The fourth edition of the International Maxi Association’s Maxi European Championship sets sail today (Friday 16 May) with the start of its offshore component, the Regata dei Tre Golfi; the Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia’s offshore race this year celebrating its 70th edition.
Among the Regata dei Tre Golfi fleet of 120 are 29 maxis which will set sail at 1630 from off Porticciolo di Santa Lucia, home of the CRVI’s clubhouse and in the shadow of Naples’ Castel dell’Ovo.
The course follows the same route as 2024: a WNW-ESE sausage crossing the ‘three gulfs’, for which the event is named. Exiting the Gulf of Naples, the fleet initially heads WNW to Ponza, before returning past Ischia, Capri and then Punta Campanella at the tip of the Sorrento peninsula. It then continues along the Amalfi coast to the southerly turning mark of the Li Galli islands, before backtracking to Punta Campanella and on to Naples – a distance of 170 miles.
For the IMA Maxi European Championship the maxi fleet races as a whole for both the offshore and next week’s inshore and coastal races, taking place over 19-22 May out of Sorrento. For scoring the maxi fleet is also divided into four classes, renamed Maxi 100, Maxi Grand Prix, Maxi Alpha and Maxi Bravo.
The headline act is the ‘Maxi 100’, comprising grand prix racers of 80-100ft LH and rating 1.800+. It includes six 100 footers (compared to four last year) with a line honours contest between the two former Rolex Sydney Hobart contenders Seng Huang Lee’s SHK Scallywag and the defending line honours champion, Furio Benussi’s ARCA SGR.
SHK Scallywag is the scratch boat. “I have never done this race before, so I am pretty happy we have Andrew Cape navigating who has done it a few times,” admits SHK Scallywag’s skipper David Witt. “Last year we tried to take all the big sails off, the outriggers, have no ballast etc.
This time we aren’t doing that – we are in fully turboed mode. So light air is good for us – the new Magic Carpet E is 37 tonnes and we are 30 tonnes with a lot more sail area.” And Witt knows his opponent well – 20 years ago he used to run ARCA SGR when she was Skandia Wild Thing.
Latest addition to the maxi fleet is Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones’ 100ft Magic Carpet E, from the drawing board of leading IMOCA and former Emirates Team New Zealand designer Guillaume Verdier, which features battery powered hydraulics and an innovative appendage package, including a canting raking keel.
The Regata dei Tre Golfi will be her first offshore race and her owner, team and the maxi community are keen to see how she fares. She faces a trio of former Wallycentos Tilakkhana II, V and Galateia. The former Magic Carpet³, Tilakkhana II is now owned by Pascale Decaux, who entered her previous Wally 80 Tilakkhana two years ago. She comes fresh from victory at PalmaVela, while Karel Komárek’s V won March’s North Sound Maxi Regatta and David M Leuschen and Chris Flowers’ Galateia came out on top at PalmaVela and Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in 2023.
Also strongly in contention in the Maxi 100 class will be Andrea Recordati’s Wally 93 Bullitt, Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s ClubSwan 80 My Song and Alessandro Del Bono’s 80ft Capricorno.
The Maxi Grand Prix class is the phoenix that has risen from the ashes of the Maxi 72. It’s thoroughbred racers competing here are 72 to 77ft LH with a rating span of 1.612-1.667. The most highly optimised racers they have won the last two IMA Maxi Europeans.
Defending champion Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente is back as is Peter Dubens’ North Star which won in 2023 by a quarter point from George Sakellaris’ Proteus, which also returns. Peter Harrison’s Jolt is back, the highest rated in the class. Sir Peter Ogden’s Jethou is the longest of the group at 77ft and claimed Regata dei Tre Golfi line honours in 2023 with a time of 15 hours 30 minutes 1 second, albeit on a slightly shorter course.
North Star has been in Sorrento practicing since Monday. “The team’s been great, working hard. We are the lowest rated which was partly our choice for this venue, because shutdowns and other things can happen. And our boat isn’t suited to play a high rated game,” says her tactician, Nick Rogers. The boats continue to develop, with Jolt featuring a trim tab while transom interceptors along with resizing and repositioning of water ballast tanks and increasing the spec of their transfer systems are all evolving.
As to the weather, Rogers advises: “It is all over the place, but it looks likely to be a downwind start, which will be more than a little exciting. Then it’s going to be some form of a reach, potentially turning downwind with quite a big change. A bit fluffy around the island, and then a big fetch back. I’d be amazed if the record isn’t broken by the big boats…”
In length the Maxi Alpha class spans Jean-Sébastien Decaux’s Wally 94 Sensei down to regular entrant the canting keel Mylius 60 Cippa Lippa X of Guido Paolo Gamucci and in IRC rating from Sensei at 1.549 down to Jean-Michel Caye’s Vismara 77 Luce Guida at 1.356. Two IMA Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge winners are competing in defending champion Carlo Puri Negri’s 70ft Atalanta II and Jean-Pierre Barjon’s 65ft Spirit of Lorina, the 2021-22 winner. Also in the mix are Alberto Leghissa’s Frers 64 Anywave-Safilens and Fabio Cannavale’s Baltic 78 Lupa of the Sea.
2024’s winner in this class was Paul Berger’s Swan 80 Kallima. “It is a very interesting fleet,” states her tactician Romain Mouchel. “We have got a couple of new spinnakers and we continue to make small improvements. Our crew is very similar to last year and our prep has been better than previous years.”
Weather-wise, Mouchel says “It is very uncertain. A bit like every year it looks generally light but there is a local weather model which shows some breeze for the start. If that model is right it could be a fast race for the faster boats with a reach to Ponza and back upwind, but in some breeze to Capri. The other models are showing light, confused breeze. We will have to wait and see.”
The importance of a good result in the Regata dei Tre Golfi cannot be underestimated in the scoring for the IMA European Championship. Last year the smaller boats came in with breeze and the top spots were filled by the smallest maxis in Maxi Bravo, with the smallest and oldest of all Giuseppe Puttini’s 1976 vintage Swan 65 ketch Shirlaf claiming the overall prize. This was enough to see her finish the Europeans sixth overall.
The other top four maxi finishers from last year’s Regata dei Tre Golfi are all back in Luca Scoppa’s Dehler 60 Blue Oyster, Yacht Club Gaeta President Vincenzo Addessi Mylius 18E35 Fra Diavolo as well as IMA President Benoît De Froidmont’s Wally 60 Wallyño, which finished eighth overall last year and is hoping to better her fourth place in 2022. Competing for the first time are Giampaolo Pavesi’s Fortuna 60 Aleph and Robert Szustkowski’s Mylius 60 FD R6 (ex-Sud).
15 minutes before the maxi monohulls set sail on the Regata dei Tre Golfi, will be the start for the catamarans competing in the event’s inaugural Tre Golfi Multihull Trophy. The line-up includes three maxi catamarans, Adrian Keller’s Irens 84 Allegra, Lord Irvine Laidlaw’s Gunboat 80 Highland Fling 18 and Riccardo Pavoncelli’s Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup-winning Gunboat 66 Gaetana.
