Diverse maxi fleet ready for Loro Piana Giraglia
by James Boyd / International Maxi Association 7 Jun 10:04 BST
7-10 June 2025
Karel Komárek's 100ft V is one of the top performers in the Maxi 100 class © Loro Piana Giraglia / Studio Borlenghi
The International Maxi Association's 2025 Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge (MMIC) continues tomorrow, Saturday 7 June with the first of four days of inshore/coastal race of Loro Piana Giraglia, organised by the Yacht Club Italiano in collaboration with the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez, prior to the event's famous offshore race to Genoa starting on Wednesday 11 June.
Among the wider fleet, taking part in the inshore/coastals will be 24 maxi yachts ranging in length from Robert Szustkowski's Mylius 60 R6 to Federico Borromeo's Southern Wind 102 Almagores II and under IRC TCC from Roberto Lacorte 61ft AC75-style foiler FlyingNikka (TCC 3.444) to the Contest 63 Blue Vision (TCC 1.238). As was the case at the recent IMA Maxi European Championship in Sorrento two weeks ago, they will be divided into four classes - Maxi 100, Maxi Grand Prix, and for the cruiser-racers Maxi Alpha and Maxi Beta.
Top placed Maxi 100 at the recent IMA Maxi European Championship, and also the defending class champion here is David M Leuschen and Chris Flowers' 100ft Galateia.
"The owners like being here and, so long as the wind co-operates this week, it should be a lot of fun," commented Kelvin Harrap, tactician aboard Galateia, this week alongside Scot Ian Budgen and former Magic Carpet afterguard and multiple Olympic medallist Jochen Schümann. "The weather is looking pretty mixed - light in the mornings and fairly windy in the afternoons. The coastal races can be tricky because you can often finish in light winds in the bay here." As to their prospects this week: "It is a bit like golf - things seem to go your way, with a bit of momentum but V are the top team at the moment and it looks like they have a lot of new sails. Everyone keeps evolving and pushing."
Karel Komárek's 100ft V came out top in the North Sound Maxi Regatta in the British Virgin Islands earlier this year, while highest rated among the LH 100 footers is Singaporean Huang-Seng Lee's powerful SHK Scallywag and, if there is enough breeze to get her flying consistently, Roberto Lacorte's 61ft foiler FlyingNikka will leave the fleet for dead. Loro Piana Giraglia will be the first regatta on home waters for Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones's brand new Verdier 100 Magic Carpet E with her state of the art foil package, including a canting keel that adequately rakes enabling her to berth here in Saint-Tropez.
At the lower end of the Maxi 100 class is event sponsor Pier Luigi Loro Piana's 80ft My Song and the JV80 Capricorno of Alessandro Del Bono, whose previous ILC maxi of the same name was a past winner here.
Five yachts are competing in the Maxi Grand Prix (ex-Maxi 72) class. The defending champion is also back in Sir Peter Ogden's 77ft Jethou. "Saint-Tropez is a favourite for me. It is a good regatta. A beautiful place to sail and we are coming here at the right time of year. It is a nice town. Over the last five years, the organisation of the racing has improved." Over the winter Jethou has enlarged her water ballast tanks with the former Maxi 72s now all carrying between 1500 and 2000kg each side.
She will face tough competition from George Sakellaris' Proteus, the defending Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup champion and currently lying in third place in the IMA's 2025 MMIC, with Stu Bannatyne calling tactics here. They will be up against Peter Dubens' 72ft North Star and Filip Balcaen's Balthasar. However all eyes will be on Giovanni Lombardi Stronati's brand new Django 7X. This wallyrocket 71 is a new Botin Partners design built by King Marine in Barcelona and features twin rudders and 2.7 tonnes of water ballast each side while displacing 12 tonnes, two to three less than most of the former Maxi 72s and as a result enjoys a lower IRC rating.
The cruiser-racer fleet is divided in two. Highest rated in the Maxi Alpha class, Jean-Pierre Barjon's Botin 65 Spirit of Lorina is the present leader of the IMA's Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge (MMOC) but among those they will face is Guido Paolo Gamucci's canting keel Mylius 60 Cippa Lippa X, last weekend's maxi class winner of the 151 Miglia-Trofeo Cetilar. Also in this class is the giant Almagores II, Pietro Supino's Swan 80 Sapma, Jean-Michele Caye's Vismara 77 Luce Guida and Maurits Van Orange's Wally 80 Sud.
Pleased to be back after his involuntary hiatus following his Baltic 65 RE/MAX One2's encounter with a rock during the 2023 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, is owner Dario Castiglia. "I think Loro Piana Giraglia is a beautiful event and Saint-Tropez is very nice. We usually get wind off the coast here which is good for sailing. For the offshore we are going to Genoa, which is where I was born, so it is significant to me. After what happened to our boat two and a half years ago we will have great fun."
The Maxi Beta class includes two new generation Swan 65s, Enrico Aureli's Marlin II and Guenther Birkner's Cloudy 7, plus R6 and the Felci 71 La Videlle and Contest 63 Blue Vision.
The wind for the weekend looks brisk with the southwesterly tomorrow building to 15 knots, but gusting to 20+ as the afternoon progresses.
See the current leaderboard from the 2024-25 IMA Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge here.
More information on Loro Piana Giraglia here.