The first edition of the Cannes-Malta Race, starting from the capital of cinema on October 8, 2025

The result of a successful partnership last year between two prestigious sailing clubs – the Yacht Club de Cannes (1860), chaired by Jean-François Cutugno, and the Royal Malta Yacht Club (1835), chaired by Mark Napier – they have decided to join forces to launch the first edition of the Cannes-Malta Race, an offshore race in the Mediterranean, which will start in Cannes on October 8. Like the Fastnet, the Sydney-Hobart, the Paprec 600 Saint-Tropez, and the Middle Sea Race, among others, the course measures 600 miles, or 1,100 km.

 The event is open to ORC (9 to 15 meters) and IRC (15 to 25 meters) sailboats in five categories and on a time-compensated basis, as well as Class40 and IMOCA (Vendée Globe monohulls), which will race in real time. The course is as technical as it is enticing, and can be challenging if a strong mistral wind joins the party, given that the fleet will have to pass through the Strait of Bonifacio south of Corsica, leave Sardinia to port, then Sicily on the starboard side, with three gates – one at Bonifacio, one at Isola Marettimo, and finally one at Isola Egadi – before the final sprint to Valletta, the capital of the island of Malta.

 "This new event, which goes beyond the race itself, aims to forge and strengthen ties between Malta, Cannes, and the French Riviera through these two major clubs, and to encourage sailors to discover the charms of our island outside of the high season. We have the desire and ambition to create a wonderful event," confirms Claude Zammit-Trevisan, Director of Tourism for Malta in France.

 And for the crews competing in this first Cannes-Malta Race, it will also be an opportunity to continue on to the Rolex Middle Sea Race, the 46th of its kind, a 600-mile race also starting and finishing in Valletta, with a tour of Sicily via the famous Strait of Messina, a long leg with views of Mount Etna, which will start on October 18.

 Unanimously recognized, Jérôme Nutte of the Cannes Yacht Club, head of the race committee, who has also long been at the helm of the famous Régates Royales de Cannes and the sailing events at the Olympic Games, will be alongside Georges Korhel, the race director. "We have planned three gates to ‘monitor’ the boats. We have a team that works well together, and it should be a great race. The feedback I've had is that the sailors are very excited and eager, even if we're not expecting a record number of participants, because a first always has its share of unknowns..."

See you on October 8 in the Bay of Cannes for this new major event.