The Maxi 1 class for the 80-100ft giants competing for their Rolex IMA World Championship sailed the longest course at 39 miles, an elongated anticlockwise lap of the entire La Maddalena archipelago.
Among the 100ft front runners, Karel Komárek’s V led for the duration on the water but with David M Leuschen and Chris Flowers’ Galateia and Joost Schuijff’s Leopard 3 hanging on to beat her today, but only by 46 seconds after almost three hours of racing.
Despite approaching her 20th birthday Leopard 3 has been the most successful of the 100ft maxis here recently having won the first Rolex IMA Maxi 1 Worlds in 2024 and finishing runner-up to Galateia last year.
For a second day, Peter Dubens at the helm of his latest North Star III dominated the Rolex IMA Maxi Grand Prix World Championship. First to finish across the entire fleet, they arrived 7 minutes 10 seconds ahead of Peter Harrison’s Jolt and 3 minutes 48 seconds ahead under IRC corrected time.
The extent of North Star III lead on the water is no surprise: her IRC TCC is 1.681 which is closer to the ‘slowest’ yacht in Maxi 1 (My Song at 1.700) than the next closest below her in her class (Jethou at 1.655).
After winning yesterday but then being demoted due to a penalty, Luciano Gandini’s Mylius 80 FD Twin Soul B finally secured first place in Maxi 3 Tuesday from Marcos Tomas Vivian de La Pedrosa’s Wally 94 Astra 1 and Silvia De’ Longhi and Franz Wilhelm Baruffaldi Preis’s JV62 Manticore.
In Maxi classes 4 and 5 it was business as usual. In the latter, for a second day, Riccardo De Michele’s Vallicelli 78 H2O won but this time by a phenomenal 11 minutes 42 seconds under IRC corrected time from the 50-year-old Swan 65 Shirlaf of Giuseppe Puttini.
Meanwhile in Maxi 4 Yacht Club Gaeta President Vincenzo Addessi’s Mylius 18E35 Fra Diavolo won under IRC corrected time from Luigi Sala’s Vismara 62 Yoru and former IMA President Benoît de Froidmont’s Wally 60 Wallyño.
Finally in the Multihull class, the catamarans came into their own today with Lord Irvine Laidlaw’s 80ft Highland Fling XVIII narrowly beating Adrian Keller’s 84ft catamaran Allegra by a mere 36 seconds under ORCmh corrected time – the closest result of the day across all of the classes.
The layday, originally scheduled for Thursday, has been brought forwards by 24 hours to Wednesday.
Division leaders at the close of Day 2 are:
- Leopard 3 in the Maxi 1 class
- Northstar III in the Maxi Grand Prix class
- Twin Soul B in the Maxi 3 class
- Fra Diavolo for the Maxi 4s
- H2O in Maxi 5
- Highland Fling XVIII in the Multihull group.
Full results available here