Maxi victory for local heroes in 16th 151 Miglia-Trofeo Cetilar
by James Boyd / International Maxi Association 1 Jun 11:06 BST
30 May - 1 June 2025
Guido Paolo Gamucci's Cippa Lippa X © Studio Borlenghi / International Maxi Association
It has been a long time coming after spending much of the 2024 season finishing second and even continuing this in the recent IMA Maxi European Championship, but finally Guido Paolo Gamucci's Cippa Lippa X has won a race.
On Saturday morning at 1012 off Marina di Punta Ala, the white-hulled canting keel Mylius 60 crossed the finish line of the 151 Miglia-Trofeo Cetilar to win the IRC Over 60 maxi class.
Soon after the maxi class start off Livorno at 1405, Cippa Lippa X was locked in with a group including Roberto Lacorte's 60ft foiler FlyingNikka, Marco Malgara's RP78 Nice and the defending champion, Carlo A Puri Negri's Farr/Felci 70 Atalanta II. As the others got stuck off the northwest coast of Elba mid-Friday evening, FlyingNikka made great advances and broke away. After rounding the new southwesterly turning mark of Pianosa between 0100 and 0300 Saturday morning there was an effective restart for this group as they encountered a transition zone. When the breeze returned, here once again FlyingNikka shot away as the breeze briefly topped 12 knots - the most the leaders saw in the race - leaving Nice and Cippa Lippa X in their own personal match race that would last for the remainder of the race. The longer, but older, Nice eventually finished at 1005 Saturday morning just ahead of Cippa Lippa X to take second place in the IRC Over 60 maxi class under corrected time with Atalanta II third.
"Last year we always seemed to finish second, so it is great to win it this time," commented Cippa Lippa X's tactician, former Olympic Laser sailor Michele Regolo. "It was a pretty light race with high pressure dominating the situation. We had a fantastic start and a good first part, but then close to Elba there was transition with no wind, so the group came together but we decided to gybe inside Elba, which apparently would be 'death' but in fact we managed to find a local breeze. From then on, we had a really good race. Of course, as usual in long offshores you have to be in the right place at the right moment for the gradient and thermic transition. We pushed very hard and we did a lot of sail changes and we didn't spare ourselves. I am very happy for Guido Paolo Gamucci - because he is very passionate about sailing and this boat and finally we have won..."
For Gamucci, who typically races his boat intensely throughout the season, the victory was doubly satisfying as his yacht club is Punta Ala, the event's co-organiser with Yacht Club Repubblica Marinara di Pisa and Yacht Club Livorno.
Regolo said they had also perhaps benefitted from their match race with Nice. "They are a bit faster than us so when we made some good moves, then they would stretch away again with their speed so it was like we were attached by shock cord. When you have a slightly faster boat next to you it pushes you to give more and more, so they were a help for us."
Far ahead of this group on the water once again was Furio Benussi's ARCA SGR. The Trieste-based 100 footer sauntered around the course to collect line honours at 06:08 local time Saturday morning. Unsurprisingly in the light conditions, her elapsed time of 15 hours 31 minutes 57 seconds, was almost two hours outside of Rambler 88's race record.
"The race was really nice, we never stopped," commented Benussi. "There was a tricky transition between Elba and Formiche but we reached it in the right mode and passed through really quickly. We slowed to 2-3 knots just for a couple of minutes, but we never stopped."
Roberto Lacorte's FlyingNikka struggled in the light conditions, according to Project Manager and Sailmaker Alessio Razeto. "It was great fun, but it was up and down with the wind conditions, with a short flight time - just 8% of the race. But we continue to improve our displacement mode and there were times when we were catching up ARCA SGR. We had no expectations when we started because it was a light wind forecast."
Over the winter the flying 60 footer has continued to be upgraded, including a reduction in her foil size, the fitting of an interceptor, an America's Cup style 'soft luff' jib and fences on her keel and foil arms. They are now looking at fitting aircraft-style canopies to their cockpits.
This year the 151 Miglia-Trofeo Cetilar took place on a new course avoiding the Giraglia rock off north Corsica instead sticking more closely to a lap of the Tuscan Archipelago, centred around Elba. This was well received by the maxi owners, although the wind fully shut down down on Saturday afternoon leaving a six hour gap between the arrivals of eighth placed Tapioca, the ICE 66 of José Agnaldo Andrade Jr and Alois Neukirchen's Mylius 66 RS Schorch.
The event concludes on Sunday evening with the prize-giving where ARCA SGR's crew will receive the Challenge Trophy for their line honours victory while Guido Paolo Gamucci and his crew on Cippa Lippa X will receive the IMA Trophy for the first overall on corrected time in the Maxi class. This will be followed by the event's usual epic sit-down dinner for all its competitors in the water-side grounds of the Yacht Club Punta Ala.
The 151 Miglia-Trofeo Cetilar was the fourth event in the IMA's 2024-25 Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge which continues on 11 June with the offshore race of Loro Piana Giraglia.
See the current leaderboard from the 2024-25 IMA Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge here
More information on the 151 Miglia-Trofeo Cetilar: 151miglia.it
For more on the International Maxi Association visit www.internationalmaxiassociation.com or see the 2025 IMA Yearbook