At 1600 CEST on Wednesday, 26 October, the winner of the 43rd edition of the Rolex Middle Sea Race was announced as Eric de Turckheim's French NMYD 54 Teasing Machine.

The Royal Malta Yacht Club has confirmed that none of the remaining yachts still racing is able to better Teasing Machine's corrected time under IRC.

"It is a huge emotion winning the Rolex Middle Sea Race," said de Turckheim. "It is our first 600 (nm) race overall, after making several podiums around the world. On top of that, it is certainly our favourite 600nm race because of the complexity of the course, the complexity of the winds."

"I have a passion for the 600nm races," he continued. "It's like running a marathon. It's a mixture of being competitive 24 hours after 24 hours, and having the resistance and the teamwork. It was our seventh race and experience counts a lot."

Teasing Machine Crew: Eric de Turckheim, Laurent Pages, Christian Ponthieu, Quentin Le Nabour, Tony Brochet, Gabriele Olivo, Betrand Castelnerac, Paco Lepoutre, Aleandre Degrival, Jerome Teillet, Quentin Bouchacourt

The Royal Ocean Racing Club Vice Commodore, Eric de Turckheim is a force to be recokoned with in any offshore race. Teasing Machine's record at the Rolex Middle Sea Race was already exceptional before this overall win. A class winner and third overall in 2017, on the NMYD 54's debut, was followed up with second in class in 2019, third in class in 2020, and second in class in 2021. Teasing Machine is the fourth French yacht to have won the Rolex Middle Sea Race following in the footsteps of Antares (1981), Spirit of Ad Hoc (2008) and Courrier Recommandé (2018).