First bullet for Jethou at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez

Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, the final event of the International Maxi Association s 2026 Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge, got underway today with a record fleet of 51 maxis competing, including the welcome return of three J Class yachts – Svea, Hanuman and Rainbow, the latter two being campaigned by well-known maxi yacht owners Giovanni Lombardi Stronati (of Django fame) and Peter Harrison (Jolt, Sorcha, etc) respectively. As always the event is organised by the Société Nautique de Saint Tropez, and well known for its giant fleet of magnificent classic yachts of all sizes, which, plus the ‘Modernes’, total 250 yachts.
 
The Maxi 1 class here is 13-strong and includes the Maxi 100s and a trio of Maxi Grand Prix yachts: Peter Dubens’ North Star III, the recently-crowned Rolex IMA Maxi Grand Prix World Champion in Porto Cervo; Sir Peter Ogden’s Jethou, a past winner here; and Filip Balcaen’s Balthasar.
 

As usual the Maxi racing was taking place out of the Baie de Pampelonne where competitors faced a tricky 5-9 knot easterly on-shore breeze. Here the Maxi 1 class was racing windward-leewards as the rest of the classes were sent off west on a coastal course.

The light conditions particularly favoured the smaller yachts today and in Maxi 1 it was not just the trio of Maxi Grand Prix yachts that prevailed under IRC corrected time, but the smaller Maxi 100s – Wendy Schmidt’s Botin 85 Deep Blue and Alessandro Del Bono’s 82ft Capricorno fourth and fifth respectively under IRC corrected time.

On the water Karel Komárek’s 100ft V, the 2026 Rolex IMA Maxi 1 World Champion at Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup a few weeks ago, led around the top mark only to come unstuck after they gybe-set. Strategist Sime Fantela explained: “We really believed that fresh breeze was going to come in on the right side. The breeze was clicking all the time right while we went out of the bay. We lost a bit there, but when you're leading, it's hard to predict where the fleet is going to go.”

Impressively their main threat on the water was not from another 100, but Sir Peter Ogden’s 77ft Jethou. Fantela continued: “We rounded the gate at the same time and trusted the right side, but eventually Jethou passed us on the left and Galateia nicely came back from there too. In this light breeze, as we’ve witnessed many times here, it's really unpredictable. It depends on if a puff hits you. It’s pretty open.”

From his regular table at Saint-Tropez’s famous Café de Paris, Sir Peter Ogden was celebrating with his co-helm Marc Blees and afterguard Brad Butterworth and Joca Signorini. “We did a fantastic start. Everybody else seemed to be somewhere else!” commented Ogden. “Then we stayed ahead of the rest of the fleet. We had great pleasure seeing all the big boats behind us…” This included North Star III and Balthasar, while V was first 100 footer on corrected time in sixth.

A battle royal is lining up this week in Maxi 2 – a rematch from a year ago between Terry Hui’s Wally 80 Lyra, a serial winner here and Luciano Gandini’s Mylius 80 Twin Soul B, the defending champion, winner with a day to spare last year. This year both boats are bristling with talent - Francesco Bruni among an all-star cast on Twin Soul B and Nicolai Sehested and most of his Danish Rockwool Racing SailGP team on Lyra. In the sub-10 knot breeze from 100-120˚, these two were the run-away leaders today but with Lyra correcting out to 1 minute 21 seconds ahead of her rival under IRC.

These days, Hui, a past IMA Maxi European Champion, only races Lyra in Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez. “It was a tough long day, but it’s like riding a bike,” commented Hui of his return. “We’ve got a good team. We were up against Twin Soul B and they are a good boat too. Last year they broke our winning streak, but competition makes it more fun.”

Sehested added: “I'm pretty surprised, but we sailed really well today. Normally when you don't race for a year it takes a bit of fine-tuning, but we’ve got a very good crew here and that's what won us the race today: good, clean boat handling and manoeuvres.”

Another rematch from the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup is taking place in Maxi 3 between Luigi Sala's Vismara 62 Yoru, Lasse Petterson's Mylius 60 Why Not and former IMA President Benoît de Froidmont's Wally 60 Wallyño. There Yoru prevailed, but today it was the turn of Why Not, albeit by just 40 seconds from Yoru.

“It’s tough for us when the wind is so light,” commented Sala. His wife Alessandra added: “Yoru was born as a pure cruiser so windward-leewards are not really for us.” However tomorrow, when the forecast is for more wind, they might come into their own.

Two long term Saint-Tropez competitors are at the top of Maxi 4 after day one: the Dehler 60 Blue Oyster and the Shipman 63 Sao Bernardo. Also competing are a strong line-up of past winners: last year's stand-out victor (when she won with a day to spare) Enzo Pellizzaro’s Solaris 60 Crazy Diamond and the 2022 winner Jürg Schneider’s 1973 Swan 65 ketch Saida.

Three years ago Matteo Fossati’s won this class here aboard his 64ft Stella Maris. This year he has returned with a smart 2011 judel-vrolijk designed Baltic 62 Easy Blue. She finished fourth today under IRC behind the Truly Classic 90 Atalante. “It was not a nice race for us – we made a lot of mistakes,” commented Fossati. Following his purchase of Easy Blue last November, they have been modernising her with more performance-orientated equipment including a bowsprit, better winches and code 0 and gennaker halyards. This is their second regatta with her. “I’m back with the same crew of friends as when we won. For sure we won’t win this year because everything is completely new and we have to learn about it.”

 In the J Class Svea prevailed ahead of Rainbow and Hanuman. Read the full report he

For tomorrow the race committee has announced more of the same: Maxi 1 and the J Class racing one or two windward-leewards and the others again on coastals.

(Race report: James Boyd /IMA)

Event' website: www.lesvoilesdesaint-tropez.fr