The maxi yachting season is in full swing, although it was touch and go getting some of the larger yachts back from the Caribbean in time. The boats all made it but their packed containers were delayed. Nonetheless every team that had planned to be there made it to Sorrento for the IMA Maxi Europeans, backed by Loro Piana.
We have often suffered with the weather for this event with too little wind plus torrential rain. This year at last we had steady breeze and sunshine – the conditions those coming from other continents, or even northern Europe, expect to find in the Mediterranean in May.
This event always opens with one of the Mediterranean classics, the Regata dei Tre Golfi, which this year celebrated its 70th edition. Traditionally this used to start at midnight after a fine dinner at the Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia clubhouse in Naples, but almost always in no wind! Hence the start time has steadily been brought forward to gain the most of the sea breeze. Sure enough this year’s afternoon start was spectacular – downwind in good breeze and sunshine under the stunning backdrop of Mount Vesuvius.
With 25 knots to get the fleet up to the northerly turning mark of Ponza, 100-foot Wallycento Galateia had a great start, leading for much of the race and extending away on the final leg across the Bay of Naples to shatter the race record previously held by Jethou, whose 9.7kt record average was eclipsed by Galateia’s 12.75.
The new Magic Carpet e had got ahead for a while but could not hold off Galateia. Magic Carpet e barely made the regatta in time, having had to replace her port shroud after an unfortunate startline incident at Sandberg Estates PalmaVela a couple of weeks earlier.
The former Maxi 72s, now renamed the Maxi Grand Prix Class, tend to beat the less manoeuvrable 100-footers on shorter inshore courses, and this time it was Bella Mente who got well ahead of her sisters, coming home third and winning the race overall on corrected time.
The fleet then returned to Sorrento for the subsequent four-day inshore series, with a mixture of windward-leeward and coastal races including the popular lap of Capri. The Europeans’ fleet was divided into our newly re-christened IMA sub-classes: Maxi 100, Maxi Grand Prix, Maxi Alpha and Maxi Beta; however, the IMA Maxi European Championship delivers a single champion who wins the timepiece provided by our generous longterm sponsor Rolex.
Our excellent PRO Stuart Childerley – two-time Etchells World Champion – has the task of successfully getting our hugely disparate fleet off the same startline and around the same courses. This is no mean feat, with boats of 65-100ft in length and a performance spread of a massive 800 points of IRC TCC. Not surprisingly, finish times tend to be widely spaced.
Initially it looked as if we would have to cope with 30 boats on the startline but this was solved by a high dropout rate due to damage on the offshore race – more due to sea state than wind strength. Our President Benoît de Froidmont also had an unfortunate nocturnal encounter with a rock off Ponza which put his 60ft Wallyño out for the rest of the competition.
The overall results further confirmed the excellence of the Bella Mente team who, having won the offshore race as an 80th birthday present for their owner Hap Fauth, then went on to win the inshore series, thereby retaining their title of IMA Maxi European Champions.
The following weekend’s 151 Miglia-Trofeo Cetilar from Livorno to Punta Ala was sailed on a revised course, avoiding the Giraglia rock, although maintaining its course length. After habitually finishing second at many of the events he has entered recently, Guido Paolo Gamucci at last won the maxi prize with his 60ft canting-keel Mylius 60 Cippa Lippa X. Those astern were less fortunate with a six-hour shutdown in the wind, albeit made up for by the magnificent crew dinner held later in the shoreside grounds of Yacht Club Punta Ala.
With barely enough time to make the delivery to Saint-Tropez it was time for the Loro Piana Giraglia, organised by the Yacht Club Italiano in collaboration with the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez. Since Loro Piana took over sponsorship of this event in 2024 its inshore component has been extended to four days.
Again we were lucky with the weather, with the full schedule of races completed. There were also enough competitors to use our four-class system, which we now plan to keep relatively fixed over the season. There were two starts grouping the Maxi 100 and Grand Prix classes in one and Maxi Alpha and Beta in the other. As usual the maxis had their own committee boat and course area in the Baie de Pampelonne.
After three days of windward-leewards the final day provided conditions ideal for an excellent long coastal race to Cavalaire and back with a finish off Saint-Tropez town. This turned over the leaders in every class, with Alessandro Del Bono’s 80ft Capricorno finally putting the Wallcentos Galateia and V to the sword in the Maxi 100s – having five-time Olympic medallist Torben Grael as tactician onboard Capricorno probably helped.
Proteus got ahead of Jethou in Maxi Grand Prix, although Jethou won the combined prize for these classes. Similarly, Cippa Lippa X flipped the results in Maxi Alpha overcoming Jean-Pierre Barjon’s Botin 65 Spirit of Lorina, while the Contest 63 Blue Vision reclaimed her earlier lead from the modern Swan 65 Cloudy 7.
After an excellent four days of inshore competition there was some trepidation over the offshore race from Saint-Tropez to the Giraglia rock and on to Genoa – home of the YCI. Last year the majority of the maxis dropped out due to a strong wind forecast; this year it was the opposite, with little or no wind for much of the trip and routers predicting a 40-50 hour passage.
In the end there was an exciting line honours showdown between two 100-footers, the older, more classic Sydney-Hobart-oriented SHK ScallyWag and the brand new Verdier-designed all electric Magic Carpet e. Despite there being just four knots of wind, the finish was a nail-biter with the two crossing tacks up to the line before Scallywag finally prevailed.
Overall winner of the offshore and the combined inshore and offshore races in the larger maxi class was Capricorno, also winning our trophy for the best overall result by an IMA member. This boat is now in her third season and is at last finding her form. The smaller maxi class was claimed by Cippa Lippa X.
