Day three of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup brought north winds again, but these hit Sardinia's north coast at 12 to 16 knots. The sea was flatter, although large waves still rolled through unexpectedly. The Maxi C group had to tackle 26 miles anti-clockwise around La Maddalena, while everyone else still had to round Spargi to reach 30 miles. Two up-and-down races were scheduled for the three J-Class yachts.
"Today's course was simply marvellous," said Lord Irvine Laidlaw, owner of the Gunboat 80 "Highland Fling 18" catamaran. "The high reach favoured the catamarans in particular, but we were still constantly changing sails. There was a bit of everything - the wind was fantastic and the competition was really good. So it was a great day." Laidlaw has won the Maxi Cup several times with his monohulls. Today he finished 14 seconds ahead of the 84-foot cat of Adrian Keller, who is leading the new class ahead of the Gunboat 68 "Convexity2".
New winner in the Maxi A class
Bullitt", Andrea Recordati's heavily modified 93-foot Wally, also achieved her first victory. However, she did not finish on the podium for the time being. Thanks to a consistent series of 2-3-2, the Wallycento "Galateia" of David M. Leuschen and Chris Flowers has now taken the lead from "Leopard 3" in the classification of the ten Maxi A starters. "The first windward mark was the key to maintaining our position against 'Galateia' and 'V' and getting close to the top mark," explained Bullitt's tactician Joca Signorini, who added that it was the first incident-free race of the week. The sometimes complex hydraulic systems that drive the winches on most of the Maxis are proving vulnerable.
Ken Read is in fifth place as tactician with the Wallycento "V", whereby the owner is new to the maxi circus. "He's having a blast, we're really pleased," said Read. "We started on the boat today. We wanted to go right, had a good first beat and came round the windward mark first." He continued: "Space sheets are our Achilles heel. It's a light wind boat with very little rocker, designed for up-and-down racing."
The 60-foot foiler "Flying Nikka" had fun sailing ahead again and sailed a 32-minute gap to "Black Jack".
"y3k" leads the Supermaxis again
In the Supermaxi class, Claus-Peter Offen's "y3k" secured its second victory of the day, this time with a one-minute lead over Marco Vögele's 111-foot "Inoui". Offen's Wally 101 is now ahead in the overall standings, just one point ahead of "Inoui", which has finished second in every race. "It's like Groundhog Day," remarked Chris Main, tactician of "Inoui", which is competing in the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup for the first time since 2019. "The boat is going great. The owner is enjoying the racing, the whole concept. There is no pressure."
In the highly competitive Maxi B classification, which is dominated by the yachts of the former Maxi 72 box-rule class, "Bella Mente" won ahead of "Proteus". "We like these conditions. Tactically, we didn't choose the wrong side today. We tore the spinnaker, but the guys did a fantastic job," said US owner Hap Fauth. 'Bella Mente' tactician Terry Hutchinson, who is taking time out from Fauth's America's Cup campaign American Magic, added: "We had a good start downwind of the group. Once we were in the lead around the top mark, we just had to make the boat work for us."
In the Js "Svea" and in Maxi C "Spirit of Lorina" continued their clean series.
There will be two more days of sailing off Porto Cervo, with Thursday being used as a rest day.
Here are the results after day three:
