IMA Maxi Europeans winners return

One of the pinnacles of international maxi yacht racing will set sail next week with the fifth edition of the IMA Maxi European Championship taking place out of Naples and Sorrento, Italy.

Organised by the Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia (CRVI) and the International Maxi Association and supported by Loro Piana and Rolex, the Europeans will, as usual, form a ‘complete test’ for entrants having to sail an overnight race then four days of windward-leeward/coastal courses on the Gulf of Naples. These form part of the CRVI’s wider Tre Golfi Sailing Week.

Starting on 22 May, this year’s overnight race will be only for the maxis and the multihulls taking part in Tre Golfi Sailing Week’s Multihull Trophy, that for a second year will again run in parallel with the IMA Maxi European Championship. The start from off the CRVI’s clubhouse in Naples’ Porticciolo di Santa Lucia marina is three hours earlier than last year at 1330. The 150 mile course, as usual, will take the fleet northwest around the island of Ponza, then southeast leaving Capri to port or starboard, before rounding the Li Galli islands and backtracking to make the final leg back to the Naples finish.

The IMA Maxi Europeans then continues over 25-28 May out of Sorrento’s Marina Piccola. Under PRO Stuart Childerley, this will include windward-leeward and coastal courses, probably including the popular lap of Capri and all its famous landmarks such as the Faraglioni rocks. Among the social events of the week the top ticket will be the IMA’s cocktail party at the Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria on the evening of Monday 25 May.

As usual the 27-strong maxi fleet will be diverse, spanning Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones’ Verdier 100 Magic Carpet e with an IRC rating of 1.870 down to, at 1.102, Giuseppe Puttini’s Regata dei Tre Golfi winning Swan 65 Shirlaf, also the oldest in the IMA Maxi Europeans fleet, this year celebrating her 50th birthday.

New additions include the Wally 94 Astra 1 (ex-Inti) of Marcos Vivian. Franz Baruffaldi Preis returns but has traded in his 2025 Palermo-Montecarlo winning Mylius 60 FD for a full-blown race boat. The JV62 Manticore was first built for Sir Peter Ogden as Jethou, and has since returned from Australian ownership (as David Griffith’s Whisper). She is now being campaigned by Preis and Silvia De'Longhi, who raced together last year on the previous Manticore. Also new to the event are the Swan 90 Hummingbird (originally Leonardo Ferragamo’s Solleone 3), race-fit having just completed a Caribbean racing season, and Lasse Petterson’s Mylius 18E35 Why Not.

The fleet will again be divided in four according to their IRC rating. The star attractions will once again be the Maxi 1 and Maxi Grand Prix classes, (Maxi 1: IRC TCC 1.700-2.100; Maxi GP: TCC IRC 1.600-1.699). Maxi 1 typically comprises 80-100ft racers and Maxi 2 former Maxi 72s, although now all far exceeding their original box rule.

Favourite in the Maxi Grand Prix class must be Hap Fauth’s 74ft Bella Mente, the IMA Maxi European Champion for the last two years. They come in hot having won outright the North Sound Regatta at the end of March.

“It's going to be an exciting regatta because all the fleet has made modifications, including Bella Mente, since the Maxi Worlds,” explains Bella Mente tactician Terry Hutchinson. “. As always it's going to be a competitive regatta. The first goal is for us to learn about our boat against the fleet and all the changes. Then the second goal obviously is to put ourselves in a position to defend our European championship. Every time we get the opportunity to race these boats and to race with Hap, it's always a great experience.”

Across the top end of the fleet, all the teams continue to optimise their bulb weight and water ballast. Peter Harrison’s Jolt has removed her trim tab and with this her rating has plummeted leaving her in the middle of the Maxi Grand Prix fleet with Sir Peter Ogden’s 77ft Jethou now substantially the highest rated, sporting a new mast for this season. George Sakellaris’ Proteus has benefitted from considerable upgrades over the winter including the fitting of twin rudders. Peter Dubens returns with his 2023 IMA Maxi Europeans champion North Star, currently lowest rated in the class, while awaiting the delivery of a new Maxi Grand Prix boat later this season. Another boat to beat will certainly be Giovanni Lombardi Stronati’s wallyrocket 71 Django 7X, the newest in the fleet and winner of 2025’s Rolex IMA Maxi Grand Prix Worlds and Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez.

The Maxi Grand Prix class held the top four spots in the 2025 IMA European Championship, unsurprising given they are among the most race-optimised boats in the fleet, so it will be interesting if any others can challenge them. Most likely candidates come from the Maxi 1 class. Here there will be close competition between the five 100 footers. Following much modification over the winter, notably adding horsepower to her sail plan, Magic Carpet e looks set to have substantially the highest rating. However she remains very new and her highly refined competition – notably Karel Komárek’s V, Joost Schuijff’s Leopard 3 and Chris Flowers and David M Leuschen’s Galateia - will give her a run for her money, as will Pascale Decaux’s Tilakkhana II, recent winner of Sandberg PalmaVela.

Galateia topped Maxi 1 in Sorrento, her 2025 season culminating in her being the IMA Mediterranean Maxi Inshore champion. However according to helm coach Kelvin Harrap they feel again in “catch-up mode” against V, after being beating by them in Virgin Gorda. They have made some modifications that will see the two boats fairly evenly matched this season, V carrying more water ballast while Galateia has more sail area for light conditions. “Everyone is developing sails and appendages and interceptors, all the usual stuff. It'll be interesting,” observes Harrap. “There'll be a few surprises. Magic Carpet will be hard to beat on the water, but we'll see how we go on rating against them. Leopard 3 was very strong in the Caribbean.”

Also in the mix will be the two yachts at the bottom end of Maxi 1 – both still steeply on the development curve: Alessandro Del Bono’s JV82 Capricorno and Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s 80ft My Song.

In Maxi 3 the Wally 94s Jean-Sébastien Decaux’s Sensei and Astra 1 should lead the charge on the water. With Manticore’s crew still getting to know their new boat, the tightest racing should be between the two time class winner, Paul Berger’s Swan 80 Kallima; Guido Paolo Gamucci’s canting keel Mylius 60 Cippa Lippa X, winner of last year’s 151 Miglia-Trofeo Cetilar and the inshore races at Loro Piana Giraglia, plus Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez class winner Luigi Sala’s Vismara 62 Yoru, all three of which make competitive steps forward every year.

For example, according to tactician Romain Mouchel, over the winter Kallima has had jib locks fitted plus a new forestay system and some new sails including a Code 0. “Yoru will be a tough one to beat in our class,” Mouchel adds of the competition. “It’s a great event which we’ve done well at - that's also one of the reasons we're coming back for a third time. Paul [Berger, owner] really likes the 24 hour offshore race followed by four days of inshore racing. It suits us and our programme.”

Competition will also be razor sharp in Maxi 4 where, again, there is also no clear favourite. Defending champion here is Vincenzo Addessi and his Mylius 18E35 Fra Diavolo, while Riccardo De Michele’s Vallicelli 78 H20, famously the most capped class winner at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, along with Luca Scoppa’s Dehler 60 Blue Oyster and Shirlaf have all previously won their class here.