Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup: Wally Class goes to the wire

After keeping the fleet ashore to wait for the sea breeze to develop, racing got under way shortly after 1 o'clock for the penultimate day of racing at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and the Rolex Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship 2014. All classes enjoyed a coastal course producing a spectacular spinnaker run for the entire Maxi fleet, along the dramatic Costa Smeralda to Isola di Mortorio, then beating back to TreMonti for a fast fetch to Monaci; finally to hoist spinnakers for a flying finish in the freshening breeze.

The nine-strong Wally Class is producing the closest finish, since the Wally Class started racing in the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup. With the final day of racing still to come, IMA President Claus-Peter Offen's Wally 100, Y3K and Jean Charles Decaux's Wally 80, J-One have exactly the same score line after five races. IMA member, Sir Lindsay Owen Jones, steering Wally 100, Magic Carpet 3 is just a point behind the leaders. Two races are possible tomorrow for a dramatic showdown in the Wally Class.

In the Mini Maxi Racing Class, the first short beat was crucial. IMA member Andres Soriano racing Mills 72 Alegre started well at the pin end with Roberto Tomasini Grinover at the helm of JV72, Robertissima. Alegre was first to the top mark and unfurled their gossamer white spinnaker to extend on the fleet, taking up a lead that was never relinquished.

At the bottom mark, the beautiful Isola di Mortorio, Alegre was 50 seconds ahead of Robertissima and heading back upwind with the breeze ever increasing. Alegre extended their lead to win the race by two minutes after IRC time correction from Robertissima. Two final windward leewards races are scheduled tomorrow: Alegre has a three point cushion, which means only Robertissima can snatch the Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship from Alegre's grasp.

Sir Peter Ogden's JV72, Jethou enjoyed a close battle today, finishing just 15 seconds behind Hap Fauth's JV72, Bella Mente. However, Jethou won the close encounter after time correction.

“The standard in this fleet is very high.” commented Sir Peter Ogden. “Jethou has a mixture of amateurs and top professionals, everybody else is fully professional, which make it quite difficult but you can see by the results that we are so evenly matched. On board we have people like Brad (Butterworth) and Simon (Daubney) but it is very interesting, they act more as teachers, they are not pulling the strings all the time but trying to improve the team's performance by simply talking to them and the crew love it.

For me, the biggest challenge to the class is not to make it a total arms race and keep the boats quite similar. I am pleased to see that we now have our own class within the IMA, the "72 Maxi Class",  and through that mechanism, we can discuss things together and agree on what our schedules might look like. Having Rob Weiland as the class manager means we have someone totally focused on getting consensus in the class on rules and events, making sure people are thinking along the same lines. Next year, everybody will be racing 72s, so we can create a box rule, which keeps the competition tight. We will be doing some new events, like the Maxi Menorca Regatta, which I am looking forward to. It is really great that we are getting an established class, as without one, everybody talks about doing things but often they just don't materialise.”

Tomorrow, Saturday 6 September will mark the last day of racing at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and the Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship 2014 . Weather forecasts predict a wind speed of 20 knots, which would make for a spectacular finale.