Early winners decided at Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup

While a Mistral had been forecast for the penultimate day of the 2018 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship, the westerly wind edged only into the early 20s making for an exciting rather than terrifying day out on the water for the 41 competitors.
With a day to go, some winners have already been decided at this, the pinnacle event in the maxi yacht calendar, run by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in conjunction with the International Maxi Association, the official body that oversees and promotes maxi yacht racing globally. This was the case in the two Mini Maxi classes where, under IRC, Roberto Lacorte and his Vismara 62 SuperNikka claimed Group 1 and Riccardo De Michele’s Vallicelli 80 H20 again won today to maintain her perfect score line in Group 2. Remarkably the Wally 77 Lyra has won the Wally class, despite her owner-driver, Chinese Canadian Terry Hui, sailing not just his first regatta with the boat he only acquired in July, but his first regatta ever.

Today’s most significant victory with a day to spare came in the Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship from defending champions, Dieter Schön and MOMO.While all the other classes sailed coastal courses up around the La Maddalena archipelago, the Maxi 72s were back racing two windward-leewards today in 14-18 knots and a choppy sea. MOMO would have finished the event with a perfect scoreline had it not been for making what tactician Michele Ivaldi described as their worst start of the series in today’s second race. Dario Ferrari’s Cannonball reached the top mark in first place and was followed by George Sakellaris’ Proteus, which had attempted to shoot the mark but came to a standstill. This held up MOMO, drawn into a similar state as she tried to keep clear. Cannonball was left to claim her first race win of the Championship.

Nonetheless MOMO had done enough to secure her second consecutive World Championship title. “We are very pleased - the whole team is happy. Overall we’ve had a very good season,” said Dieter Schön. “Winning the last race was not necessary. If you want to win overall sometimes it is good to stay a little conservative. The boat is performing well, but the boat is also sailed very well. If both come together, you get good results.”

Ivaldi added: “It was not as easy as it looked. Cannonball is a very strong opponent and has been optimised quite a bit and they have good sailors. But we had good starts and good calls from the crew on the sails. It was a very good week for the team.”

In the Supermaxi class, the J Class yacht Topaz has won under ORCsy corrected time. She claimed today’s 34.5 mile clock-wise lap of the La Maddalena, that took the fleet northwest beyond the island of Spargi. Considering the extreme cost, weight and momentum of their steed, the Topaz afterguard made some brave calls, notably ‘cutting the corner’ at Spargi and keeping their jib hoisted, despite it developing an alarming split.

Helmsman Peter Holmberg praised Topaz’ Spanish navigator Nacho Postigo. “He put us in corners today that either we had to be crazy or damn good to call it that close. But he did a great job and it worked out well.” Holmberg added that a lot was down to looking at the forecast beforehand and predicting correctly that the wind would be more 15-20 knots than 20-25. This had enabled them to pick the correct upwind headsail. “Velsheda continues to be the benchmark, but I am really proud of how well our guys are sailing. We have great team work and a good chemistry, pulling off all the manoeuvres and playing the boat as hard as we can.”

The Js own the podium in the Supermaxi class with Svea still able to claim second from Velsheda and having already won against Topaz under the J’s own JCA rule.

The fresher conditions were to the liking of George David’s Rambler 88, the fastest boat competing at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, which today was victorious in the Maxi class, with International Maxi Association Secretary General Andrew McIrvine among her crew. “Finally we had some opportunity to stretch our legs and we could do 22-23 knots,” explained navigator Silvio Arrivabene of their run back around the seaward side of the La Maddalena islands “When we go upwind, everyone is always close to us and when we go VMG downwind it’s the same, but today we had a stretch at a better angle.” Arrivabene is one of many ex-Alinghi America’s Cup-winning crew on board Rambler 88, including tactician Brad Butterworth, Simon Daubney, Peter van Niekerk, Jan Dekker, Rodney Ardern and Josh Belsky.

In the Wallycento battle within the Wally class, today it was the turn of Lebanese American Charif Souki's Tango to prevail, the crew today celebrating tactician Thierry Peponnet’s birthday.

“The Wallycentos are very close to each other,” said Souki. “One day it is somebody and the next day it is the next guy.” However the dominant boat, currently second overall in the Wally class is Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones’ Magic Carpet Cubed. “They did some work on the boat this summer and they are sailing it very well,” observed Souki of his opponent, adding: “Tango is a great pleasure to drive. It is powerful. The last boat [a Wally 80 of the same name] was underpowered – this one isn’t. We are getting used to it.”

In the faster Group 1 Mini Maxi class Peter Dubens’ Frers 60 Spectre finally won today after a slow start to the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup. “We ran over the spinnaker on the first day and then we lost the tack on the jib,” recounted Dubens. “Today we pointed a lot higher at the start and we were on the right side. Then we took out the Code Zero early so we were going 14-16 knots and then we took out the spinnaker and were doing 18-21 knots!” He added that they have enjoyed racing around the Costa Smeralda. “Sailing through the rocks, flat water and big winds - it is just stunning.”

In the slower Group 2 Mini Maxi class Guiseppe Puttini's Swan 65 ketch Shirlaf is looking strong to take second place under IRC ahead of Marietta Strasoldo's Swan 651 Lunz Am Meer, which is sailed by Strasoldo’s family and with former America’s Cup helmsman Paolo Cian calling tactics. Lunz Am Meer’s Riccardo Genghini admitted: “We are having some difficulty with the boat because the rudder is not working properly.” As a result they will stand down from tomorrow’s final race. As to the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup overall he added: “The organisation is great and having two race committees this year made things work much smoother and the starts didn’t take so long. We all felt it was an improvement.”

Racing concludes tomorrow with further windward-leewards for the Maxi 72s and coastal courses for the other classes in winds forecast to be slightly lighter than today.

Report by James Boyd / International Maxi Association

For more information on the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and Rolex Maxi 72 World Championship, fulle entry list and results: www.yccs.it

Editor’s notes:

The International Maxi Association (IMA)

The International Maxi Association (IMA) represents the owners of Maxi yachts from all over the world. Recognised in 2010 as the World Sailing international class of Maxi yachts, the IMA is uniquely entitled to organise officially-sanctioned World championships for Maxi yachts. The IMA now has 60 members from all over the world, and more than a dozen honorary members including Gianfranco Alberini, who for more than 30 years was Secretary General of the IMA up until his death in June 2013. The current President of the IMA is Thomas Bscher, owner of the Wally 107 Open Season. Secretary General is Andrew McIrvine, also Admiral of the Royal Ocean Racing Club.

The IMA is registered in Geneva, has a base in Porto Cervo and an office in the UK, for rating and technical matters. With two affiliated classes (Maxi 72s, and, since 2017, the J Class) and one associated class (Wally Class), the IMA's remit is to "guide and structure maxi yacht racing. The IMA rule defines and categorises maxi yachts: it aims to embrace all maxi yachts and as such follows, instigates and encourages developments that are deemed to have a positive effect on the construction and racing of maxi-sized boats."

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