The glittering Costa Smeralda coast played host to the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup last month, with many yachts that had raced at Palma’s Superyacht Cup in June migrating to Porto Cervo for the annual regatta.
Forty five yachts spanned five divisions. In the J-Class fleet Velsheda, Topaz and Svea lined up to do battle on the renowned course around La Maddalena archipelago. Defending champion Svea had spent some three weeks training on the Bay of Palma in preparation for the event.
The Holy Grail of yachting this season was punctuated by extremes in weather. Good breeze on the opening day built to a crescendo on day two. Each division negotiated 1.5 to 2 metre waves. A late start for Velsheda in race two afforded her a clean left hand tack up the first beat. Gaining on the pair to the right Velsheda capitalised further as Topaz blew both spinnakers on the downwind leg. Conditions were brutal for these giants. Svea scored another bullet to make it three wins from three races.
In the more manageable midweek conditions, a spectacular sight was FlyingNikka seen flying on her foils for the entire duration of race three. New to the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup was a multihull division. Long-time competitor Lord Irvine Laidlaw launched his Gunboat 68 just days prior to the first gun. Understandably he stood the boat down from racing in the gnarly conditions early in the week, re-joining Allegra and Convexity 2 in the lighter weather midweek with French sailing legend Loïc Peyron in the afterguard. Yacht Club Costa Smeralda member Adrian Keller’s Allegra, with world speed record-holder Paul Larsen aboard, triumphed in class, followed on equal points by Highland Fling 18 and the American entry Convexity 2.
The weather was light and shifty with residual waves on the penultimate day and the final race had to be abandoned. In the Maxi A Class, David Leuschen and Chris Flowers’ WallyCento Galateia won with a clear lead over Leopard 3 and Bullitt. Over in the Supermaxi division, Juan Ball’s Swan 115 Moat won over Claus-Peter Offen’s Wally 101 Y3K. Third place went to the Palma-based Spirit 111 Geist after overtaking Inoui.
Regular competitors at Palma Vela, the Maxi 72s were rebranded as Maxi Class B. Belle Mente snapped at the heels of fellow Maxi 72 Proteus with three second place finishes. By the close of the regatta two bullets catapulted the American team to the overall win. Pepe Cannonball placed third. Belle Mente owner Hap Fauth, Team Principal of American Magic, the New York Yacht Club’s challenger for the 37th America’s Cup, was ecstatic with the victory.
With the world championship in Barcelona next year in their sights, the J Class had America’s Cup heavyweights Grant Simmer on Velsheda and regular AC & Olympic helmsman Peter Holmberg steering Topaz, during the combination of windward/leeward races and coastal courses. Svea dominated the class with a perfect run of six wins out of six races. Velsheda and Topaz followed in second and third respectively.
Svea’s helmsman and co-owner is Niklas Zennstroem, who has already won the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup five times in the past, four on board the Maxi72 Ran and once last year, with Svea. “It was a fantastic week,” he commented, “we really performed well the whole week. This is our second year and we have been training the crew a lot and working really hard on the performance of the yacht. With these big boats, involving over 30 people, there is a lot of teamwork and this is the reason we’ve been doing so well.”
