still carries a distinct sort of prestige for Malta: not the prestige of a speech or a slogan, but of geography. An offshore race like this depends on where the island sits and on the kind of course that position makes possible.
The appeal is not hard to see. The race starts and finishes in Malta, but its reputation rests on the wider Mediterranean test in between. The route around Sicily and nearby islands is part of what gives the event its weight on the international sailing calendar, and part of what keeps it from feeling like a harbour-side display staged only for cameras.
Lovin Malta’s excerpt describes the race as one of the Mediterranean’s most anticipated offshore challenges, and that sounds about right. “Challenge” is one of those sporting words that gets used too loosely, but here it is doing real work. The event is known for spectacular scenery and unpredictable conditions, which is another way of saying that beauty and difficulty are being sold together, as they often are in sailing.
For Malta, that combination is useful. The island gets presented not just as a backdrop but as the beginning and end of a serious course. For the moment, that is the story: the fleet is out, the race is underway, and Malta is once again hosting one of the fixtures it can still plausibly call international without forcing the point.
Sophia Borg 
Dua Mifsud 
Harvey Jr.