With favourable weather conditions all year round, Malta has earned a worldwide reputation as a sailing hotspot. The island attracts top-tier sailors from all over the world who come and train, particularly in the winter season, in preparation for international competitions.

Yet the island rarely produces its own pool of elite sailing athletes, despite the island offering everything in terms of natural resources and sailing conditions.

For former Olympian and national sailing coach Jean-Paul Fleri Soler, the issue once again comes down to two major pain points for most sports in Malta, that of funding and facilities.

“There are sailors who are willing to go all the way but feel no financial support from local authorities,” Fleri Soler told Lovin Malta.

“The main problem is funding to go and compete abroad,” he continued. “If you don’t compete abroad, your level will stay at the status quo”.

With the logistical costs that come with transporting boats from competition to competition, sailing is in no way an inexpensive sport to pick up. Those who do compete regularly abroad do so out of their own pocket, and while there may be an abundance of talent, that source of funding does not prove sustainable in the long run.

As such, many local sailors fizzle out at a young age when they realise that there is no lucrative future in the sport for them.

Responding to questions sent by Lovin Malta, a spokesperson from the Sports Ministry noted how sailing will be receiving the “most funding it has ever received”.

“Sailors are also being assisted in preparing for the Games of the Small States of Europe in 2023 and the Olympics in 2024. Our top young sailors are fully funded by SportMalta when competing in international competitions,” he said.

However, these finances only appear when major international competitions come around, especially when they are hosted in Malta, according to Fleri Solier.

The former Olympic windsurfer has also struggled to acquire wind foiling boards for up-and-coming athletes to compete in the sport when it debuts at the 2024 Paris Olympics – a rare opportunity he claims will allow Malta to be on par with other countries and not years down the line.

“We’ve had to get students to buy it themselves, it has cost them around €4,000 to €5,000 worth of equipment,” he said.

In addition to funding, facilities also prove to be a major limitation stopping sailors from advancing, something which outsiders might find hard to believe for an island.

“Malta is a great place to train but we don’t have the facilities for it, especially during the summer when people flock to the beach and we have to zig-zag between 50 boats,” Fleri Soler continued.

“In summer, we are fighting on a daily basis just to operate because of the influx of people coming to the beach. There’s even nowhere to park”.

For over two decades, sailors have been fighting for a yachting centre where they can practice the sport uninterrupted and unimpeded. However, any plans for such a centre fell through and athletes suffered as a result.

“The government will soon be launching a project related to new facilities for the sailing federation,” a spokesperson from the Sports Ministry told Lovin Malta.

Yet, some are still sceptical about government intentions to invest long-term in sports.

“Finding facilities on the seafront is like finding gold on this island. It’s a step in the right direction but we currently don’t have them,” Fleri Soler said.

Despite the apparent lack of funding and facilities, some local sailors have performed exceptionally well in international competitions, with the Schultheis family standing out from the crowd for consistently producing results.

Most notably, in 2019, 14-year-old Richard Schultheis finished an impressive second in the Optimist World Championship – no easy feat if you ask a sailor out there.

“The results we have achieved in sailing, very few disciplines have done so in Malta,” Fleri Soler continued.

The Schultheis prove to be an exception from the sailing community, with other local sailors unable to make the monumental sacrifice of travelling from country to country for sailing competitions.

Meanwhile, teams from Holland, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom will come to Malta to practice in winter due to the favourable weather conditions.

The island is also home to the EuroMed Regatta and the renowned Rolex Middle Sea Race – a telltale sign that location isn’t an issue preventing sailors from excelling in the sport.

Yet, it isn’t just sailors that are suffering from a lack of funding, both many other sports too, as exemplified by the results of local athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, all of whom practice their discipline on a part-time basis.

“Throughout recent years, the government has invested tens of millions of euros in state-of-the-art facilities and our athletes’ development,” the Sports Ministry said.

“This commitment is reflected in the €7.7 million that the government is investing in Maltese athletes in preparation for GSSE 2023 and Paris 2024,” he ended.

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