V, Jolt, Cippa Lippa X and Fra' Diavolo are the IMA Maxi Europeans champions
by International Maxi Association 28 May 23:08 BST
22-28 May 2026
The fourth and final day of inshore and coastal racing at the IMA Maxi European Championship in Sorrento saw the winners confirmed in the smaller classes while in Maxi 1 and Maxi Grand Prix today's final race proved the decider.
With racing organised by the Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia (CRVI) and the International Maxi Association and supported by Rolex and Loro Piana, there was again deliberation over whether racing would take place given the unpromising forecast. After a delay, the Tre Golfi Sailing Week Multihull Trophy catamarans set sail on a coastal course followed by the IMA Maxi Europeans fleet on a windward-leeward. Fortunately Mother Nature smiled upon the competition, saving the best wind to last, with competitors experiencing 20 knots at the top of the course, leaving many competitors overpowered having expected a more moderate 10-12 knots.
Having suffered a boom breakage earlier in the week, Joost Schuijff's 100ft Leopard 3 enjoyed the bigger conditions to lead Maxi 1 around the race track taking the corrected time win under IRC. "We had a very good start when the pin end opened up," commented skipper Chris Sherlock. "Most of the other boats were midway down the line - we took the opportunity and never looked back. We saw 19 knots at the top mark - right in our sweet spot - and the boat performed well. It was great day out and great result for us."
However a second place for V was enough to hand Karel Komárek's team the IMA Maxi European Championship title for Maxi 1, ahead of Leopard 3 and Galateia. "Today it was not about winning or losing, it was about the math," explained tactician Ken Read. "We needed to beat Galateia, because if they got ahead of us, they could have made life very difficult. We pushed them to the lay line on the first beat, got ourselves a notch ahead and from then on it was a pretty one-sided track - it wasn't easy to keep them back, but as long as we stayed to plan, we felt comfortable.
"Karel is hugely excited. This is the first real big regatta we have ever won with this team," concluded Read, who now will step down from V to focus on running Komárek's American Racing Challenger Team USA America's Cup challenge.
In the Maxi Grand Prix class, Peter Harrison's Jolt left the best to last, winning today ahead of Giovanni Lombardi Stronati's Django 7X and Peter Dubens' North Star. This propelled the British team to the top of the leaderboard, finishing a point ahead of North Star, in turn one ahead of Django 7X.
"We had a good offshore and lots of ups and downs in that, but we were pleased with how it ended up," commented Harrison. "We kind of discarded the second race, round Capri, because that was a lottery and then for the rest of the week we sailed well. We kept our heads up and just tried to be consistent."
This week Jolt benefitted from having a new tactician in Nic Asher, who sailed with Harrison before on his previous Maxi 72 (now North Star) and on his TP52 Sorcha.
Harrison is pleased with how buoyant the Maxi Grand Prix class is currently with Peter Dubens due to launch a new generation boat imminently. "It's alive and well - it's just a question of maintaining momentum and keeping everyone happy and finding new owners and people that want to come and race."
Of their race Nic Asher commented: "Finally we got a good start today. We had Bella Mente just under us and managed to hold them out to the port lay line. It was fairly straightforward after that. We had good speed downwind, which made it easier. Whoever won today was going to win overall. This was my first event with this team as well."
In both smaller classes, there were stand-out victors, winning their IMA Maxi European Championship titles with a day to spare.
In Maxi 3 it was finally the turn of Guido Paolo Gamucci's canting keel Mylius 60 Cippa Lippa X, having been runner-up previously. "I think we have finally found the equilibrium between sail area and handicap," explained Gamucci of their performance, which last year saw them win the 151 Miglia-Trofeo Cetilar. "This is our sixth year. Since last year we've really been making progress especially with the ballast and reduced sail area." In addition to her canting keel, Cippa Lippa X carries 400kg of water ballast, but only use it in 12+ knots.
Cippa Lippa X won on 6 points ahead of Franz Baruffaldi Preis and Silvia de' Longhi's JV62 Manticore, which scored two bullets this week but was forced to retire from today's race with spinnaker problems. Overall Manticore was second on 11 with defending champion Paul Berger's Swan 80 Kallima on 13.70.
In the combined Maxi 4-5 class, Giuseppe Puttini's 50-year-old Swan 65 Shirlaf enjoyed today's brisker conditions to win by just three seconds, but Yacht Club Gaeta President Vincenzo Addessi's Mylius 18E35 Fra' Diavolo was second, comfortably winning overall and defending his title, with the biggest margin across the fleet: 5 points ahead of Riccardo De Michele's Vallicelli 78 H20 and Luigi Sala's Vismara 62 Yoru. At this evening's prize-giving Addessi was also awarded the trophy for the highest placed IMA member.
Addessi commented: "It is a very positive result for Fra' Diavolo, confirmed us as IMA Maxi European champions in our class. The result comes first of all from the people - the team has been sailing together for yers and all are very experienced. I personally take care of the maintenance of the boat, because I am very interested in the technical issues, performance and aesthetics of the boat."
Spanish tactician Diego Fructuoso added: "I am very proud of the team - it is amazing with Vincenzo. The weather here was challenging - the long offshore was really hard but we fought for all of the regatta and did well to win. Today there was more wind than anyone expected but it was good for us to end the regatta like that. We are happy to win against such high level teams."
Tre Golfi Sailing Week's Multihull Trophy had a disappointing conclusion when today's race had to be abandoned when the trio of competing catamarans ran into a wind hole. Victory went to Adrian Keller's Irens 84 Allegra across the series, although this was partly due to her being the only multihull to compete in last Friday's Regata dei Tre Golfi, with Irvine Laidlaw's Gunboat 80 Highland Fling 18 top scorer in this week's inshore/coastal series.
Allegra's tactician Paul Larsen commented: "Obviously we did the offshore and the other boats didn't, but when it came to the inshore racing, we were trying to win on even terms with them. We've got state-of-the-art lightweight weapons like Fling, through to a heavyweight bruiser like Allegra, up to Layla - they've all got great sailors on them, good sails and are sailed well. And every boat had its moment.
"Today it was our conditions. We started ahead of Fling, crossed them on the first cross upwind, but they rolled us at the top mark. As we went down to the light patch, which ultimately concluded the race, we rolled through them again. On corrected time we were probably ahead, but Layla was coming up behind us when it was abandoned. I think we walk away knowing that we're all competitive and we're going to have some great ding-dong fights in the races to come this year."
IMA racing continues tomorrow with the 151 Miglia-Trofeo Cetilar offshore race from Livorno to Punta Ala and then with Loro Piana Giraglia starting in Saint-Tropez on 13 June.