The maxis competing over the last four days of inshore and coastal racing at the Real Club Nautico de Palma’s PalmaVela may have been a diverse five.
Ranging from the 143ft/43.6m J Class Svea to the Wally 80 Rose, but their competition was the closest it has ever been here.
This was befitting for the 20th anniversary of the event that was originally created by the RCNP as the Mediterranean season opener for the maxi class. It also provided a strong start to the International Maxi Association’s five event 2024 Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge.
Having won the last two editions of the PalmaVela and last year winning every race but one, Chris Flowers and David M Leuschen’s Wallycento Galateia was favourite, lining up to make it a hat-trick.
But the going was hard for the white-hulled 100 footer. At the end of the second day they were tied with their fellow Wallycento, V, while winning Saturday’s coastal race left them with a slender one point advantage.
In the final day’s coastal race, it was V’s turn, taking her second win of the regatta leaving the two maxi giants to end the event level on points.
Ultimately with her three wins to V’s two, Galateia prevailed on countback to claim the Maxi class for a third consecutive year.
Both Wallycentos have been turboed over the winter. Galateia now has two tonnes of water ballast that has allowed her to shed lead from her keel.
She also has upgraded her spinnaker retrieval system so her kite drops are now lightning fast, in line with her competition. Meanwhile V has also become water ballasted and has been fitted with a lightweight tubular pivoting boom and a rope vang arrangement.
According to North Sails President Read all the Wallycentos (Magic Carpet Cubed included) are now racing in a lightened mode with water ballast, the difference being “where you want the stability.”
V has also changed to elliptical rigging and a longer bowsprit in addition to her three tonnes of water ballast. “There is no disadvantage of using it now from a manoeuvring standpoint. It is as fast as a canting keel.”
Over the course of the four days, three of the five maxis won races under IRC corrected time.
The Farr 100 Leopard 3 podiumed in both races on the opening day but perhaps most remarkable was the mighty Svea which won Friday’s first windward-leeward.
Even Sven Wackerhagen’s Rose came close to winning a race. Their Wally 80 (ex-Tango) scored a 4-2 on the second day of windward-leewards and in the latter finished just six seconds astern of V under IRC corrected time.
Competition in the IMA’s Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge continues over 20-23 May in Sorrento with the IMA Maxi European Championship.
The 2024 IMA Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge:
1) 1-5 May – Palmavela, Palma, Majorca
2) 20-23 May – IMA Maxi European Championship, Sorrento, Italy
3) 8-11 June – Loro Piana Giralgia (inshores), Saint-Tropez, France
4) 8-14 September – Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, Porto Cervo, Sardinia
5) 30 September-5 October – Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, Saint-Tropez, France
