Ultimate conditions at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup

The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup is the annual pinnacle event in the maxi yachting calendar. As an indication of its status, thanks to the involvement of the International Maxi Association, which works with the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in organising the event, it includes two World Championships: for Maxi 1 (IRC TCC of 1.700-2.200; typically racing yacht of 80-100ft) and Maxi Grand Prix (IRC TCC of 1.600-1.700, typically former Maxi 72s). This week the regatta has been fortunate with its weather, starting light, while the penultimate day today provided the greatest test of crews yet with the northwesterly Mistral reaching 25 knots and at times gusting above.
 
In the blustery conditions the two world championship classes each sailed two windward-leewards. There were casualties in both with a fairing breaking on Pascale Decaux’s 100ft Tilakkhana II while rivals, Wendy Schmidt’s Deep Blue and Alessandro Del Bono’s Capricorno both suffered spinnaker trawls as the halyard released just after hoisting. While Deep Blue recovered her sail intact in the first race, on Capricorno it got wrapped around the rudders and they were eventually forced to retire from the second as was Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones’ Magic Carpet e.

Laughing in the face of the conditions was Joost Schuijff’s Leopard 3, a boat that has competed in most of the world’s leading offshore races and is used to ‘gnarly’ conditions. Her crew demonstrating impeccable handling to win both races today, leaving Leopard 3 with a four point lead, despite starting on the back foot when they blew the fuse on the vang in the race one pre-start.  

“Yesterday and today were our conditions, and early on in the week when it really wasn't, we still had good results,” commented tactician Chris Nicholson. “I think it was the closest 100-footer race I've ever been involved in: Us, V and Galateia were going upwind, within about a boatlength of each other. Normally it spreads out, but we were overlapped at pretty much each top mark and we had an overlap with Galateia at the gate. It was a race that we won't forget about for a long time.” On Leopard 3 they saw 26 knots boat speed.

Deep Blue today posted a 7-4. Project manager Terry Halpin said that in the second race the wind had built to 26-27 knots. “A lot of our competitors ended up dropping out of the race with technical problems, but it was manageable for us. Maybe on some of the bigger boats it was a little more frightening, but we weren’t: Everybody was very cool, calm and collected - business as usual…”

There was upset in the Rolex IMA Maxi Grand Prix World Championship races today when the winning streak of Peter Dubens’ dominant brand new North Star III came to an end, posting a 5-4 today. 

Heroes of the Maxi Grand Prix class, having fixed their rudder issues overnight, were Peter Harrison, tactician Nic Asher and their crew on Jolt which, like Leopard 3, scored two bullets; ahead of George and Christina Sakellaris’ Proteus and Giovanni Lombardi Stronati’s Django 7x in the first race and ahead of Filip Balcaen’s Balthasar and Django 7X in the second.

Peter Harrison's Jolt team bounced back today scoring two bullets. Photo: IMA / Studio Borlenghi

Tactician Nic Asher commented: “It was quite a straightforward day and a straightforward racetrack. The boat was going really well upwind, so we could just start where we wanted and we were set up quite well. It just felt really balanced. We had a little ‘higher, same speed’ mode, so it was quite easy to position.”

For the dominant North Star III it was their first day racing in these conditions and with the regatta so nearly won they appeared to be playing it cautious.

Like Leopard 3 in Maxi 1, Balthasar alone is in the Maxi Grand Prix class having offshore credentials, notably winning last year’s Rolex Middle Sea Race outright. Today she posted a 4-2. “We saw 25-26 knots - it was a really nice sailing day,” commented Balthasar’s round the world race legend Bouwe Bekking. “We have been sailing quite a bit in long offshores in big breeze, and Louis [Balcaen – Filip’s son) is a pretty handy helmsman too. We have a little advantage because we have hydraulic winches which makes it a little easier in the drops.” He concluded: “It was most important that we sailed today, because it would have been a shame to do only one race and go home. I remember in the 1980s and 1990s when we would sail here in 40 knots…”

The Maxi Grand Prix class saw attrition too with Jethou not starting, Bella Mente struggling in the conditions and not starting the second race and Proteus trawling their kite, ultimately posting a 2-5.  

The string of bullets also came to an end in Maxi 5 where Riccardo De Michele’s Vallicelli 78 H2O was beaten today – albeit by only 23 seconds under IRC corrected time – by Riccardo Genghini’s Swan 651 Lunz Am Meer. If ever there was a day when heavyweight Swan 65s should come into their own it was today with Giuseppe Puttini’s 50-year-old ketch Shirlaf coming home third.

Like Lunz Am Meer yesterday, today Shirlaf suffered hydraulics problems otherwise “it was a wonderful day with wonderful winds,” as it was described by Mr Puttini who has owned Shirlaf since 1999 (having named her after the daughter of the owner of a restaurant they used to frequent in the Canary Islands).

In the brisk conditions, the non-World Championship classes all sailed a course that took then south around the islands of Mortorio and Soffi before returning north, ducking into Bomb Alley, then rounding the Monaci islands and onto a brutal reach in a lumpy chop, back towards the Porto Cervo finish.

First home by miles were the lead multihulls with Marcos Sirota’s Irens-Cabaret designed 63ft trimaran Sophia beating Lord Irvine Laidlaw’s 80ft catamaran Highland Fling XVIII on the water by just one minute but with the catamaran winning overall under ORCmh but only by 1 minutes 47 seconds ahead of Adrian Keller’s 84ft catamaran Allegra. In today’s conditions the downwind and reaching legs were taking place at 30+ knots for the leaders with Highland Fling XVIII hitting 34.7 knots.

Under mainsail and J1, even the well-appointed 30 tonne Allegra, complete with her four luxury cabins and well stocked ‘sauce drawer’, was fully lit up making 30+ knots but was struggling to make her time under ORCmh, commented co-skipper Paul Larsen. “The sailing's fantastic. We're boat on boat a lot of the time. We are sailing very cleanly, hitting the laylines, doing the peels and the changes and sailing this boat in a way that it really shouldn't be sailed, to the point where the boat's just going ‘that's enough’. It's a safe, forgiving boat but at 30 tonnes it's a lot of inertia and it's hard on the sails. We put a hole in the J1, just flogging it through the tacks. Everyone did a great job really of just keeping it all together.”

In Maxi 3 James Neville, tactician Dean Barker and their team onboard the Botin 65 Artemis Bleu comfortably scored their second consecutive bullet to beat Silvia De’ Longhi and Franz Wilhelm Baruffaldi Preis’ J/V62 racer Manticore by 3 minutes 31 seconds under corrected time but with a much larger margin over Luciana Gandini’s Mylius 80 Twin Soul B. Going into the final day Artemis Bleu leads Manticore by three points with the Wally 94 Astra 1 a further two points behind.

In Maxi 4 Luigi Sala’s Vismara 62 Yoru scored her second consecutive bullet and has taken the lead from Vincenzo Addessi’s Mylius 18E35 Fra Diavolo, winner of the first two races. For a second day Lasse Petterson’s Mylius 60 was second.

“These are the days we like because we are definitely better in strong winds than in mild winds,” commented Sala. “We sailed a good race today and made only a few minor mistakes. Usually we are stronger downwind but today, in these winds, we kept up with the others or better, even upwind. But tomorrow we have light winds, so we will see what happens.”

The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup concludes tomorrow and, for the first time in many years, with one day to go none of the six classes is finally decided.

Full results here