Atalanta II and My Song top maxi classes on opening day of Loro Piana Giraglia

As usual, the Yacht Club Italiano/Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez’s race committee did an exceptional job on the opening day of racing at Loro Piana Giraglia, the third event of the International Maxi Association’s 2026 Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge. Despite the light forecast, the sea breeze filled in on the Baie de Pampelonne and soon after midday the maxi classes were able to set off on the first of two windward-leeward races in a 7-8 knot southeasterly.

In the first race for the faster yachts in Group A, the Lizz Flowers-steered 100ft Galateia made the best of the start and first beat to lead around the top mark. After two laps she finished first on the water ahead of Karel Komárek’s V and was far enough ahead to beat Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s 80ft My Song by 39 seconds to the IRC corrected time win.

The second race got underway after 1400 on a longer course with the wind slightly stronger. In this Joost Schuijff’s Leopard 3, despite being the lowest-rated of the 100 footers, managed to sneak in ahead of Galateia and V at the top and from there defended well to finish 21 seconds ahead of V and 49 seconds ahead of Galateia on the water. However it was Alessandro Del Bono’s JV80 Capricorno, that won the race overall, bumping Leopard 3 into second on corrected time.

While normally in a southeasterly in the Baie de Pampelonne the right side is favoured, Leopard 3’s tactician Chris Nicholson believed it to be less so today. “Maybe there was a bit more down pressure than forecast... There were a lot of times when we weren't sure we were going the right way. In the end we just tried to keep clear lanes, away from the other 100s, which were creating a huge amount of gas.”

Despite not winning a race, a 2-3 for Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s My Song has put her into the lead of Group A after day one, but by just one point from Leopard 3 and a further two ahead of Capricorno. This is the best start the event sponsor has made in a regatta to date in his 80ft canting keeler. Contributing to the result was certainly My Song’s new tactician - former Volvo Ocean Race winner/America’s Cup hero Paul Cayard.

“In the first race we were able to start to the right and own the right side of the course, which was favoured,” commented Cayard, who last year, impressively at the age of 66, won his second World Championship in the Star class and followed this up by winning his class at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez with a day to spare. “In the second race we did the same but it wasn’t favoured – the left was good at the top and Capricorno was able to come out there, which was a surprise. It is a fairly right-sided course here but somehow they got the left to work for them on the first beat and snuck in just ahead of us at the weather mark. Then they tacked on us a bunch up the second beat…” Despite My Song’s strong start to the regatta, Cayard is wizened enough to know this means little with three more days of racing still ahead. “We have a long way to go.”

In contrast, the smaller maxi class has seen the form quickly establish itself with Carlo Puri Negri’s Farr/Felci-designed 70ft Atalanta II winning both today’s races and Guido Paolo Gamucci’s IMA Maxi 3 European Champion Cippa Lippa X coming second in both. This left former IMA President Benoît de Froidmont’s newly relaunched Wally 60 Wallyño to claim the final spot on the podium in the first race and Philip Rann’s 82ft Aegir to do so in the second.

Puri Negri, who’s Atalanta II has come here straight from competing in the 151 Miglia-Trofeo Cetilar, has a new tactician on board for this regatta in Gabriele Benussi. “We started well in the first race and also in the second - in short races that means a lot,” commented Puri Negri. “I’ve raced her millions of times in Saint-Tropez before, but I've never won Giraglia in Atalanta II - just once with my previous boat, Grampus. “The crew is good – Gabriele is new but otherwise it is the same as did the 151 Miglia.”

Remarkably today three of the four maxi race winners were yachts of around 20+ years old including Leopard 3 and Atalanta II, which was launched in 2004 (although upgraded significantly a decade ago) and aided by a new mainsail and halyards fitted this year.

At present the ‘battle of the IMA Presidents’ is neck and neck with present president, Maurits van Oranje and his Wally 80 Sud on eight points as is former IMA President Benoît de Froidmont’s Wallyño.

Two windward-leewards are again scheduled for the maxi classes tomorrow with a first warning scheduled for 1000 but with more light winds/sea breeze forecast.