All good up top IMA
Maxi yacht racing is on a roll. Both inshore and offshore numbers have been very healthy in 2023; we wrapped up the inshore season with a successful Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez; and the offshore season too with a nail-biting climax to the Rolex Middle Sea Race. Saint-Tropez this year was unusual in that we were able to race
the full planned programme! Nearly always this regatta loses day(s) from too little wind or a Mistral. We have reverted from having a separate week for maxis alone
and now there is an overlap with the classic and modern fleets. Though this makes things crowded at times, the atmosphere of the event felt reclaimed. The magic of the mixture of classic schooners and the most modern maxis side by side in the harbour is a unique and wonderful spectacle of which one never tires. This year’s format meant that on the first day we were on our
own and able to race on the Baie de Saint-Tropez. Then when the other fleets arrived we moved with our own committee boat to Baie de Pampelonne where races were started and finished. Overall this appeared to work well, although despite the use of robotic marks we were unable to lay true windward-leeward courses… So room for improvement there. The lay day was also different from the other fleets and we finished our racing two days earlier – in terms of logistics this slightly staggered schedule worked perfectly. On the Tuesday evening our members and guests enjoyed an
exceptional moonlit dinner in the regatta’s new VIP entertainment suite, now located on the harbour pier overlooking the Baie – a most magical setting. Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez concluded our 2023 IMA Mediter-
ranean Maxi Inshore Championship. Going into St-Tropez at least four boats could have won, but in the end IMA President Benoît de Froidmont, in his ‘vintage’ 60ft Wallyño, had an impeccable regatta winning his class in every race and comfortably reclaiming the trophy he first won in 2019. My congratulations to Benoît, his tactician Cedric Pouligny and the whole team. Nevertheless, as with all our events, it is difficult to please all
of the people all of the time; while Les Voiles is very special it is also a quite different type of regatta. The local organisers see it more as an end-of-season festival, a celebration of yachting in general and less of a competitive, hard-fought racing event. Mean- while the attitudes of the competitors cover the whole spectrum and this makes the already difficult planning of courses and class splits even more contentious than usual. Some attitudes are too polarised for there ever to be consensus,
but decisions have to be made and then we have to live with them. This may result in unhappiness, but overall the big picture is very much one of satisfaction. While we continue to rely upon the inexact science of rating systems to compare very dissimilar boats’ per- formances, these do of course take little account of the varying age and condition of equipment – or crews! Easy to write, not always easy to persuade a team who are feeling hard done by. The Rolex Middle Sea Race was as fascinating as always –
although sadly the fierce conditions on the first night resulted in a lot of irreparable damage and retirements – disproportionately among the large maxi fleet. Even more surprising was the dismasting off west Sicily of Lucky, a boat well used to these conditions and this racecourse as the former Rambler 88. In the end the battle of the maxis was decided early by the wind
and current in the Messina Strait. Bullitt and Leopard stole a march on the rest by escaping, leaving everyone else pinned or even going backwards at the northern exit of the Strait. These two then match raced the rest of the way to the finish and, although the smaller (93ft) Bullitt finished behind on the water, on corrected time she was just under two hours ahead. Then came the nail-biting wait of nearly two whole days to see
if they could hold their time against the much smaller boats arriving so much later. In the end the double-handed Sunfast 3300 Red Ruby corrected out to an agonising 24 seconds behind the mighty Bullitt…
Size matters. The 100ft Mark Mills-designed V (formerly Tango) crosses ahead of the much modified Judel/Vrolijk 77 Jethou at the 2023 Voiles de Saint-Tropez. At the end of the week the two boats were equal on points, Jethou getting the nod on tie-break. However, as is the perennial fear of the bigger yachts, two former Maxi72s, Cannonball (Botín 2016) and North Star (Vrolijk 2009 – and now with water ballast), took the top two slots, in that order
has been turbocharged and is now more racer than when Mike Slade launched her in 2007 as the ultimate dual-purpose yacht. The race between the four former MOD70s will also be required
viewing this time; with the record falling yearly – these well-built former one-designs are consistently crossing the Atlantic in five days. All the MOD70s then go on to do the Caribbean 600, after which
some head north to compete in the Quebec-St Malo while Argo returns to Europe for the Aegean 600. There is a clear desire among the MOD70 teams to consolidate the calendar for these high-octane but now highly reliable speedsters. We are also continuing with our IMA Maxi Caribbean Challenge,
again comprising the RORC Caribbean 600, St Maarten Heineken Regatta and Les Voiles de St Barth. Overall we have had a very successful 2023 with terrific partic-
ipation from a very wide range of maxi yachts. Our organisation has continued to grow and prospects for 2024 are excellent with ever more maxis being launched and joining the IMA circuit. Andrew McIrvine, secretary general, IMA
q SEAHORSE 33 After two days wishing the wind to drop, or at least not increase,
Bullitt skipper Andrea Recordati was understandably ecstatic about his unexpected overall IRC win; but he also did the honourable thing at the prizegiving inviting Christina and Justin Wolfe, the American couple who raced Red Ruby, up onto the podium to share the glory. Leopard 3 held onto fourth overall. With all the different weather conditions on different parts of the
course at different times, it is more than remarkable that any rating system can come up with such a close spread of results. Take a bow, IRC. There is now a pause before the joint RORC IMA Transat from
Lanzarote to Grenada. Although we will have a number of maxi con- tenders this time, the favourite for monohull line honours and the IMA Trophy is certainly Leopard 3. Although she has raced across the Atlantic many times before, in her recent transformation she
GILLES MARTIN-RAGET
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126
