Breeze up at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup

Following Wednesday’s layday, the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup community awoke this morning to Porto Cervo in a different mood; the sky overcast thanks to a passing front, more breeze and, mercifully, less heat. For the third day of maxi yacht racing’s pinnacle event, organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in conjunction with the International Maxi Association, the northwesterly Mistral was blowing at 20+ knots. The eight competing in the Rolex IMA Maxi 1 World Championship sailed two windward-leewards while the remainder tackled coastal courses.

Seeing 100ft maxis thundering out of a start in 20+ knots is one of the greatest spectacles in our sport. In their first race today, V was first to tack and head right, a move that scored Karel Komárek’s team the first bullet of the day.

“We tacked into a good left phase,” commented V’s Croatian tactician Olympic 470 gold medallist Sime Fantela. “From the start we got ahead and then it was mostly defending. The first race was quite patchy with 20˚ shifts.”

Going well in this too was Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones’ Magic Carpet e, which finished second, the 100ft Verdier design relishing the bigger conditions. Tactician Francesco de Angelis explained: “Today she felt more in her turf. I think the guys did a good job bringing her around the track – she’s a challenging fast boat and all the mechanics were good. We’re still learning how to set up the boat the best, trimming and appendages, etc, but the team is happy.”

The breezier second race was won by Joost Schuijff’s Leopard 3 ahead of defending World Champion, David M Leuschen and Chris Flowers’ Galateia and Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s 80ft My Song. V was fourth so she still leads overall, but by a mere point from Leopard 3, in turn two ahead of Galateia.

There was greater separation geographically between the classes racing coastal courses today. The seven competing for the Rolex IMA Maxi Grand Prix World Championship were sent off up the seaward (east) side of La Maddalena before ducking into Bomb Alley to round the island of Spargi before returning out to sea and then southeast, to the finish off Porto Cervo. Once again, Peter Dubens’ brand new 76ft North Star III, led the charge and, despite a very wet ride in the big breeze and waves, scored her fourth bullet on corrected time. However her margin today was the smallest to date – just 51 seconds ahead of Giovanni Lombardi Stronati’s 71ft Django 7x.

According to Django 7x’s tactician Vasco Vascotto, they saw 22 knots of wind which was enough to propeller their wallyrocket 71 at 24-25 knots. “Mr Giovanni Lombardi did a fantastic job - I think he was the only owner driver that drove for the whole race. The boat is going well almost in all conditions and we can fight against all the other opponents that we have.” While North Star III is yet to be beaten on 4 points overall, behind her three boats – Filip Balcean’s Balthasar, Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente and George and Christina Sakellaris’ Proteus - are all tied on 17 points.

There were also some casualties: on Peter Harrison’s Jolt the bar linking her twin rudders broke causing the 72 footer to round up dramatically (“It felt like the rig touched the water, although it probably didn't,” as tactician Nic Asher described it). On Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente the attachment at the top of the jibtop failed as they were hoisting it with repercussions that forced the highly experienced American team, led by tactician Terry Hutchinson, to nurse their yacht for the rest of the race.

It was appropriate that James Neville, former Commodore of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, should win today in Maxi 3 aboard his Botin 65 Artemis Bleu by a respectable seven minutes on corrected time from Silvia De’ Longhi and Franz Wilhelm Baruffaldi Preis’ 62ft racer Manticore.

Maxi 3 and the Multihulls sailed a clockwise lap of La Maddalena and Caprera first tacking up Bomb Alley with the wind peaking at 25-26 knots. According Dean Barker, tactician on Artemis Bleu: “It was nice to have a race where you can get the boat up and running. There was plenty going on. They set us a nice course. We went through all the angles.” Artemis Bleu has been turboed recently with new rudders and keel, much lightening and 1.5 tonnes of water ballast added. Today she touched 24 knots added Neville: “It was getting choppy around the top of the course but she was going fast.” The British team now leads Maxi 3, but with Manticore and Marcos Tomas Vivian de La Pedrosa’s Wally 94 Astra 1 tied just two points behind. Previous leader, Luciano Gandini’s Mylius 80 FD Twin Soul B was forced to retire today after suffering rudder problems, dropping her to fourth overall.

Ahead of them, and indeed everyone, were the lead mulithulls where there was once again tight competition on the water upwind between Lord Irvine Laidlaw’s 80ft Highland Fling XVIII, Adrian Keller’s 84ft Allegra and the 63ft trimaran Sophia of Marcos Sirota. For a second day the performance of Highland Fling XVIII was exceptional finishing 9 minutes 34 seconds ahead of Allegra under ORCmh corrected time.

Tactician Ned Collier-Wakefield described it: “We had a fairly decent start, then, from the windwark mark to Monaci, we were doing 34 knots of boat speed…just flying. Irvine had a big smile on his face, which was good.” The breeze got up to the east of Caprera and Highland Fling XVIII got caught by a gust as they were peeling to their J2 causing a massive hull fly from which her experienced crew quickly recovered. “We had about 30˚ of heel, but she was fine - heaps in the tank!” From the top of La Maddalena to the finish home in the stronger wind and flat water, the red catamaran flew, extending away and crossed the line at 30+ knots.

Maxi 4 and 5 sailed a 24-mile course, initially south to Mortorio before heading north into Bomb Alley and around the Monaci before finishing.

In Maxi 4 the winning streak of Vincenzo Addessi’s Mylius 18E35 Fra Diavolo came to an end today with Luigi Sala’s Vismara 62 Yoru winning by a comfortable 6 minutes 27 seconds from Lasse Petterson’s Mylius 60 Why Not. Fra Diavolo was fourth leaving Yoru first overall, but by only a point.

Today was the first good result for Why Not, chartered to Norwegian Melges 32 sailor Petterson and his largely Italian crew. Crew boss is well known sailmaker, One Sails’ Dede De Luca: “It was very nice conditions, good wind and nice course. It was almost an up-and-down with some reaching as well. We were OCS, so we had to come back. We struggled in the beginning, but we kept it close. We did a very good downwind - pushing hard with A2 on the limit and we passed three boats. We are happy after two days of struggling.”

Aside from North Star III, the only other yacht unbeaten is perennial victor Riccardo de Michele’s Vallicelli 78 H2O. Having won by 11:42 on Tuesday today she bettered this: 15:20 ahead of Riccardo Genghini’s Swan 651 Lunz Am Meer, which claimed second after Giuseppe Puttini’s 50-year-old Swan 65 ketch Shirlaf was penalised.

Lunz Am Meer tactician Paolo Cian commented: “These Swans are heavy boats and cannot surf down the waves in the breeze so upwind is their condition.” Their result came despite losing hydraulic power for their primary winches forcing her new crew to top-handle them. “The team have done a very good job, considering it is the first time they have sailed together in the breeze. They are very motivated and learning fast.”

Tomorrow both Maxi 1 and Maxi Grand Prix classes are scheduled to race two windward-leewards.