Maxi battle to resume tomorrow at Loro Piana Giraglia

The International Maxi Association’s Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge continues this weekend at Loro Piana Giraglia with inshore and coastal racing out of Saint-Tropez. Starting tomorrow, 13 June, this will take place over four days before the start, on Wednesday 17 June, of Loro Piana Giraglia’s famous offshore race to Genoa via the Giraglia rock off northern Corsica. As usual Loro Piana Giraglia is organised by the Yacht Club Italiano in collaboration with the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez.

22 maxis are entered in the inshore and coastal races, divided into two classes. Stars of the show will be the Maxi 1 and Maxi Grand Prix classes, which will be racing together in the faster maxi class. There will be formidable competition between the 100 footers, the much turboed Wallycentos Karel Komárek’s V and Galateia, sailed here by co-owner Chris Flowers and his daughter Lizz, and Joost Schuijff’s Leopard 3.

After two events, V is the present leader of the IMA’s 2026 Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge (MMIC) having recently been crowned IMA Maxi 1 European Champion in Sorrento. But it is close on the MMIC leaderboard – while V is on 105 points, Peter Harrison’s Maxi 72 Jolt and Vincenzo Addessi’s Mylius 18E35 Fra' Diavolo are within just three points of her.

In the short gap between the IMA Maxi Europeans and Loro Piana Giraglia, V has had a 600mm longer bowsprit fitted – a huge job given the short time frame - to increase the separation between her jibs when she sails triple-headed. She also has bid farewell to long term tactician Ken Read who is now focussing on running Karel Komárek’s America’s Cup team. Helm coach Paul Wilcox, V’s Croatian 49er gold medallist strategist Sime Fantela and crew boss Jack Bouttell are stepping up to fill the Read-shaped void.

“We tried to promote within the team instead of bringing in an outsider,” explains Bouttell. “We love it here. It is a really cool place to be and a nice place to sail.”

On board Galateia, Chris and Lizz Flowers will be sharing helming duties this week. Navigator Simon Fisher predicts a light few days ahead: “It is generally looking like it will be down the lower end of the range. Saint-Tropez is always a complex place to sail. Potentially we have good ingredients for a sea breeze, but we will have to wait and see how it develops.”

With this event clashing with the Rolex TP52 World Championship, several crew are absent and on Galateia, for example, American Morgan Larson is standing in for Murray Jones in the afterguard.

Attention here must also be paid to Leopard 3. Once upon a time considered an ‘offshore boat’, she finished Maxi 1 runner up both at the Maxi Europeans and was second, tied on points with the winner, at last September’s Rolex IMA Maxi 1 World Championship, proving that a Leopard can change its spots.

At the smaller end of the larger maxi class the trio of winners from 2025 have returned: Alessandro Del Bono’s JV80 Capricorno, the 2025 IMA Yacht of the Year, won Maxi 1 here last year, after displacing V in the final race, while George Sakellaris’ Maxi 72 Proteus won the Maxi Grand Prix class and Sir Peter Ogden’s 77ft Jethou, a perennial Saint-Tropez competitor and winner, claimed the prize for the bigger maxi class (Maxi 1 and Grand Prix combined).

“It was a tricky year last year because the forecast kept saying the wind was going to be light but we kept on having good wind, so let’s see how it goes,” observes Torben Grael, Capricorno’s tactician. “All the boats are pretty evolved now: My Song has made good progress since last year - they looked more competitive in Sorrento. We hope it will be a good regatta for Capricorno.” A light forecast should benefit Capricorno, although Grael says she has also performed well in stronger breeze.

In the smaller maxi class, we can look forward to a ‘battle of the IMA Presidents’. Present incumbent, Maurits van Oranje, is here racing with his Wally 80 Sud having finished third in class here last year. Returning is past IMA President Benoît de Froidmont, with Wallyño, his Wally 60’s first outing since the IMA Maxi Europeans last year when she was forced to retire after damaging her keel. Her keel has been replaced with one the same weight but with a revised shape, however she lacks hours on the water since those changes have been implemented and, aside from tactician Cedric Pouligny, most of her crew are new. Wallyño has been by far the most successful inshore maxi racer in recent IMA history having won the Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge a record three times, most recently in 2024.

Another favourite for the smaller maxi class is Guido Paolo Gamucci’s canting keel Mylius 60 Cippa Lippa X. After years of steady improvement, she finally found her stride last year both inshore and offshore, winning the 151 Miglia-Trofeo Cetilar and her class in the Loro Piana Giraglia inshores and most recently became IMA Maxi 3 European Champion.

With an IRC TCC of 1.492 fastest in the smaller maxi class is Philip Rann’s Carbon Ocean 82 Aegir, while the slowest is Tara Getty’s 1938 S&S yawl Baruna, with a more sedate TCC of 1.137. Aegir finished mid-fleet at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez last autumn and is the replacement for Rann’s Swan 80 Umiko, which enjoyed a highly successful swansong in 2025 when she won the Aegean 600. She will face one of the longest-standing IMA member yachts in Carlo Puri Negri’s Farr/Felci-designed 70 footer Atalanta II. In her 22 years, Atalanta II has enjoyed regular success and as recently as 2023-24 she came out on top in the IMA’s Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge and was crowned IMA Yacht of the Year for 2018.

Several other yachts are making their IMA race debuts in the smaller maxi class this week including Robert Schuijt's Dutch-flagged Swan 60 Montrachet, Marco Pastorino's Grand Soleil 80LC Bianca II, Stefano Brunelli's Wally 80 Moonshine and the Monty Yacht 94 Free at Last of Marco Piana.

Racing gets underway tomorrow in the Baie de Pampelonne with a first warning signal at 1000.