Noel Grech started sailing as a teenager with time on his hands. “I was fascinated by a Hobie, a type of catamaran, which was moored at Marsalforn, and a similar one I saw in Marfa,” Grech reminisces. “It looked elegant and fast,” he grins, so he contacted the owner of the boat, Joe Sultana, at Ta Kartell in Marsalforn to see if Sultana might teach him to sail. “It was a very steep learning curve. I spent lots of time on sailing dinghies and windsurfers, and it wasn’t long before the owners of bigger boats who were looking for new crew members noticed me whipping back and forth across the bay. As a result in my thirties, I took part in the Middle Sea Race three times as part of a Maltese crew.”
Although Grech chose to primarily focus on windsurfing, in which he was by then competing internationally, he “always dreamt of competing in the Middle Sea Race on his own fully-crewed Gozo boat.”
Fast forward thirty years, and Grech found himself retired, and in a position to buy a sailing yacht: in early 2023 he became the proud owner of ‘Gozo Dream’, a 26 year old First 40.7.
“I roped in former and current members of Gozo Sailing Club, and we competed in the Rolex Middlesea Race later that year – the first time it included a Gozo team – and again in October 2024.”
“Those races were incredible experiences but we didn’t want to stop there! We were keen to extend the opportunity to younger sailors, and to take on international challenges.”
And Gozo Dream has done just that. Last month Grech and his crew returned from a remarkable success in a major international competition, the Aegean 600, a six hundred mile course that begins at the Temple of Poseidon near Athens and circumnavigates 20 Greek islands.
It was testament to their preparation, skill, grit and determination.
“It’s an exceptionally gruelling race because of the topography and the extreme and erratic weather conditions in the Aegean. The variability of the wind is legendary,” Grech explains. “In 24 hours you can find yourself both in a howling gale with giant swell and then drifting for hours on end in a depression without a breath of wind, whilst your competitors, only a kilometre away are sailing merrily by.”
The crew, however, had a solid strategy, and on the fifth and final day pushed up the ranking to be placed third in their category, ahead of a number of professional crews: several of them used Gozo Dream as a ‘reference boat’, a boat that leads the way for other competitors. It was testament to their preparation, skill, grit and determination.
“We were congratulated on the line we took and, so we were told, you couldn’t tell us apart from the local boats other than the Visit Gozo sails! We had to explain where Gozo was, and people couldn’t believe that a bunch of amateurs from an island with a population of only 30,000 people had produced such an incredible result.”
“We had to explain where Gozo was, and people couldn’t believe that a bunch of amateurs from an island with a population of only 30,000 people had produced such an incredible result.”
“We were delighted: before the race, no one would have bet a cent on us,” chuckles Grech. He describes how he’d had a stroke of luck in the days before a race when at the local windsurfing club he met, by chance, a Greek windsurfer called Kristos from a family of fishermen. Kristos tipped him off about the quirks of the local waters and the hurdles on the route, and even suggested which two Greek boats Gozo Dream should use as their own reference boats.
In addition to Grech, as skipper, the crew included a winning mix of enthusiasm and experience.
The youngest, Paolo Farrgugia, whom the core of the crew met at a racing event in Sicily last year is only 17, and two brothers from Kerċem, Matthew and Jean-Pierre Grech, are 19 and 22. “They were already keen sailors but have learnt fast over the last two years,” says Noel. “And we had a third sailor from Kerċem, Mark Muscat, who has a real natural aptitude for sail trim.”
His co-skippers were James Pace, who grew into sailing over the years alongside Grech, and Claudio Bugeja, the only semi-professional sailor in the line-up. Bugeja had just taken part in FASTNET, one of the world’s most gruelling sailing races, and runs the Jarhead Young Sailors Foundation training programme for wannabe sailors with special needs and from disadvantaged backgrounds.
“We also welcomed Philip Farchy to the crew about 18 months ago. He had relocated to Gozo and came along to a Gozo Sailing Club open day: joining the crew has been a ‘Masters’ degree for him!” adds Grech. “He’s an excellent all-rounder, and the only one of the crew who travelled to and from the Aegean race on Gozo Dream. (We had different crews to take the boat to Greece and back again.)”
And the person who made the biggest difference?
“Of course, everyone contributed equally, but Christopher Tabone took charge organising the lower deck,” smiles Grech. “It’s no luxury cruise! As you can imagine, with nine people sharing such a confined space, there are damp clothes and shoes everywhere, and Chris kept everything in order. It was revolutionary!”
What’s next?
On October 12, Gozo Dream will be competing in the Barcolana, a historic international sailing regatta in the Gulf of Trieste off the coast of Northern Italy. The largest race in the world, with more than 2000 boats taking part, it’s a short fast race, Grech explains, where speed and strategy will be all important as the crew aim to break out from the pack.
“We will be the first Maltese boat ever to do it.”
Grech would like to thank the sponsors of Gozo Dream without whom the crew would not have had the opportunity to compete in these events. These are Visit Gozo, the Minister of Gozo and Planning, Country Terrace, Melita Commericial Divers at Mġarr Marina; Provicario guest house in Victoria; and Mario Debono who provided food for the crew and some equipment.
