At 13:00 on Sunday 29th September, 9 Ocean Fifties and 16 Class40s set sail in the first edition of the Med Max a double-handed race between Port Camargue and Saïdia Resorts in Morocco. Tip & Shaft takes a look back at the genesis of this project initiated by Kito de Pavant.
The Med Max, which is due to return every four years, is the result of a long period of reflection for Kito de Pavant. “I’d had this project in mind for a long time,“ he confirms. “In particular, I had very fond memories of the Transmed organised 40 years ago. We have an ideal playing field for organising a quality event, both in terms of the water and the destinations, and I find it very simplistic that ocean racing is confined to the Atlantic coast, so the idea is to redress the balance a little.”
The winner of the Solitaire du Figaro 2002 continues: “The period was quickly determined. The only window of opportunity was the one close to the Vendée Globe, during which the other classes become spectators as there are no other races”. To organise this event, Kito de Pavant teamed up with his friend Christophe Carniel founder of Vogo, a sportech company based in Montpellier. It was Carniel who made the connection with Morocco.
“I meet a lot of sports authorities around the world,” says Christophe Carniel. “In Saïdia, I heard about a project to develop sports tourism and their search for an event that could help attract tourists to their seaside resort. So Kito and I were invited to talk to the Moroccan representatives.” Kito de Pavant confirms: “That was at the beginning of 2023, there was a second meeting a few weeks later, we slapped hands and it was off!”
“Morocco has never organised
a regatta of this magnitude”
Jalil Bennis, Managing Director of the Société de Développement de Saïdia, which is home to a large sports-related tourist complex, explains: “We were looking to host a major event to extend our tourist season into the middle and low seasons. The Med Max is a great opportunity to showcase our resort, which was inaugurated in 2009 and boasts two golf courses, hotels and a marina (850 moorings). Morocco has never before organised a regatta on this scale, so we’re pioneers in the field and we plan to set up an association and develop a sailing school after the event.”
Once this partnership was in place, all that remained was to “convince the Occitanie region, the Gard département and the town of Grau-du-Roi (where Port Camargue is located) to support us”, Kito de Pavant continues. What about the classes invited? “For the first edition, we wanted to keep things super simple, with just two classes so there wouldn’t be too much competition,” stresses Kito de Pavant. “And the Class40s and the Ocean Fifty have a fairly similar philosophy.” This is confirmed by Thibaut Vauchel-Camus, president of the Ocean Fifty class: “These are two fairly friendly classes, so this link makes sense, especially as so many of us have been through Class40.”
The skipper who will be lining up at the start with Yann Eliès on Solidaires en Peloton is delighted to see the arrival of the Med Max, which “is taking us to places we haven’t been before, it’s really exciting, and we like the duo format as it gives us the opportunity to try out a double-handed configuration without a router. Finally, it’s an attractive PR zone”.
No registration fee
While, on paper, both classes welcomed this new project, a number of adjustments still had to be made. At the heart of the discussions were the dates, with which “Kito was able to juggle and adapt, so that we would have time to return from the Route des Terre-Neuvas and then race in Act 5 of the Ocean Fifty Series in Sainte-Maxime, from 16 to 20 October”, emphasises Thibaut Vauchel-Camus.
For the Class40s, the schedule was also tight, as “we didn’t want this to destabilise the Normandy Channel Race, which takes place in September, while at the same time giving skippers the opportunity to take part in the Middle Sea Race, which is open to Class40s (start 19 October)“, explains Cédric de Kervenoaël, president of the class, who is also delighted to see the arrival of a new race. “The Mediterranean needed a good event and I’m in favour of developing races in this sector. In fact, the 2025 season should start here in April, as we have plans to duplicate the Normandy Channel Race format from the port of Toulon.”
Another point of negotiation with the classes is the length of the course. “Initially, we had a more ambitious project which involved rounding some mythical islands, Ithaca for the Class40s (2,000 miles) and Rhodes for the Ocean Fifty (2,500 miles),” explains Kito de Pavant. “In the end we shortened it (1,080 miles and 1,500 miles) to keep as many people as possible happy.” Thibaut Vauchel Camus adds, “We preferred to start with a moderate experience before moving on to a longer, more ambitious course.” “This involved the skippers for too long, and I think that a longer course would have limited the number of participants,” confirms Cédric de Kervenoaël.
What’s special about the Med Max is that “the racers are invited, there are no entry fees“, stresses Kito de Pavant, who points to “their crazy inflation”. As for the budget, “it’s close to a million euros, which is not enough,” he adds, without specifying the amounts invested by each of the partners. “We need 500,000 more. But we need this first edition to be credible.”
Photo: Vincent Olivaud
