On her first ever competitive outing Peter Dubens’ new North Star III took Back-to-Back race wins on the first day of racing in Porto Cervo for the 36th edition of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup.
North Star III comfortably won Monday’s first Maxi Grand Prix class race by 1:44 under IRC corrected time from Filip Balcaen’s Balthasar, which had done well playing the shifts up the middle of the first upwind. In race two Dubens’ North Star III team took a second win, finishingd 1:25 ahead of Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente.
North Star III is 76ft long and highest rated in the Maxi Grand Prix class permitting her to get ahead into clean air. She also hosts much technical innovation such as a keel that has a limited angle of cant, removing any need to carry water ballast and enabling faster manoeuvres.
The first day of racing in Porto Cervo saw all classes complete a coastal race among the islands of the La Maddalena archipelago, with the sole exception of the Maxi Grand Prix class, which contested two windward-leeward races off the coast of Porto Cervo.
Division leaders at the close of the opening day are:
- Capricorno in the Maxi 1 class
- Northstar III in the Maxi Grand Prix class
- Artemis Bleu in the Maxi 3 class
- Fra Diavolo for the Maxi 4s
- H2O in Maxi 5 and the trimaran Sophia in the Multihull group.
In Maxi 3 there was a battle of the America’s Cup helmsmen with Dean Barker calling the shots on James Neville’s Botin 65 Artemis Bleu and Francesco Bruni tactician on Luciano Gandini’s Mylius 80FD Twin Soul B. On the water Twin Soul B finished second behind Silvia De’ Longhi and Franz Wilhelm Baruffaldi Preis’ 62ft Manticore.
In the six-strong multihull class, the favourites, Adrian Keller’s 84ft Allegra and Lord Irvine Laidlaw’s VPLP Custom 80 Highland Fling XVIII, saw the former beat the latter by just two minutes under ORCmh.
However the star performer was Marcos Sirota’s Irens 63 trimaran Sophia, winner of this year’s IMA Caribbean Maxi Multihull Series, which beat Allegra by 20 minutes 23 seconds.
Full results available here