With its rugged coastline, offshore islands and sometimes narrow passages, the north of Sardinia provides a spectacular backdrop for challenging and exciting races. On the first day, the wind on the Costa Smeralda blew at ten knots at the start and over 20 knots at the finish.
The five longest participants, excluding the three Js, completed a course of 32 miles. Juan Ball's Swan 115 "Moat" sailed ahead, but had the four metre shorter "y3k" constantly stuck to its stern. After taking the ORCsy allowance into account, the new Wally 101 eleven seconds in front of the poison green 33-metre Baltic "Inoui" of the Swiss Marco Vögele. After correcting the time, "Moat" was 46 seconds off first place.
The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup is the first regatta appearance for Claus-Peter Offen's "y3k", which was launched in May. The former President of the International Maxi Association (IMA) was delighted with the performance of his fourth Wally. Compared to its predecessor, the new one is "completely different in terms of width and weight: she is 15 per cent lighter, has 15 per cent more draught and 15 per cent more sail area. That makes her much easier to sail."
The race crew was largely taken over from the 14-year-old Wally 100, and tactician Karol Jablonski is also back on board: "It's a great new boat. We've only trained together for two days and still have a lot of optimisation work ahead of us. Today we had a good start and sailed a clean race. We made some good decisions about when to hoist the gennaker and when to hoist it." The short preparation phase was also the reason why the Wally 101 started in the Supermaxi class (over 100 feet) and therefore did not compete directly against the three 100-foot-long Wallycentos "Galateia", "Magic Carped 3" and "V" (Ex- "Tango" ) from the Maxi A group. Here, the 60 to 100-foot participants are extensively measured according to IRC, and the power density is high.
Foiler starts for the first time with other Maxis
The 18-metre trailer is also in the A-Class "Flying Nikka" which flew consistently around the course on day one. Last year, the team led by owner Roberto Lacorte was given its own start as a precaution. YACHT was able to convince itself of the now extremely stable flight behaviour before the start of the regatta. In contrast to the AC75 and AC40 of the America's Cup, the fixed keel makes "Flying Nikka" much more resistant to capsizing and take-off anyway. The six-man crew always has the carbon racer under control, which is also due to the software for the automatic control of the T-foils.
After an - understandably - conservative start, the futuristic Mills design finished over 50 minutes ahead of "Black Jack", but slipped to penultimate place due to a "ridiculous" rating, ahead of the unfinished "Bullitt". With a rating of 3449, the foiling single has twice the racing value of Wendy Schmidt's Botin 85 "Deep Blue". The ten yachts in Group A were won by the Farr 100 "Leopard 3", which shed around five tonnes over the winter and came to Porto Cervo with a new mast and winches.
New group of Maxi Multihulls
A milestone in the more than 40-year history of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup is the start of three catamarans, including Adrian Keller's 84-foot custom cat "Allegra" and the Gunboat 68 "Convexity2" of Suna Said and three-time M32 World Champion Don Wilson. Lord Irvine Laidlaw moored in front of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda (YCCS) with his new Gunboat 80 "Highland Fling 18". The multiple Maxi Cup winner previously trained on a Gunboat 68, but his other 16 yachts were all single-hulled racers.
"Highland Fling 18" was the first cat to round the top mark east of Santa Maria, but "Convexity 2" took the lead on the downwind course west of La Maddalena and held on to the finish - with The Ocean Race winning skipper Charlie Enright and match racing world champion Taylor Canfield on board. As "Allegra" is older and heavier, this year's Gotland Run participant won on corrected ORCmh time. At a cocktail party organised by Gunboat and the International Maxi Association, YCCS Commodore Michael Illbruck said: "A multihull or a J-Class - it's all part of our sport, a testament to the incredible spread of technology."
Close starts for the J-Class yachts
The three J-Class yachts, which were sent on two up-and-down races like the eight Maxi B starters, were an exception as far as the course was concerned. As the Maxi B class now also includes the former Maxi 72s, the already confusing term "Mini Maxi" no longer exists. The races were as close as ever with three boats tied at the top: "Pepe Cannonball", steered by Peter Harrison, "Proteus" by George Sakellaris and "Bella Mente" by Hap Fauth, who travelled from the USA with a new double rudder.
In the Js, there was no getting past the 43.6 metre "Svea" of Niklas Zennström and Filip Engelbert, which won both heats. Mainsheet trimmer and project manager Tim Powell explained: "With three boats, the starts are obviously important, and we had two good ones." Behind the Swedes, "Velsheda" and "Topaz" were tied on points. "Topaz" won the second start, with America's Cup and match racing ace Peter Holmberg proving a good hand. "Svea's" tactician Bouwe Bekking commented: "We could have passed the 'Topaz' guys, we had the opportunity, but you just don't go that far on these boats. We all have to be careful."
The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup is sailed on four further days, with Thursday being used as a rest day or alternative day in the event of a calm.
Here are the results after day one:
