Shane Diviney and Kinsale’s Frank O’Leary are part of the crew of Peter Dubens’ North Star III, which maintained a perfect record at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in Sardinia on Tuesday with a third consecutive victory.
The newly launched 76-footer followed Monday’s opening-day double win with another commanding performance in a coastal race through the La Maddalena archipelago, strengthening her lead in the Rolex IMA Maxi Grand Prix World Championship.
There was plenty of other Irish interest across the fleet, with Will Byrne, Tom McWilliam and Mark Petticrew aboard Maxi 1 race winner Leopard 3, while Irish sailors also featured aboard V, Galateia, Bella Mente, Django 7x and Magic Carpet.
North Star III Makes It Three From Three
North Star III again dominated the Maxi Grand Prix fleet and was first to finish across the entire fleet.
The Judel/Vrolijk-designed and Persico-built yacht arrived 7 minutes 10 seconds ahead of Peter Harrison’s Jolt on the water and retained a 3 minutes 48 seconds advantage under IRC corrected time.
Jolt took second place in the Maxi Grand Prix division, with reigning world champion Django 7x third.
The result gives North Star III three points from three races and an eight-point lead over Jolt and Bella Mente, which are tied on 11 points.
Navigator Miles Seddon said the new yacht was already exceeding expectations.
“We're really happy with it. It's exceeding everything that we thought it would do,” he said.
“It was a lovely course – it was a really smart decision to beat around the top [of La Maddalena] in flat water into building breeze where we saw 14-16 knots.
“Then it was sneaking in to look for current relief and for the shifts off the headlands, and then back down when it was just rock management and putting the bow down and cutting as many corners as you could. But at 16-19 knots things come up pretty quickly.”
Grattan Roberts is aboard third-placed Django 7x, while Cian Guilfoyle, Oisin McClelland and Ian Moore are part of the Bella Mente crew, which shares second overall with Jolt on 11 points.
Leopard 3 Win Adds To Irish Success
There was further Irish success in the Rolex IMA Maxi 1 World Championship, where Will Byrne, Tom McWilliam and Mark Petticrew are aboard Leopard 3, winner of Tuesday’s coastal race.
Karel Komárek’s V led the 100-footers on the water, but Leopard 3 remained close enough to beat her by just 46 seconds on IRC corrected time after almost three hours of racing.
James O’Mahony is aboard V, which is now tied with Leopard 3 at the top of the Maxi 1 World Championship.
There was another substantial Irish contingent aboard third-placed Galateia, with Nin O’Leary, Justin Slattery, Simon Johnson, Kelvin Harrap and Rory Harrap among her crew.
The result leaves Leopard 3 and V joint leaders on four points, with Capricorno just one point behind.
“We had a good day: We were a bit slow at the start, but then we caught up, inch by inch, with our competitors,” Leopard 3 owner Joost Schuijff said.
“We can clearly stick with them upwind, and reaching we're slightly faster and we're the same again downwind. For us it's all about the team. We have the same team and they’re very well trained.”
Tactician Chris Nicholson said Leopard 3 recovered from a difficult opening beat.
“We didn't have a great start and on the first beat you could have quite easily lost a lot, but we managed to hang in there,” he said.
“After that we were chipping away.”
Maxi Fleet Converges At La Maddalena
Tuesday’s coastal racing sent the six Maxi classes northwest from Porto Cervo on courses of varying lengths around the La Maddalena archipelago.
The format eventually brought much of the fleet together in the La Maddalena channel and Bomb Alley, with the larger Maxis sweeping through the fleets ahead.
Twin Soul B won Maxi 3 ahead of Astra I and Manticore, while Fra Diavolo took victory in Maxi 4.
H2O continued her unbeaten start in Maxi 5, winning by 11 minutes 42 seconds on corrected time from the 50-year-old Swan 65 Shirlaf.
Highland Fling XVIII claimed the Multihull race from Allegra by just 36 seconds on corrected time, the closest result of the day.
Jeremy Elliott is also among the Irish-connected sailors competing at the regatta aboard Magic Carpet.
With light winds forecast for Wednesday, organisers have brought the scheduled layday forward by 24 hours.
Racing at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup is scheduled to resume off Porto Cervo at noon on Thursday, September 10.
