New World Championship for September’s Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup

This year’s Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup will feature the very first World Championship for ‘Maxi 1’. Taking place out of Porto Cervo over 8-14 September as part of the main event, the Rolex IMA Maxi 1 World Championship will be open to maxi yachts with an IRC TCC of 1.700-2.200 and up to 30.51m (100ft) in length.

Typically it will include larger maxis, such as 100 footers (like Leopard 3) and the former Wallycentos, down to the ClubSwan 80 My Song.

The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in Porto Cervo, Sardinia, is co-organised by the event’s host, the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda (YCCS), and the International Maxi Association (IMA), the body responsible for overseeing and nurturing the sport of maxi racing and representing the interests of its maxi yacht owner members globally. While it had existed in this role for 30 years previous to this, in 2009 the IMA was formally recognised for these responsibilities by World Sailing. As a result, the IMA is permitted officially to hold two world championships each year. In 2010 the first Rolex Mini Maxi World Championship was held during the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and since then world championships have been held for the Maxi 72 and J Class under the auspices of the IMA, the latter taking place out of Newport, RI in 2017.

“The International Maxi Association endeavours to adapt its world championships to wherever across the maxi fleet there is the greatest competition,” explains IMA Secretary General Andrew McIrvine. “Over recent seasons we have seen the 100 footers increasingly ramping up their programs with boats that were once cruiser-racers now becoming more thoroughbred racing yachts with all the development, sail programs and elite level crews that that entails. As a result we are expecting at least 10 Maxi 1 yachts to be competing at our new World Championship.”

Despite entry to the event having not yet closed, the line-up for the Rolex IMA Maxi 1 World Championship already looks impressive, including: the 100 footers Leopard 3; a trio of former Wallycentos - Magic Carpet Cubed, Galateia and V; SHK Scallywag - Seng Huang Lee's David Witt-led campaign returning to race in the northern hemisphere for the first time since the pandemic. Then there is the 93ft Bullitt, last year’s Rolex Middle Sea Race winner; the 85ft racer Deep Blue; the 82ft Django HF in her first race since receiving some major modifications; the ClubSwan 80 My Song; all eyes will be on the brand new 80ft Capricorno for which the Rolex IMA Maxi 1 World Championship will be the first regatta in which she will race.

While yachts larger than 30.51m (100ft) compete in their own Super Maxi class, the IMA Maxi fleet today encompasses yachts of 18.29m (60ft) to 30.51m (100ft), as published annually in the IMA Maxi Class Rules. In recent seasons the IMA has shed monickers from its classes such as Racer/Racer-Cruiser/Cruiser-Racer and Mini Maxi, in favour of dividing up the Maxi fleet solely by IRC rating. For example at the 2023 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, Maxi 1 was for yachts with a TCC of 1.700< (ie 100 footers); Maxi 2 1.600-1.700 (ie the former Maxi 72s); Maxi 3 1.400-1.600 (the former Mini Maxi Racer-Cruiser class), Maxi 4 1.260-1.400 (the ex-Mini Maxi Cruiser-Racer class, but including a Swan 80 and a Southern Wind 82) and Maxi 5 <1.260 (the former Mini Maxi Cruiser class, ie Swan 65).

“The aim of this is entirely to encourage yachts of a similar performance to race against one another to ensure the best possible competition, rather than rely on any highly subjective terminology,” explains McIrvine.

Maxi yacht world championships have long been associated with the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and Porto Cervo. From the early 1980s the International Class A Yacht Association (ICAYA – the IMA’s previous name) regularly held here World Championships for the ‘Class A’ ; the name of the maxi class as defined by the IOR rule of that era. It is because of this that, to this day, the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup is still referred in sailing circles as ‘the Maxi Worlds’.

The last world championship held at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup was for the Maxi 72 class in 2018 when it was won by Dieter Schön’s Momo. The world championship for this class was withdrawn due to dwindling numbers and the Maxi 72s increasingly racing out of class. Despite no longer racing within the confines of their box rule, the remaining former Maxi 72s continue to enjoy the best racing with four currently entered in September - Jethou, plus Jolt, Proteus and North Star, which will be competing in their own class in Porto Cervo in September.