Cork's Justin Slattery heads an Irish crew onboard David Leuschen and Chris Flowers' Wally Galateia for the Maxi World Championships, which begin in Italy on Monday and are followed immediately by a Maxi 100 event in Barcelona.
New for this 34th edition will be the first-ever Rolex IMA Maxi 1 World Championship, organised together with the International Maxi Association (IMA) and reserved for the fastest Maxi yachts, identified by an IRC time correction coefficient (TCC) equal to or greater than 1.700. Ten yachts will meet the requirements to compete for this new world title: Bullitt, Capricorn, Deep Blue, Django HF, Galateia, Leopard 3, Magic Carpet3, My Song, SHK Scallywag and V.
The Irish crew for the Maxis Worlds are Johnny Mordaunt, Rory Harrap, Simon Johnston and Nin O'Leary. For Barcelona, the crew are the same, except Johnston is not sailing
The fleet currently expected for the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and Rolex IMA Maxi 1 World Championship will number more than 40 Maxi yachts with a minimum length of 60 feet - just over 18 metres – and extending as far as the 44-metre Svea.
A total of 45 yachts have enrolled to date, divided into groups according to their respective characteristics and with separate scoring for each. In addition to the Maxi 1 yachts, the J Class yachts Svea and Velsheda will be racing in Porto Cervo, with their match race-style duels evoking scenes from the America's Cup battles of the 1930s, for which they were designed. Besides the J Class yachts, the largest competitors in the fleet will be the 35-metre Swan 115 Moat and the 33-metre Baltic Win Win.
The Multihull Division will host the 25-metre maxi catamaran Allegra, the 24-metre Highland Fling 18, and the 20-metre Mana. The Maxi 2 class will include some of the pure racers that once belonged to the ex-Maxi72 class: Jethou, Jolt, Proteus and North Star. Among the relatively smaller yachts taking part will be the 60-foot Wallyño, the 65-foot Spirit of Lorina, the two Baltic “café racers” Ganesha and Open Season, and the Mylius cohort, including Fra Diavolo, Manticore, Oscar 3, R6 and Schorch.
Just as the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup is rounding off, the Rolex Swan Cup will get underway. The biennial event, now in its 22nd edition, will also include Nautor Swan in the celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary of the partnership between the YCCS, Rolex and Nautor Swan.
Celebrations are planned to mark the 40th anniversary of the partnership between the YCCS and Rolex, which began in 1984 with the Rolex Swan Cup.
95 yachts entered in the Rolex Swan Cup to date.
