Six champions were crowned in Porto Cervo as the 36th Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup closed out a week that swung from light morning breeze to a 28-knot Mistral and back to a gentle northeasterly for the finale. Dean Barker provided New Zealand's standout result, calling tactics aboard Maxi 3 winner Artemis Bleu, while Murray Jones and Kelvin Harrap finished third in the Maxi 1 World Championship aboard Galateia. The week also produced a countback decider, a single-point title margin, and a record eighth class win for one of the fleet's most successful campaigns.
A week of two weather systems
Racing opened in light easterlies of 7 to 11 knots before a Mistral began building through midweek, peaking at 18 to 23 knots with gusts to 28 on Friday. Light winds forecast for Wednesday prompted the race committee to bring the scheduled Thursday rest day forward, preserving Thursday for the stronger conditions expected to follow. The final day swung back the other way entirely, a gentle 10-knot breeze rotating north to northeast, closing out a series that had asked completely different questions of the fleet on almost every day.
Northstar III dominates on debut
Peter Dubens' newly launched Northstar III, with two-time Olympic medallist Nick Rogers calling tactics, made this year's Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup her debut regatta and ran away with the Maxi Grand Prix World Championship. Four straight wins built an enormous early cushion, and fifth and fourth on Friday were enough to make the title mathematically secure with Saturday's final race still to sail. Northstar III closed with another win in the finale to finish on 14 points.
Filip Balcaen's Maxi 72 Balthasar took second on 25, while Peter Harrison's Maxi 72 Jolt edged George and Christina Sakellaris' J/V 72 Proteus with kiwi Hamish Pepper aboard on tiebreak for third, both finishing on 28. Defending champion Giovanni Lombardi Stronati's Wally Rocket 71 Django 7X slipped to fifth, and New Zealand's Brad Butterworth finished his campaign last in the seven-boat class aboard Peter Ogden's J/V 77 Jethou. Rogers described the win as the product of years of work with Dubens, this is the 11th year running he's raced with the same owner at this event.
Leopard 3 denies a repeat for Galateia
The Maxi 1 World Championship went to Joost Schuijff's Farr 100 Leopard 3, with Australian tactician Chris Nicholson calling the shots. After finishing third in the opening race, Leopard 3 won five of the seven races contested, including the final four in a row, to finish on 13 points. Karel Komarek's Wally Cento V took second on 20, while defending champion Galateia, David Leuschen and Chris Flowers's Wally Cento with New Zealanders Murray Jones and Kelvin Harrap in the afterguard, finished third on 22, never leading the series at any point across the week despite staying in touch with the top of the fleet from start to finish.
Barker and Neville seal a tight Maxi 3 win
James Neville's Botin 65 Artemis Bleu, with Dean Barker calling tactics, took out Maxi 3 with three straight wins in the final three races. The deciding margin over Silvia de Longhi and Franz Wilhelm Baruffaldi Preis' J/V 62 Manticore came down to just 17 seconds on corrected time in Saturday's finale, with Artemis Bleu finishing on 9 points to Manticore's 13. It capped a strong season on Porto Cervo's waters for Neville, who also won June's Sardinia Cup 1 class with Barker calling tactics aboard a different boat entirely, the TP52 Ino Veritas.
Yoru's single-point Maxi 4 triumph
Luigi Sala's Vismara 62 Yoru claimed Maxi 4 by a single point over Vincenzo Addessi's Mylius 18E35 Fra Diavolo, despite Benoit de Froidmont's 60-foot Wallyno winning the final race. Tactician Gabriele "Ganga" Bruni described the result as the payoff for a boat that had come close at this event several times before without ever quite getting over the line.
H2O extends its own record
Riccardo De Michele's Vallicelli 78 H2O won Maxi 5 with four wins from five races, finishing on 6 points ahead of Riccardo Eugen Genghini's Swan 651 Lunz am Meer on 12 and Giuseppe Puttini's Swan 65 Shirlaf on 13.2. It's H2O's eighth class victory at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, a remarkable run that began in 2015.
A countback decides the Multihulls
The tightest finish of the week came in the Multihull class, where Adrian Keller's Irens 78 Allegra won the final race to draw level on 9 points with Irvine Laidlaw's 80-foot VPLP Highland Fling XVIII. The title was settled on countback, Highland Fling's three race wins across the week outweighing Allegra's one, handing the trophy to Laidlaw's boat despite Allegra's remarkable consistency, runner-up in four of the five races sailed. Marcos Sirota's trimaran Irens 63 Sophia, making her debut at the event, took third.
Closing out in Piazza Azzurra
The regatta closed with a prize giving in Piazza Azzurra, where YCCS paid tribute to photographer Carlo Borlenghi, who passed away recently and whose images helped build the international reputation of the club's regattas over decades. Yacht Club Costa Smeralda now turns its attention to the 23rd Rolex Swan Cup, running from 13 to 19 September and marking Nautor Swan's 60th anniversary with a fleet approaching 170 boats.
