Victory at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup for Joost Schuijff’s Leopard 3 saw the Farr 100 win the Rolex IMA Maxi 1 World Championship on the Costa Smeralda by a clear three points.
Leopard 3 won ahead of the 82ft Django HF with V third (but tied on points with Deep Blue and YCCS Commodore Andrea Recordati’s 93ft Bullitt).
Wednesday’s two windward-leewards – won respectively by Karel Komarek’s 100ft V and Alessandro Del Bono’s brand new 82ft Capricorno – had left Wendy Schmidt’s 85ft Deep Blue overall leader.
However Deep Blue’s chance evaporated after they suffered batten pocket damage. They effected a repair and finished but were sadly out of the running.
In Maxi 2 (for the former Maxi 72s), first place by a mere 20 seconds under IRC corrected time, for George and Christina Sakellaris’ Proteus left them tied, but winning on countback from Peter Harrison’s Jolt.
After Wednesday’s race Juan Ball’s Swan 115 Moat had led the Supermaxi class, but a final win for Niklas Zennström and Filip Engelbert’s 43.6m Svea caused the Swedish J to claim the Super Maxi Class on countback.
This was Svea’s third consecutive victory here and personally Zennström’s seventh (including his four previous Mini Maxi wins). Seeing the giants, thundering around the course in 20+ winds and a significant chop from the Strait of Bonifacio, was magnificent.
Like Proteus, Oscar 3, in Maxi 3, too often has been ‘bridesmaid but never the bride’.
Aldo and Elena Parisotto rectified this today. While 2023 winner Jean-Pierre Barjon’s 65ft Spirit of Lorina claimed today’s breezy race, Oscar 3’s second was enough to secure the black Mylius 65FD her first victory here following seconds in the last two editions.
One short of Zennström’s record here is Riccardo de Michele who scored his sixth Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup class win in Maxi 4, having participated every year since 2007.
The Multihull class competed for the second time here having made its debut in 2023.
While both days saw Lord Irvine Laidlaw’s Gunboat 80 Highland Fling 18 first home on the water to Adrian Keller’s 82ft Allegra, both races this week were won under ORCmh corrected time by Riccardo Pavoncelli’s Gunboat 66 Gaetana.
The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup was the penultimate event in the IMA’s 2024 Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge, which concludes next month with Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez.
