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You need no boat and no sailing knowledge to watch this race leave. For one hour the fleet sails out of the Grand Harbour in seven groups, below Valletta's walls. Then it goes right round Sicily, and the first boats come back two to three days later.
Event guide, Malta. Meridian Dispatch.
The class order and the exact start plan for the year come with the notice of race, on the organiser's site.
Race day for the 48th edition is 16 October 2027, a Saturday, with the gun at 11:00 in the Grand Harbour, Valletta. Prize giving closes the programme at 12:00 on 23 October.
Slowest first and fastest last, in seven starts ten minutes apart from 11:00, so the biggest yachts of the day leave last. The fleet runs from about 9 metres to over 30 metres long.
Upper Barrakka Gardens, which gives the widest view, from the Valletta end of the start line. Fort St Angelo in Birgu holds the other end, and the bastions round the Grand Harbour give views both high up and at the water.
Upper Barrakka Gardens is a public garden, free to enter, and needs no ticket for the terrace. The Saluting Battery below it is ticketed, and so are the Heritage Malta forts.
Harbour access for spectator boats is restricted during the starts, so watch from land. A skipper planning to be afloat that morning should ask the race organiser first.
At the entrance to Marsamxett Harbour, 10 nautical miles after Comino, and not in the Grand Harbour. There is no set hour. The first arrivals fall two to three days after the Saturday start, and the rest keep coming for nearly a week.
It depends on the boat and the wind. The first boats home take two to three days, most of the boats are still racing four days after the start, and the last finishers can spend close to a week at sea.
A course of 606 nautical miles, sailed anticlockwise round Sicily. From Valletta the marks are Capo Passero at 55 miles, the Messina Strait at 153, Stromboli at 188, Favignana at 338, Pantelleria at 412, Lampedusa at 502 and Comino at 596, with the finish 10 miles further on at Marsamxett.
The monohull course record is 40 hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds, set by Comanche in 2021. The outright race record, multihulls included, is 33 hours, 29 minutes and 28 seconds, set by the MOD70 Argo in the same year.
The official race tracker opens on the day of the start and follows every boat through the unit it carries on board. The organiser streams the start live online.
The Three Cities ferry sails from Lascaris Wharf in the Grand Harbour to Inner Dockyard Creek in Cospicua. The Sliema ferry links The Strand with the Marsamxett landing in Valletta. Both keep summer hours to 31 October, Monday to Saturday, and Sunday hours should be checked at the wharf.
From the Sunday before the start, the yachts berth in marinas round Marsamxett Harbour and the Grand Harbour, at the Grand Hotel Excelsior and at the Royal Malta Yacht Club on the Ta' Xbiex seafront. The programme also holds a Coastal Race on Wednesday 13 October at 09:00, on one of four courses around Malta, Gozo, Comino or Filfla.
The fleet leaves in seven starts, ten minutes apart from 11:00. The slowest boats go first and the fastest last, so the hour builds towards the biggest yachts of the day. A cannon on the Upper Barrakka bastions marks each start.
The free public garden at the Valletta end of the start line, above the Saluting Battery. It gives the widest view of all seven starts.
The Barrakka Lift drops from the gardens to the ferry wharf, where the boats pass close. The ride is included with a Valletta ferry ticket from the same day.
From Lower Barrakka Gardens and the Siege Bell Memorial beside it, you watch each group clear the breakwaters for the open sea.
606 nautical miles, sailed anticlockwise. Scroll, or tap a mark, and the boat sails it.
The fleet crosses the line in the middle of the Grand Harbour and heads out past Fort St Elmo.
North-east across open water to the south-east corner of Sicily, the first turn.
Up the east coast, past Etna, and into the narrow strait between Sicily and the toe of Italy.
The yachts round this active volcano and turn west for the long run along the north coast.
The longest leg. The crews pass between Marettimo and Favignana, off Sicily's western tip, then turn south.
Open sea now, with the island left to port on the run south towards Africa.
The southernmost mark. The course turns north-east here for Malta.
Your signal on the tracker. A boat through the South Comino Channel has 10 miles to go: walk to the water.
The line is at the entrance to Marsamxett Harbour, on the other side of Valletta from the start.
Fri 15 to Wed 20 Oct: the starts and the first boats home, with Mdina and Birgu between.
The line runs across the middle of the Grand Harbour, from the Saluting Battery below Upper Barrakka to Fort St Angelo in Birgu.
The last group holds the biggest and fastest yachts of the day, so stay for the gun at 12:00.
The fleet is far from Malta now, so spend these days nearby.
Spend Sunday in Mdina. Buses leave the Valletta terminal for Rabat, and you walk through Howard Gardens to Mdina Gate.
On Monday morning, cross to Birgu. The Three Cities ferry leaves Lascaris Wharf and lands at Cospicua, a 10-minute walk from the Inquisitor's Palace.
The finish has no set hour, because the wind decides it. The first boats usually come in on the Monday or the Tuesday after the start, by day or after dark.
Start looking on Monday afternoon and keep Tuesday free. Go down to the water once the leaders are past Comino on the tracker.
Watch from the Marsamxett ferry landing in Valletta, or from the deck of the Sliema ferry, which crosses the same harbour.
The rest of the fleet keeps finishing through the week. The programme closes with the prize giving at noon on Saturday 23 October.
Valletta puts you on foot between the two harbours. Our pick is Iniala Valletta on St Barbara Bastion, where harbour-side rooms look across the Grand Harbour to Birgu, Senglea and Cospicua. Sliema, one ferry ride across Marsamxett Harbour, is the other base.
The city above the start line, and the guide to its streets and sights.
The town at the far end of the start line, a ferry ride across the harbour.
The seafront across Marsamxett Harbour, one ferry from Valletta.
The gun platform on the tier below Upper Barrakka Gardens.
The star-shaped fort at the harbour mouth, with a museum and bastions you can walk.
The official pages this guide was checked against.
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