41 strong maxi fleet for Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez season concluder

The International Maxi Association’s annual inshore series will be finalised this week with Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, the last of the five events in the 2024 IMA Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge (MMIC). This began with PalmaVela in May while its pinnacle event, the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, took place earlier this month.

“It is wonderful to see such an incredible range of maxis both in quantity and quality,” commented Andrew McIrvine, Secretary General of the International Maxi Association, the body endorsed by World Sailing to manage maxi racing internationally. Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, organised and run by the Société Nautique de Saint Tropez, will see racing for the maxis taking place from Pampelonne Bay over Monday until Saturday, with a layday Wednesday.

Among the 250 yachts competing this year are the classics for which this event is most famous, the ‘modern’ fleet and the maxis, which number 41, all racing under IRC. These range in speed from Remon Vos's Black Jack 100, frequent line honours winner of Mediterranean races, down to Jürg Schneider's modern classic Swan 65 Saida, winner here in 2022.

Black Jack comes from claiming line honours and setting a new course record in August’s Palermo-Montecarlo. “We are missing one or two people who are busy with the America’s Cup, but we’ll manage,” commented skipper Tristan le Brun. “The owner is new to his kind of racing, but he likes being here in this nice venue of Saint-Tropez.”

Longest in the maxi class here is Christian Oldendorff’s ‘modern classic’ Spirit 111 Geist, while smallest are 60 footers such as Jean-Pierre Dréau's Mylius 60 FD Lady First III and IMA President Benoît de Froidmont's Wally 60 Wallyño. Wallyño is not only the defending champion here, but was last year’s winner of the IMA Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge and looks a strong contender to be the first to win this prestigious title for a third time.

The maxi fleet is divided into four classes.

In Maxi A for the fastest, Peter Harrison's Jolt [formerly Dario Ferrari's Cannonball] is favourite - winner of her class here for the last two years. However she will face Sir Peter Ogden's 77ft Jethou, winner here in 2021.

The 'dark horses' in Maxi A include Alessandro Del Bono and his brand new IRC 82 footer Capricorno. Del Bono's previous Capricorno was both a past winner of Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez and of the IMA MMIC. His new boat has already showed her pedigree winning her second ever race in Porto Cervo two weeks ago. Similarly Wendy Schmidt's 85ft Deep Blue podiumed in two out of three races in Porto Cervo and will also be a contender. Louis Balcaen, having his first season at the helm of his much-improved Balthasar (ex-Alegre, Caol Ila, etc) is also on the ascent.

“The last two events were mainly in light breeze and the boat is really good in that,” explained Jolt’s Michele Ivaldi of their past wins here. “Plus we started and sailed well and we had a couple of breaks. This year there are a couple of boats that we don’t know how we will perform against: Capricorno is a brand new boat. Then there are Jethou and Balthasar, which is getting better by the day.”

New to the maxi fleet, and sailing her first ever race this week, is the wallywind 110 Galma, the latest offering from Wally Yachts. Meanwhile a maxi that knows Saint-Tropez well but is here in new livery is the 100ft Tilakkhana, formerly Magic Carpet Cubed.

In Maxi B, stand-out favourite is Terry Hui's Lyra. The 24m Lyra has the extraordinary track record of never having been beaten here. “This is our sixth year here with Lyra and we have won every year,” explains tactician Nicolai Sehested. “But there are lots of teams catching up with us - if we don’t sail super-well we are going to get beaten. It might look easy but often it comes down to seconds.”

This year Lyra is facing Paul Berger's Swan 80 Kallima, class winner at the IMA Maxi European Championship in Sorrento in May. Meanwhile North Sails owner Peter Dubens is competing here on his 60 footer Spectre and Maurits d'Orange is racing his newly acquired Wally 80 Sud (having sold his previous Mylius 65 FD). The newest maxi in this class is Matteo Groppo's Grand Soleil 72 Bianca.

Given Benoît de Froidmont and Wallyño's track record here, they are again the hot boat in Maxi C. “It is progressing every year both in the organisation and in the fleet,” commented de Froidmont. “We have more than 40 maxis here this year and, after Porto Cervo, it is the second major event for the maxi fleet and for the IMA also. The wind conditions will be good for the week. This year is also special because it is the 25th anniversary of Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez.”

Wallyño will face IMA maxi event regulars Jean-Pierre Dréau on the Mylius 60 Lady First III and Luigi Sala's Vismara 62 Yoru. Newest in this class are Marco Tursini's beamy Advanced 80 Mindfulness and Jacques le Barazer's 78ft Zampa, one of several smart cruisers built by CNB competing.

Despite being the smallest class, Maxi D will see top competition including three past winners: Matteo Fossati is the defending champion here on his 64ft Stella Maris, while Jürg Schneider won in 2022 aboard his 1973 vintage Swan 65 Saida and Francois Benais' Shipman 63 Bambo a year before that.

While autumn in Saint-Tropez can often bring variable conditions, the forecast this week is generally looking good albeit with the possibility of too much wind on Wednesday, which is layday.