Alfa Romeo takes 74th and final win!

Fortunately it wasn't chaos on the boat. We had Magnus Woxen on the helm and we continued with only the jib on for two and half hours averaging 12 knots."

Earlier, Black Dragon had also experienced a full wipe-out as they tried to drop their 370sqm heavy spinnaker in a 39 knot gust.

In typically doldrums-like conditions the wind then dropped to just 8 knots. En route back towards Malta and the finish line the breeze picked up to 25-28 knots and Radich said they experienced near perfect blast reaching conditions, boat speed hovering around the 23 knot mark. For the Italian maxi Damiani Our Dream the conditions were no less extreme. “I started this regatta aged 35 and now I feel like I am 62. The lightning helped me with that," described tactician Vasco Vascotto of last night's incredible display of sheet lightning.

In the big conditions they broke the foreguy - holding the spinnaker pole away from the forestay - on three occasions. Damage to the Italian maxi occurred as they were approaching Lampedusa in marginal conditions.

"Whenever I said 'ready to drop' the wind went down," recounted Vascotto. "And after three hours of that, we had 55 knots and it was too late." They attempted to drop the mainsail and in the process created a 3m tear in the leach (the back of the sail) and another big T-shape rip in the body of the sail.

They spent five hours with the mainsail down below repairing it and were able to re-hoist it for the final hours of the race.

But despite all the dramas of the night, Alfa Romeo cruised across the finish line within Marsamxett Harbour at 10:01:49 local time, her mainsail's leech hanging off and three of its five battens broken.

She was followed by Black Dragon just half an hour later at 10:32:25 and Damiani Our Dream at 14:07:36. Elsewhere in the fleet eight boats retired having suffered damage in the windy conditions of the last 24 hours.

...continued