ORIS Alongi Competition
04 July 2010

On the 29th June, the Malta Fishing Forum successfully conducted its 2nd offshore Alongi boat fishing competition with a total participation of 54 boats from around Malta and Gozo. This competition had several unique aspects: the largest number of vessels ever taking part in a local offshore fishing competition, five inspection points around Malta and Gozo, three departure points, open to non members or members of other clubs, a floating finish point on the West Coast, filmed from the sea and the air, a mandatory safety briefing in advance and some of the best prizes ever offered to date in a fishing competition.

This year's main event sponsor was ORIS Swiss Watches represented locally by Jos. Debono Jewellers who sponsored the first prize; a €1900 ORIS 'Der Meistertaucher' Swiss watch, in addition to sponsoring all the trophies for the teams that placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd including the trophy for the biggest fish caught on the day. ORIS further enhanced this competition by providing ORIS T-Shirts, flags and caps for all participating boats and crew free of charge.

The main sponsor also provided a dedicated 27 foot support vessel ‘ORIS 1' along with judges from Jos. Debono Jewellers. ‘ORIS 1' was out on the water from 05:30 as a safety and support vessel and then proceeded to the floating weigh-in point just off the coast of Għar Lapsi as the official weigh-in vessel.

A mandatory registration and safety briefing was held one week prior to the competition whereby all skippers were required to attend in order to register their vessels and crew, and participate in the safety briefing and review of the competition rules. It also provided an opportunity for skippers to raise any questions prior to the competition, and ensure that they were fully briefed on the competition programme.

The competition started at 02:00 at the Msida Marina where the competition officials inspected each participating boat to ensure compliance with the rules. Following inspection vessels were released in order to make their way slowly to the southern start point outside of the Malta Freeport. Inspections were also conducted at Birzebbugia Jetty, Marfa, Marsamxett and Gnejna, allowing a total of three dedicated start locations to cater for vessels from the West, North and South of Malta.

The forty vessels leaving from the Birzebbugia started the competition at 04:30 and it was a spectacular site to see all the navigation lights moving across the water heading south towards the fishing grounds on the West Coast. Vessels from Marfa also left at the same time, whist those from Gnejna left at 05:00.

Competition sponsor RLR Yachting provided the organisers with an 8.5 meter Zodiac RIB complete with skipper and crew, that was used as a second safety and support vessel ‘ORIS 2' to patrol the West coast and aid with logistical aspects out on the water. The Competition Director aboard ‘ORIS 2' together with ‘ORIS 1' ensured that the event ran as scheduled, and no incidents were reported.

The event was filmed by ‘Caf Caf' who spent the day on the support vessel ‘Seafox' that was out with its own non competing fishing team and we are told managed to obtain some outstanding footage from its multiple hook-ups during the day. The ‘Seafox' later joined the ORIS support vessels at the weigh-in and we would like to thank owner and skipper, Mr. Colin Borg Cardona for the fantastic support he provided.

‘ORIS 1' accommodated its first competitor at 12:00 and reports had already been received over the VHF concerning the difficult fishing conditions being encountered on the day. The weather held up for most of the competition blowing around 7-9 knots and conditions across the water were favourable. With the recent predominantly mild temperatures, the sea temperature was only 21 degrees and this made it especially difficult to raise the fish up to the surface, resulting in lower than normal catches. A total of 15 boats made it to the finish point on time, with several boats retiring earlier on in the day due to a lack of activity in their area.

At 12:15 our ‘Tecnam' support aircraft owned and provided by sponsor European Pilot Academy Malta, arrived on station carrying the Caf Caf cameraman and was able to obtain some unique footage of the floating weigh-in point and the oncoming vessels passing by Filfla towards the finish point.

Towards the end of the event the wind picked up to over 11 knots making conditions difficult for the weigh-in boat, however together with the supporting RIB all fish were successfully and safely weighed-in. The challenging sea conditions made it wet and uncomfortable for the competitors returning back to the home port; however all vessels returned safely.

The competition was won by Mr. Fancis Mercieca and teammate Joe Carabott who landed a total of six fish weighing 48.2kgs; the biggest fish at 10.5kgs was won by Mr. Joseph Cassar.

The Malta Fishing Forum would like to thank Jos. Debono Jewellers and ORIS Swiss watches, RLR Yachting, the competition judges and officials, the support vessels, ‘Caf Caf', and all the other competition sponsors: European Pilot Academy Malta, Okuma High Performance Fishing Tackle, Suzuki Marine, Hi-Tec Marine and Predapro Lures.

For further details, please contact:
Malta Fishing Forum
3 Fairview Court, Vjal Il-Qalbiena Mostin,
Mosta MST 2388
Tel:
Fax:
Mob: 7777 3474
Email: admin@maltafishingforum.com