Paul Cayar
Rob Weiland
A good save
In the end, in terms of the sailing – whether the 52 Super Series or my involvement with the International Maxi Association (IMA) and its main event the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2021 – everything turned out just fine! Fine for a normal year. But in fact pretty fantastic considering the pandemic was and still
is throwing curve balls at us every day. Just fingers crossed that 2022 in the northern hemisphere will take off in the Caribbean more or less as planned, as typically the Caribbean events near fully rely on boats and crews travelling from far away to participate. The IMA for the first time aims to have a presence at four of
these events: the RORC Caribbean 600, St Maarten Heineken Regatta, Les Voiles de Saint-Barth and Antigua Sailing Week. They will undoubtedly be awarding a fine piece of perpetual silverware to the owner and team performing best at two of these according to a formula weighing up participation numbers and results. The IMA now has three of these perpetual challenge trophies: the
IMA Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge, the Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge and from 2022 the Caribbean Maxi Challenge; the first two are restricted to IMA members and awarded during the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup but the Caribbean trophy is an open trophy, within reach of any Maxi participating in two of the events selected. All three trophies are first and foremost created to encourage Maxi participation, and over time having each winner’s shield on the trophies will hopefully further increase their status. Defining a Maxi as a monohull sailing yacht of over 60ft hull length, there will easily be as many of those suitable for racing as
40 SEAHORSE
J/80s in the world, actually at least 2,000! But only a small portion of those will race regularly, say once or twice a year. If we further zoom in on Maxi participation at international events,
whether offshore or inshore regattas, I would be surprised if world- wide participation over the past six years (ignoring 2020) averaged out at one regatta per year for more than 150 of these yachts. Checking participation numbers for just the western Med, includ-
ing events like Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, Les Voiles de Saint Tropez, Giraglia, Capri Sailing Week, Palma Vela and the Rolex Middle Sea Race, as well as a few smaller events, in that stretch of water there are maybe 50 Maxis that averaged one or more regattas per year from 2016 to 2021. Of those 50 about 12 average just one regatta in the Med per
year and a similar number average two or more events each year, including three Maxis that averaged three-plus, including the near- four regatta average of George David’s Rambler 88. Rambler’s dedication includes the 2016, 17, 18, 19 and 21 Middle Sea Races!! She also competed in the 2015 edition, the same year adding in the Caribbean 600 and the Sydney Hobart. Some like it hot! A small number of Maxis do not restrict their racing to the Med
or other popular racing regions, but travel the globe between them, like to the Caribbean, the USA, Hong Kong and Australia, including quite a number of Super-maxis (100ft+), like the J/Class yachts. The St Barths Bucket Regatta is undoubtedly the largest annual
gathering of the great and mighty with 30 to 40 Super-maxis competing. Also for the racing end of the Maxi fleet pure racers like Rambler 88, Comanche, Deep Blue and the American-owned Maxi72s Bella Mente, Proteus and Vesper travelling long distances
PHIL UHL
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