Maxi racing fires up in the Mediterranean with PalmaVela

The International Maxi Association’s Mediterranean Maxi Offshore and Inshore Challenges resumed and got underway, respectively, with the racing at Sandberg PalmaVela that concluded yesterday with strong results for Pascale Decaux’s Tilakkhana II.

The Real Club Náutico de Palma first established this event in 2004 as Maxi Race Week, designed to be the season opener for maxi class racing in the Mediterranean. Since then other classes have joined in, the event was renamed PalmaVela and in 2021 the RCNP introduced an offshore race, La Larga, as a prelude to the main event. For the IMA, La Larga was integrated into its Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge (MMOC), and annually since then has continued the championship which traditionally starts with the previous autumn’s Rolex Middle Sea Race. Meanwhile the inshore racing at Sandberg PalmaVela has always been the first event in the IMA’s annual Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge (MMIC).

This year’s La Larga set sail from Palma at 1305 on Saturday 25 April. Among a full fleet of 35 yachts, including ORC and Mini classes, the IMA/IRC Maxi fleet was dispatched on their own 295 mile course southwest to round Formentera and some marks off the southwest of Ibiza and more to the north of Formentera before returning to the east coast of Majorca and a mark off Porto Colom and back to Palma to finish.

The IRC/IMA Maxi class favourite was certainly Pascale Decaux’s former Wallycento Tilakkhana II, up against Jean-Michel Caye’s Vismara 80 Luce Guida and Carlo Pirzio Biroli’s Southern Wind 96 Liberty. In this, as expected, Tilakkhana II was first home in an elapsed time of 29 hours 52 minutes 31 seconds. For Pascale Decaux’s crew the race was made all the more challenging with the numerous island roundings off Ibiza/Formentera taking place in the dark.

Pascale Decaux’s helm coach British round the world legend Dee Caffari explained: “Unfortunately in the dark we missed all the beautiful scenery that everyone talks about, but we had a lovely spinnaker run and then came back across and then did a tour of Majorca coastline before we reached the finish. We just snuck in before the sea breeze died out.” Wind-wise the race had started in 10-13 knots, peaked at 17 knots, and averaged 10-12 knots, dropping to 6-8 knots as they clawed their way back to Palma. This left the remainder of the maxi fleet unable to finish, Tilakkhana II declared the overall prize under IRC corrected time.

For the Tilakkhana II crew La Larga represented a good shakedown after over the winter adding adding rake to the rig and a meticulous bottom job. This season they will race with reduced crew numbers (as agreed between the IMA and the RORC Rating Office) 22, down from 26. The new line-up includes eight women, several, such as Spain’s match racing Olympic gold medallist Támara Echegoyen, Rebecca Hornell and Annemieke Bes, who sailed alongside Caffari on Alexia Barrier’s maxi trimaran The Famous Project that in January became the first all-female crew to sail non-stop around the world.

Sandberg PalmaVela continued with inshore and coastal racing over 30 April-3 May. Tilakkhana II continued her winning streak picking up the first of Thursday’s two windward-leeward races but from then on Sven Wackerhagen’s Wally 80 Rose posted an unbroken string of bullets in the remaining three windward-leewards on the first two days and Saturday’s coastal race. Ultimately on the final Sunday there were thunderstorms on the Bay of Palma bringing two hours of torrential rain followed by a shutdown in the wind. There was no racing but Rose had already won the IMA Maxi class the previous day with Andres Varela Entrecanales’ Vismara 68 Pelotari Project completing the podium.

On the first day, racing was held in 9-13 knots. On Rose there had been upset in the first race when a crewman injured his finger tips in a winch and was subsequently taken to hospital. However even in that race Rose lost to Tilakkhana II by only 13 seconds under IRC in what was an ultra-short course, Rose then winning by 1 minute 38 seconds in the second.

For day two conditions were tougher for the tactical teams with the wind now blowing offshore and more shifty. Rose won the first race by 2 minutes 39 seconds from Tilakkhana II and, after a break as two different breezes were fighting each other, won the second by 3 minutes 34 seconds. “Tilakkhana was so far ahead that you couldn’t her use her data, which was tricky as there were massive shifts and on a maxi you can’t tack too much,” commented Rose’s tactician Jesper Radich.

Surprisingly the closest race was Saturday’s 30 mile coastal race which saw the maxis dispatched east out of the Bay of Palma, before returning. Despite the race lasting 2 hours 43 minutes for Tilakkhana II and 3 hours 22 minutes for Rose, their times corrected out with Rose just 1 minutes 4 seconds ahead.

Radich explained: “The wind bending left as we left the bay and it was about hugging the coastline, but delicately because there was less breeze below the cliffs. It was super close – 64 seconds after almost three and a half hours of racing.”

Rose’s performance has progressed as they have developed the boat and crew. This year Radich says they benefitted from an extra day of training, also he, two of the trimmers and bowman have been racing together on other boats and so came to Sandberg PalmaVela ‘race fit’. “So with the communication loop, the teamwork and the small aspects, we very quickly gelled as a team and could sail without making many mistakes.” Also vital is that owner Sven Wackerhagen is an experienced yachtsman and is a strong helmsman. “He does really well. He’s had other sailing boats and he’s sailed for a long time and you can feel it. He can react with instinct and feeling,” says Radich.

The IMA MMOC continues with the Regata dei Tre Golfi starting from Naples on 22 May while next up in the MMIC are the inshore races of the IMA Maxi European Championship, taking place from Sorrento over 25-28 May.