Starting an hour early, two coastal courses, including the popular lap of Capri, were completed on the third and penultimate day of the IMA Maxi European Championship. The 20 maxi yachts faced a sub-10 knot southwesterly. At Wednesday’s conclusion, the Championship, organised out of Sorrento by the Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia (CRVI), has a new leader in Hap Fauth’s 74ft Bella Mente.

“We had great racing - we love the competition,” commented a delighted Fauth. “We peeled off the starts pretty well today and yesterday. It was a dog fight, which we like. We had a very good tactical race. I was my first time racing around Capri, which was fun. I love windward-leewards but a little variety is good. The boys did a great job. The idea is to ‘make no mistakes’ which is hard to avoid, either tactically or strategically.”

With five races now sailed, including the Regata dei Tre Golfi offshore, competitors can discard their worst result. Thanks to yesterday’s two bullets, Bella Mente and her all-star cast are now first, three points clear of previous leader, Giuseppe Puttini’s Swan 65 ketch Shirlaf, tied on points with Sir Peter Ogden’s 77ft Jethou.

The Regata dei Tre Golfi which started from Naples on Friday, saw the upper half of the 25-boat maxi fleet suffer from repeated hold-ups, calms and transitions. Behind, the smaller slower entries enjoyed more continuous breeze. As a result, Class 4 boats filled the top six places under IRC corrected time. Ultimately the slowest, Giuseppe Puttini's 48-year-old Swan 65 ketch Shirlaf, won this year's 69th Regata dei Tre Golfi ahead of Luca Scoppa's Dehler 60 Blue Oyster and Vincenzo Addessi's Mylius 18E35 Fra'Diavolo.

This year, the 156-mile race started and finished in Naples. It was the first of the International Maxi Association's IMA Maxi European Championship, organised by the Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia (CRVI). This Championship continues with four days of inshore and coastal racing from Monday to Thursday (20-23 May).

Regata dei Tre Golfi winner for a second time - Guiseppe Puttini's well-sailed, immaculate Swan 65 ketch Shirlaf.

This was the second time the local Swan 65 had won this event, following her 2021 victory. A delighted Puttini explained the dominance of the lowest-rated maxis: "The wind improved as the race went on - the big ones reached Capri, and they stopped dead. Sometimes, that happens to the small boats, but it was the big ones this year. Conditions were ideal for Shirlaf."

The biggest shock was an almighty storm in the race's latter stages that affected the smaller boats with the greatest severity. Suddenly, between Capri and the Li Galli southerly turning mark, this brought prolonged 30-40 knot winds and torrential rain.

While she may be approaching her half-century, Shirlaf is immaculately maintained and combines original equipment, like mast-mounted halyard winches, with modern gear, like her sails and bowsprit. Her crew is mostly Neapolitan, with the exception of their sole professional, Sicilian tactician Gabriele Bruni (brother of Luna Rossa Pirelli Prada helmsman Francesco), who coached the Italian Nacra 17 team to Olympic gold in Tokyo.

Two of Cork's top big boat sailors were onboard Chris Flowers and David M Leuschen’s superyacht Wallycento Galateia in the first victory of the season at Palmavela Regatta in Palma, Majorca on Sunday.

Double Round the World Race Race winner Justin Slattery and Royal Cork's Nicholas O'Leary were both part of the victorious Wallycento crew. Another Irish sailor Ed O'Connor was part of the support crew and drove the Galateia RIB.

As Afloat reported earlier, the maxis competing over the last four days in inshore and coastal racing at the Real Club Nautico de Palma’s PalmaVela may have been a diverse five, ranging from the 143ft/43.6m J Class Svea to the Wally 80 Rose, but their competition was the closest it has ever been here.

Chris Flowers and David M Leuschen’s superyacht Wallycento Galateia in full flight at PalmaVela Regatta 2024 Photo: Nico Martinez

Also on board was New Zealand tactician Kelvin Harrap, who lives in Goleen, Co. Cork and son Rory, 18, the Schull Community College Sailing Team Captain, who celebrated his third win with the Galateia crew at Palmavela.

This was befitting for the 20th anniversary of the event that was originally created by the RCNP as the Mediterranean season opener for the maxi class. It also provided a strong start to the International Maxi Association’s five event 2024 Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge.

Having won the last two editions of the PalmaVela and last year winning every race but one, Chris Flowers and David M Leuschen’s Wallycento Galateia was favourite, lining up to make it a hat-trick. But the going was hard for the white-hulled 100 footer. At the end of the second day they were tied with their fellow Wallycento, V, while winning Saturday’s coastal race left them with a slender one point advantage. In today’s coastal race, it was V’s turn, taking her second win of the regatta leaving the two maxi giants to end the event level on points. Ultimately with her three bullets to V’s two, Galateia prevailed on countback to claim the Maxi class for a third consecutive year.

Hat-trick! David M Leuschen with his winning Galateia crew at the PalmaVela 2024 prize-giving. Cork's Nicholas O'Leary is pictured back row third from left  black cap) and Justin Slattery is front row second from left (hand on chin) Photo: Nico Martinez

“Our third time winning PalmaVela - this is becoming one of our favourites!” commented David M Leuschen, who helmed Galateia this week. “I didn’t get the practice day in because it was too windy, so the first day was my first day in the boat for seven or eight months. It was blowing in the low 20s and was quite sporty, but I enjoyed it very much.”

There was some fast crew work in evidence at Palma Vela, with Galateia’s crew hoisting a 1,000 sq metre gennaker in seven seconds (above) and dropping it in ten (below), as team videos reveal.

Both Wallycentos have been turboed over the winter. Galateia now has two tonnes of water ballast that has allowed her to shed lead from her keel. She also has upgraded her spinnaker retrieval system so her kite drops are now lightning fast, in line with her competition. Meanwhile V has also become water ballasted and has been fitted with a lightweight tubular pivoting boom and a rope vang arrangement.

Galateia tactician Kelvin Harrap acknowledged that the field has closed up but that it was early days. He is looking forward to the enlarged fleet of 100 footers set to line up in Sorrento at the IMA Maxi European Championship in two weeks before Galateia’s extensive winter upgrades can be fully assessed. “They [V] are going better with all the changes they’ve made. With us – it is early stages. There are some times when we were better, but we just have to learn about the water ballast and when to use it.

“The first day was full on and everyone was very nervous because the boat has had so many changes. V and us – we traded first and second places in a lot of races. In Sorrento there will be no margin for error.”

Harrap’s counterpart on V, North Sails President Ken Read was also very pleased with their winter upgrades. “It is always nice to win, but in many ways we are all here to practice and prepare for the rest of the season. We were late, but the ‘laundry list’ [ie the modifications] is done and we can see results, which is all we can hope for. She sails like a different boat now but we needed that because we were seven years behind in our updates, which we had to do in one winter.”

According to Read all the Wallycentos (Magic Carpet Cubed included) are now racing in a lightened mode with water ballast, the difference being “where you want the stability.” V has also changed to elliptical rigging and a longer bowsprit in addition to her three tonnes of water ballast. “There is no disadvantage of using it now from a manoeuvring standpoint. It is as fast as a canting keel.”

With the wind slightly left of due south today, V won by claiming the pin at the start and then the left. “It was stunning - Palma at its best,” enthused Read.

Over the course of the four days, three of the five maxis won races under IRC corrected time. The Farr 100 Leopard 3 podiumed in both races on the opening day but perhaps most remarkable was the mighty Svea which won Friday’s first windward-leeward.

Svea tactician Bouwe Bekking commented: “It was really good for us, even though it was apples and pears - they [the other maxis] are 150 tonnes lighter than us, but we can still race against them. And it is good practice.” The race they won was in 18 knots of breeze and the eminent round the world race veteran reckoned their winning tactics had been gybe-setting at the top mark.

Even Sven Wackerhagen’s Rose came close to winning a race. Their Wally 80 (ex-Tango) scored a 4-2 on the second day of windward-leewards and in the latter finished just six seconds astern of V under IRC corrected time.

“We are getting to know the boat now - you can see where we need to improve,” commented Rose’s Danish tactician Jesper Radich. “Rose is good for her rating on windward-leewards but not so good reaching. Our owner is a good driver – he has been sailing all his life, but we are not at the level of the others in terms of our total package.”

At the prizegiving at the RCNP, Galateia’s David M Leuschen was presented with the prize for the top IMA member.

Competition in the IMA’s Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge continues over 20-23 May in Sorrento with the IMA Maxi European Championship.

The 2024 IMA Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge:

• 1) 1-5 May - Palmavela, Palma, Majorca
• 2) 20-23 May - IMA Maxi European Championship, Sorrento, Italy
• 3) 8-11 June - Loro Piana Giralgia (inshore), Saint-Tropez, France
• 4) 8-14 September - Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, Porto Cervo, Sardinia
• 5) 30 September-5 October - Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, Saint-Tropez, France

A crew with some of Ireland's top big boat talent are the deserved winners of the September Sailor of the Month Award (Superyacht), after their win in the Maxi A World Championships in Porto Cervo, Italy.

A seven-strong Irish presence on the 100ft Galateia included double Volvo Race winner Justin Slattery of Cork and Nin O'Leary, Cork, Simon Johnson, Wicklow, Johnny Mordaunt, Dublin, Ed O'Connor, Limerick, Rory Harrap, Cork, Kelvin Harrap, Cork and Chris Walsh of Dublin.

In Maxi A (for the former <100ft ‘Maxi Racer’ class), David M Leuschen and Chris Flowers’ Galateia won by seven points from the 100ft Leopard 3, which rose to second, one point ahead of Andrea Recordati's 93ft Bullitt after a reappraisal of the scoring.

A crew with some of Ireland's top big boat talent has won the Maxi A World Championships in Porto Cervo, Italy.

Run by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in conjunction with the International Maxi Association, the final day's racing started but couldn’t finish due to a lack of wind.

A seven-strong Irish presence on the 100ft Galateia included double Volvo Race winner Justin Slattery of Cork and Nin O'Leary, Cork, Simon Johnson, Wicklow, Johnny Mordaunt, Dublin, Ed O'Connor, Limerick, Rory Harrap, Cork
Kelvin Harrap, Cork and Chris Walsh of Dublin.

In Maxi A (for the former <100ft ‘Maxi Racer’ class), David M Leuschen and Chris Flowers’ Galateia won by seven points from the 100ft Leopard 3, which rose to second, one point ahead of Andrea Recordati's 93ft Bullitt after a reappraisal of the scoring. 

Galateia maintained a consistent series of podium finishes to win overall at the Maxi A Championships in Porto Cervo Photo: Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi

While Leopard 3 made the strongest start to the event, Andrea Recordati’s heavily refitted 93ft Bullitt won two races in lighter winds. Meanwhile, Galateia simply maintained a consistent series of podium finishes.

WallyCento Galateia won with a clear lead over Leopard 3 and Bullitt, which must be credited with an excellent comeback after retiring on the first race day. Yesterday, due to a calculation error, Bullitt was wrongly classified as having finished in second place. On his return to the dock, David Leuschen commented: "It has been an exceptional week. The key factors for our success have been our consistency, nothing but second- and third-place finishes, and our starts, probably the best we have ever had in a regatta. Winning the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup is an extraordinary achievement; for us, it’s like the Holy Grail, so we feel very good."

The Maxi prizegiving at the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in Porto Cervo, Italy

This week Leuschen and Flowers divided their time on the helm. Leuschen said this year their starting had been the best it has ever been. Flowers was acclimatising to the white 100 footer, having only become a co-owner last year.  “This is my first time here,” he said. “I am delighted with our result. I’m very impressed with the competition. What a beautiful venue and what fantastic weather. I’m pleased with the result of course. For me, this is my biggest achievement in sailing. I’m thinking of retiring right now!”

With the 26-strong maxi fleet sub-divided into three classes, the remainder of the Regata dei Tre Golfi maxi fleet arrived throughout the course of Saturday afternoon.

Giuseppe Puttini’s Swan 65 ketch Shirlaf was last home at 17:45CEST. Due to the slower boats experiencing shutdowns around the race’s southerly turning mark of Li Galli and gusty rain squalls as they approached the finish line off Massa Lubrense, to the west of Sorrento, the offshore race of this second International Maxi Association Maxi European Championship, has proved to be a big boat affair. For a second consecutive year, Peter Dubens’ former Maxi 72 North Star has won the race’s maxi division by just over seven minutes under IRC corrected time from the race’s line honours winner and new record holder, Sir Peter Ogden’s Maxi 77 Jethou.

Peter Dubens' North Star won the Regata dei Tre Golfi maxi class for a second consecutive year under IRC corrected time, sailing with minimum crew thanks to her powered winches. Photo: ROLEX / Studio Borlenghi

The 150-mile race from Naples to Sorrento, via Ponza in the north and the Li Galli islands in the south, was organised by the Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia (CRVI) in conjunction with the International Maxi Association, the body officially tasked by World Sailing to administer and develop maxi yacht racing internationally.

While the superbly sailed former Maxi 72s occupied four of the top five spaces on the overall IRC maxi leaderboard for the Regata dei Tre Golfi, holding third was Riccardo de Michele’s serial Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup class-winning Vallicelli 78 H20, topping the combined Maxi 4-5 class.

Full results here

The second edition of the International Maxi Association’s Maxi European Championship is to take place again as part of Tre Golfi Sailing Week, out of Sorrento’s Marina Piccola over 12-18 May 2023.

Supported by Rolex, the event is run by the Circolo Remo e Vela Italia (CRVI) in conjunction with the IMA, the body officially tasked by World Sailing to administer and develop maxi yacht racing internationally. The event is supported by the Yacht Club Italiano and the Reale Yacht Club Canottieri Savoia.

The IMA Maxi European Championship will provide a mix of inshore and coastal courses, including an overnight race, which will launch the event: the 68th edition of the Regata dei Tre Golfi, the second oldest distance race in the Italian yachting calendar after the Rolex Giraglia. This will set sail at 1700 on Friday 12 May from Naples’ Castel dell’Ovo, where the CRVI’s clubhouse is located within Santa Lucia Marina.

The Regata dei Tre Golfi's 150 mile course takes the boats from Naples, past Procida, west-northwest to the island of Ponza. After rounding this turning mark, competitors return, past Ventotene and Ischia, towards Punta Campanella, the tip of the Sorrento Peninsula. They then round the Li Galli islands off the Amalfi coast, before returning around the south side of Capri back into the Bay of Naples, and this year, for the first time, finishing off Sorrento.

Highland Fling XI and Sir Peter Ogden's Jethou line up during a start at the 2022 event. Photo: ROLEX / Kurt Arrigo

In 2022 Furio Benussi’s 100ft maxi ARCA SGR won line honours and in light conditions narrowly bettered the elapsed time of Giovanni Soldini’s Multi70 trimaran Maserati. However Peter Dubens’ former Maxi 72 North Star (ex Rán 2) prevailed under IRC corrected time after an intense match race with Sir Peter Ogden’s Judel/Vrolijk 77 Jethou.

Over Monday to Thursday, 15-18 May, will be the inshore/coastal races of the IMA Maxi Europeans for the Maxi Yacht Sorrento Trophy. Racing for this will be run by the IMA’s Principal Race Officer for the event, Stuart Childerley, who aside from being a multiple World Champion and ex-Olympic sailor, as a PRO has run racing at the Olympic Games, for the GC32 Racing Tour, the Royal Ocean Racing Club and numerous World and European Championships. This will comprise up to six windward-leeward or coastal races on the Gulf of Naples, with its magnificent backdrops of Capri, the Sorrento peninsula and, in the distance, Mount Vesuvius. The race programme may include the popular course around Capri, passing the famous Faraglioni rocks.

The event culminates in a prizegiving at which the IMA Maxi European Champion will receive the Rolex Trophy and a Rolex timepiece. Other trophies will include those for podium placers, class winners and for the top placed IMA member as well as the Maxi Yacht Sorrento Trophy for the inshore series winner. New for the regatta is a Corinthian Trophy for entries racing with more than 80% of amateur crew (World Sailing Cat 1).

Defending IMA Maxi European Champion is Canadian Terry Hui and his highly successful Wally 77 Lyra, who last May deprived both North Star and Jethou from the top prize in the final moments of the last race.

The former Maxi 72s, including North Star and Jethou, will be making a strong return to Sorrento in 2023. Photo: IMA / Studio Borlenghi 

The IMA Maxi European Championship is open to all maxi yachts with an IRC Endorsed certificate. Its winner does not have to have a European owner nor be a European flagged yacht. Using a low-points scoring system, results for the Regata dei Tre Golfi will be weighted with a 0.75 co-efficient. One of the subsequent inshore/coastal races may be discarded if more than four are completed.

The entry list to date shows a promising line-up of former Maxi 72s, with both Peter Dubens’ North Star and Jethou returning, plus Vesper, the former Maxi 72 champion Dario Ferrari’s Cannonball and back in Europe for the first time since the pandemic, George Sakellaris’ Proteus.

“We love competing against the best of the best,” explains Jim Swartz, owner of the 2022 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup class winner Vesper. “Every day is a new day and any of us can and will win. It’s about sailing well - the results fall where they fall.”

Early entries include Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s Club Swan 80 My Song, Riccardo De Michele’s highly successful Vallicelli 78 H20 plus four yachts from Mylius Yachts including Guido Paolo Gamucci’s canting keel 60 Cippa Lippa X plus the fixed keel 60s Franz Baruffaldi Preis’ Manticore and from France Jean-Pierre Dreau’s Lady First 3 and the new Mylius 66 belonging to German Alois Neukirchen.

“The regatta falls at the perfect time for us: just after My Song will have left the yard and after some training time,” commented My Song team manager Giorgio Benussi. “The Regata dei Tre Golfi will be our first race of the year against some of our fiercest competitors and will represent an excellent testing ground from which to make further improvements.

“The owner and his family love Sorrento and the Bay of Naples - most of their family cruises are in this area. Previous My Songs have raced in the Tre Golfi and the name is already in the event’s ‘roll of honour’ having won the 2006 edition. It’s a race course we love and the welcome from our friends at the CRVI makes us feel at home. The atmosphere at the start is unmissable.”

The IMA Maxi European Championship forms part of the wider Tre Golfi Sailing Week.

The event also scores in both of the IMA’s annual maxi championships: Regata dei Tre Golfi will be the third event of six in the IMA’s 2022-3 Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge (MMOC) which began with this October’s Rolex Middle Sea Race. The Maxi Europeans’ inshore/coastal races will be the second event in the 2023 Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge (MMIC), which kicks off with the Real Club Nautico de Palma’s PalmaVela over 3-7 May and concludes at the end of September with Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez.

Scheduled for day two of the IMA Maxi Europeans’ inshore/coastal racing were two windward-leewards. After a delay out on the Bay of Naples, the wind finally built to 8-12 knots from the west. After one aborted start due to a wind shift and another for a general recall, racing for the 21 maxis eventually got underway at 1515 CEST.

With the 2.1 mile course set to the north of Capri, the lead trio of Lord Irvine Laidlaw’s Reichel/Pugh 82 Highland Fling XI, Sir Peter Ogden’s JV77 Jethou and Peter Dubens JV72 North Star remained in close contact. Today Highland Fling XI was able to gain enough of a lead to claim Class 1. According to Xavier Mecoy, Laidlaw’s long term team manager, this was far from expected: “We were really surprised because this isn’t a windward-leeward boat. It is much more of a course racing boat. This regatta is the first time we have raced against boats like Jethou and North Star and I had not expected to do as nearly well as we did. So it is very encouraging. The boat is an old girl, but she’s on fire. We did some quick hoists and great takedowns and even better is to win with a 2% penalty because we don’t have the owner on board.”

Terry Hui's Lyra the present overall leader of the IMA Maxi Europeans Photo: Studio Borlenghi

Surprisingly, given how long the Highland Fling sailing campaigns have been running and their international nature, this is the team’s first time to Sorrento or Capri. Mecoy added how he was impressed with how the race organisers had set up the entire infrastructure in Sorrento’s Marina Piccola, including the installation of a pontoon system, to berth the IMA Maxi European Championship fleet.

The big boats are still dominating the overall results at the IMA Maxi Europeans with North Star leading and Jethou third.

Sir Peter Ogden's Jethou to leeward at today's one and only start. Photo: IMA / Studio Borlenghi

While in Class 4, Giuseppe Puttini’s Swan 65 ketch Shirlaf scored her second bullet, in Class 3 it was the turn of regular Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup class winner H20, Riccardo De Michele’s striking silver Vallicelli 78, to beat IMA President Benoît de Froidmont’s Wally 60 Wallyño by two and a half minutes under IRC corrected time. However Wallyño continues to excel in the overall results here, holding fourth place.

H2O started well, but in the single mass start being used at this event, they got caught up with some of the faster boats sailing different angles to them, explained tactician Lorenzo Bodini: “We decided to stay on the left even if I knew there was more pressure on the right, because at least we were in clear air. [At the top] we arrived just behind the fleet, which was good for us because we didn’t want to be in traffic. We sailed well downwind and then I could go completely right on the second upwind and got a really good layline, reaching the mark in one tack.”

That H20 did well in the light conditions was unusual, because the large futuristic-looking cruising yacht prefers at least 13 knots.

Leading overall at present was today’s Class 2 winner for a second consecutive day, Terry Hui’s all-black Wally 77 Lyra. Tactician Mitch Booth explained their race: “We saw that it was very unstable and there were big bits of pressure on the course - so we just focussed on that, keeping in clean air. We went left up the first beat, but not all the way as there was a big rightie at the end, so we were lucky enough to cross over early to get into that.”

Remarkably Lyra still managed to win, despite blowing up a spinnaker after it snagged on a spreader tip. Booth continued: “The guys did a great job and we minimised the loss and got another one up. They sailed really well.”

The wind on the Bay of Naples subsequently veered into the north and then the northeast and built rapidly into the mid-20s but after one attempt to get a second windward-leeward away, the wind had moved too far right to lay a good course and with the hour getting on the fleet was sent home.

Racing at the IMA Maxi European Championship continues tomorrow and runs until Friday May 20. It began on Saturday with its offshore component the Regata dei Tre Golfi followed by coastal racing on the Bay of Naples and around Capri in the Maxi Yacht Sorrento Trophy. The IMA Maxi Europeans forms part of the larger Tre Golfi Sailing Week.

Full overall results here

Following one of the biggest wind inshore regattas where racing pressed ahead regardless, this year’s St Maarten Heineken Regatta will be one which competitors will recall with a wry smile, bragging about 'how they survived it’. It was also the second of the International Maxi Association’s new four event Caribbean Maxi Challenge, following on from February’s RORC Caribbean 600.

The four days of racing culminated in Sunday’s ultra-lively course around marks starting off the Franco-Dutch Caribbean island’s Simpson Bay. As Chris Sherlock, skipper of the Farr 100 Leopard 3 described it: “We had 35 knots at the start. It was probably the hairiest start in my 27 years being involved with the Leopard program and probably the hairiest day’s sailing for an inshore regatta…but we loved it!” Quite an admission for a skipper who, since Leopard 3 was launched in 2007, has campaigned her relentlessly across the planet, mainly through Mike Slade’s long ownership of her.

Sherlock continued: “It was great fun. 25-26 knots of boat speed downwind. It couldn’t have been better.” More importantly, Leopard 3’s enthusiastic Dutch owner also relished it. “He just loved it – driving a 100ft maxi downwind in 25-30 knots, matching wind speed. You don’t get it much better than that in t-shirts and shorts…” 

Janssen de Jong – DutchSail finished tied on points with Sailing Poland but lost on countback to her sistership. Photo: James Tomlinson

In this week’s brisk conditions it was the boats geared up for sailing around the planet that prevailed. The event attracts many former Volvo Ocean Race yachts and competing this year were four VO70s and four VO65s. Ultimately it was three of these that owned the podium, separated by just one point after four races. Robert Gwózdz and Marcin Sutkowski’s Gdynia-based VO65 Sailing Poland claimed both Saturday and Sunday’s races to win on countback from the Jelmer van Beek-skippered Janssen de Jong – DutchSail.

Ironically calling tactics on board Sailing Poland was Volvo Ocean Race legend Bouwe Bekking, who found himself racing against his old steed (Janssen de Jong – DutchSail Bekking had skippered to second and then third place respectively in the last two editions of the fully crewed round the world race as Team Brunel).

“It has been a very good week and a lot of fun, because it has been a very competitive class with all the VO65s and VO70s, plus Leopard and Deep Blue,” Bekking said. “We were very rusty in the beginning, but we had a fantastic week and winning is always nice, especially for the owners and their guests.”

The VO70 I Love Poland, currently second overall in the IMA's Caribbean Maxi Challenge. Photo: James Tomlinson

Having finished second maxi in the RORC Caribbean 600 when she was skippered by triple Farr 30 World Championship Deneen Demourkas, Sailing Poland now leads the IMA Caribbean Maxi Challenge at its halfway stage. The IMA CMC leaderboard currently has a Polish 1-2 with the Polish National Foundation’s VO70 I Love Poland (ex-Puma), skippered by Grzegorz Baranowski, currently holding second, three points from first.

A St Maarten Heineken Regatta regular over the years, Bekking complimented the race committee: “They did a really good job on the courses – they sent the big classes on big courses and kept them away from everyone else. It was three hours of sailing, which is excellent. We enjoyed the sailing.”

Finally an opportunity to sail in big breeze for the crew of Wendy Schmidt's Deep Blue. Photos: James Tomlinson

For Wendy Schmidt and her crew on Deep Blue, it was a challenging week racing in brisk conditions for the first time in their still relatively new Botin Partners 85. Sadly on the final day, they suffered their first significant technical set-back. Deep Blue’s American tactician and project manager Rob MacMillan explained: “Today was fun. We knew it was going to be squally. We got off to a great start, but after we tacked on to the layline to the mark we started to have some hydraulic gremlins and we couldn’t trim any of the sails, so we had to sail most of that beat with the sails not trimmed.

“We were able to get around the mark first and did the reaching leg and the team did a spectacular gybe set. It was still pretty windy. Then the same hydraulic issue popped up and we had to shut the entire system down.” They got up and running again but rounding the leeward mark and attempting to head back upwind they once again were unable to trim on and chose to retire.

Wendy Schmidt and her team are St Maarten Heineken Regatta regulars. While this was their first time here in Deep Blue, they previously competed in Schmidt's Swan 80 Selene, winning the Maxi class in 2019. MacMillan said of the event: “It is one of our favourite events in the Caribbean – big wind, blue water, bright skies. There is a good energy with the mix between bareboats and maxis. Sailing in a 10-boat class is always fun with boats this big. This is a good event for more maxis to come do.”

The IMA Caribbean Maxi Challenge continues over 17-23 April with Les Voiles de St Barth Richard Mille.

Full results here.

The International Maxi Association’s Caribbean Maxi Challenge is due to make a strong start from Antigua this morning with the new series’ first event, the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Caribbean 600.

Of the 74 yachts competing, 18 are maxi monohulls of 60+ft LOA plus five 60+ft multihulls, including three similarly-rated former MOD70 trimarans. Maxis regularly win line honours in the Caribbean 600 but have frequently won the race overall including Karl Kwok’s Beau Geste (2010), George David’s Ramblers (2011/18), Hap Fauth’s Bella Mentes (2015/17) and George Sakellaris’ Shockwave (2014) and Proteus (2016) and the Askew brothers Wizard (2019).

This year the super heavyweight battle is between 100+ft footers - Dmitry Rybolovlev’s ClubSwan 125 Skorpios and the VPLP-Verdier 100 Comanche. When the two lined up for the first, and so far only, time in last October’s Rolex Middle Sea Race Comanche prevailed, beating her larger rival on the water.

Comanche is currently riding the crest of wave having won the ‘triple’ (line honours, record and IRC overall win) in both that event and in January’s RORC-IMA Transatlantic Race. “We are pretty happy with the way the team is going and the boat is performing well,” admits skipper Mitch Booth. “We are looking forward to the battle. It is a long race and a lot of things can happen.”

Comanche competed in the Transatlantic Race without her giant foils, but with a variety of points of sail expected in this race as its meanders through the Lesser Antilles, from St Maarten in the north to Guadeloupe and Les Saintes in the south, these have been reinstalled. Several key crew are also back including Volvo Ocean Race sailors Kyle Langford and Luke Malloy, joining other A-listers such as navigator Will Oxley and local Antiguan hero Shannon Falcone.

In comparison Skorpios is much newer, yet to celebrate her first birthday. The giant has come straight from a refit in Barcelona where various work has been carried out including fixing some keel issues and making small rudder modifications. “We made a lot of work there,” confided skipper Fernando Echavarri. “We are improving, learning about the boat and are starting to understand the modifications to make the boat perform.”

Her crew includes America’s Cup/Volvo Ocean Race winner Dirk de Ridder, Volvo Ocean Race winners and veterans such as Brad Jackson and Neal McDonald with Italian Bruno Zirilli navigating.

The forecast for this year’s Caribbean 600 is for typical northeasterly trade winds of 12-17 knots, but quite which boat prefers this remains uncertain. “We look forward to the fight with Comanche,” continues Echavarri. “I think in 14+ knots Comanche is always faster and over 20… If it is 12-16 it will be a big, big battle, super-interesting. VMG upwind I think we are very similar. They have very efficient foils. Downwind VMG, up to 16 knots we should be a bit faster and a bit lower, but not much. In less than 10 knots we will be faster.” However Echavarri says that at times they are still some way off achieving their target speeds.

The mighty ClubSwan 125 Skorpios. Photo: Paul Wyeth/RORC

According to Booth, Comanche’s advantage increases the more wind there is: “Over 20 we are planning very nicely and we are very fast. If it is less we don’t have such an advantage..”

However the moderate forecast may at times suit a boat that knows this course well - the Farr 100 2009/2013 line honours winner, Leopard. “It is probably more favourable than a heavier air race when Comanche and Skorpios will surf,” predicts long term skipper Chris Sherlock. “Less wind gives us a better chance of hanging on to them under IRC.”

Sherlock reckons the race as being Comanche’s to lose. “She is more nimble and can change sails quicker and is the form boat having won the Transatlantic triple. She sails fairly wide angles, but is an extremely impressive boat. Having so many legs [of the race] will suit Comanche better than Skorpios. Our goal is to finish on the podium on the water and hopefully under IRC.”

This is another crew loaded with heavyweights including Paul Standbridge, Guillermo Altadill, Richard Bouzaid, Gerry Mitchell, etc. Navigating is Hugh Agnew: “It looks like a pretty conventional medium to light trades of 12-17 knots – so not hooning. That could be good for Leopard – we want more displacement conditions.”

Chasing the big boats will be an extraordinary fleet of former Volvo Ocean Race boats, including six VO70s and three VO65s, which are certain to have strong competition. Many are out of class, especially the Danish VO70 L4 Trifork, skippered by Jens Dolmer but with a crew including multiple Volvo Ocean Race skipper Bouwe Bekking and Brazilian Joca Signorini, who raced on this boat in the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race when she won as Ericsson 4.

Joca Signorini (left) with Volvo Ocean Race legend Bouwe Bekking. Photo: Tim Wright/www.photoaction.com

Since then the boat has been fully turboed, fitted with an extra set of lateral foils (originally from an Emirates Team New Zealand foiling catamaran). L4 Trifork doesn’t fully fly but the foils provide lift to leeward (in addition to her original vertical daggerboards) and has enabled her bulb to be lightened. In addition, her bowsprit is longer, the mainsail has a larger square head and the headsails are larger. While standard VO70s were said to have occasionally hit speeds of over 40 knots, L4 Trifork has managed 45.

“When you are going over 20 knots, it feels nice,” says tactician Bouwe Bekking. “From the new foils you get righting moment. When you are sailing apparent wind, it feels like very high sustained speeds, you jump over the waves a little bit more than usual. The boat goes nicely downwind.”

But with these modifications L4 Trifork has a 70 points higher IRC rating than the next highest VO70, Yacht Club Sopot’s Ocean Breeze. “When it is windy, you can out sail the rating, but on a course like this…” muses Bekking of the winding Caribbean 600 course. Among the VO65s is Groovederci Racing - Sailing F, entered by Californian former Mumm 30, Farr 40 and Melges 32 campaigner Deneen Demourkas and a strong crew including Match Racing and M32 World Champion, Taylor Canfield.

Other maxis include the former Hexagon/Pindar Open 60, now Richard Tolkien’s Rosalba and the former Alegre Mills 68, now called Prospector. Lower rated maxis competing in IRC Zero include Todd Stuart’s Swan 82 White Rhino, the Swan 60 Lee Overlay Partners II and Jean-Pierre Dreau’s Mylius 60 Lady First III.

For French 2024 Vendée Globe contender Christopher Pratt on Lady First III this will be his first Caribbean 600, but their participation in both this and the RORC-IMA Transatlantic Race has been planned for years.

“The course is just amazing,” says Pratt. “There are a lot of manoeuvres to manage, which we like a lot.” Lady First III’s pro-amateur crew includes other French pros such as Mini/Figaro sailor Xavier Macaire, last year’s La Solitaire du Figaro runner-up. These solo sailing experts will get to enjoy some unfamiliar luxuries says Pratt. “We are not cruising, but the boat is really comfortable - we have a freezer, hot water and we have wine with dinner AND lunch.”

The first warning signal for this will be at 1050 local time (Monday) with the majority of the maxis competing in IRC Super Zero setting sail at 1120.

The IMA Caribbean Maxi Challenge continues with the Heineken St Maarten Regatta, Les Voiles de St Barth before returning for Antigua Sailing Week at the end of April.

2022 IMA Caribbean Maxi Challenge:

• RORC Caribbean 600 - 21 February
• St Maarten Heineken Regatta - 3 - 6 March
• Les Voiles de Saint-Barth Richard Mille - 17 - 23 April
• Antigua Sailing Week - 30 April - 6 May