– Sept 16th 2021
After a year’s absence, maxi racing’s premier event returned to Sardinia’s magnificent Costa Smeralda stronger than ever. Organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda (YCCS) in conjunction with the International Maxi Association (IMA), the event is the third of five in the IMA 2021 Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge.
The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup has been the highlight of the international maxi racing calendar for more than four decades now. IMA Secretary General Andrew McIrvine sets the scene: “After the enforced pause last year in our long series of pinnacle Maxi Championships in Porto Cervo, we are very excited to be returning with an impressively strong fleet. We have good numbers in all three of our main fleets, Super Maxi, Maxi and Mini Maxi.
This year’s Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup had 45 yachts entered from across the globe with a particularly good spread across the three fleets. The closest racing was between the former Maxi 72s, which ran away with the top five spots in Mini Maxi 1. Ultimately Dario Ferrari’s Botin-designed Cannonball, finished two points clear of Jim Swartz’s Vesper in turn one ahead of both George Sakellaris’ Proteus and Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente.
Cannonball was the defending champion here and racing with the same equipment as in 2019. “The crew was very good, the tactician was very good – so we won,” explained Ferrari. “I believe that this is the best class and between everybody the racing is close.” Victory has inspired Ferrari to compete with Cannonball again in 2022.
Wendy Schmidt’s new Botin 85 Deep Blue, a grand prix racer enjoyed her first Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup. Among the Mini Maxi classes, the hottest competition was between the former Maxi 72s. While Dario Ferrari’s Cannonball won in 2019, the newest in this fleet and another Botin design, is American three time Maxi 72 World Champion Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente, the highest rated of the Maxi 72s.
Bella Mente arrived race fit having won both Block Island Race Week and the New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta in the USA, “It is the regatta that the whole rest of the season points to,” Hap Fauth declared. “We love sailing out of Porto Cervo and the races are always exciting whether they are coastal or around the buoys. We have been doing it for 10 years and we have won the Worlds in 2012, and 2015 and 2016. It is a favourite of ours.”
The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup was the third event in the International Maxi Association’s Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge, which continues with Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez and then Palmavela in October.
Event website : www.yccs.it
