The fifth event of the International Maxi Association's 2021-22 Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge is the Rolex Giraglia. This year's event returned to its traditional Saint-Tropez-Giraglia-Genoa course. However, with ultra-light winds forecast, its organizers, the Yacht Club Italiano, in collaboration with Yacht Club Sanremo and Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez, wisely scrapped the opening mark of La Fourmigue.
Furio Benussi's 100ft Grand Prix Maxi ARCA SGR was the highest-rated boat under IRC and the defending champion from 2021. She led the race most of the time, but the large Wallys - Charif Souki's Wallycento Tango, Jean-Luc Petithuguenin's 107 Spirit of Malouen, and Andrea Recordati's 93 Bullitt - were nipping at her heels. The most serious challenge came from Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones' Wallycento Magic Carpet Cubed. One of the most successful teams in this race's history, Magic Carpet Cubed, has claimed line honors in 2013 and outright victory under IRC corrected time two years later.
This year, Magic Carpet Cubed came out ahead of ARCA SGR, thanks to the navigational skills of Dutchman Marcel van Triest. Magic Carpet Cubed made a significant course change 50 miles from the finish, veering to the east. This put her in a better position to take advantage of the wind conditions, and she crossed the finish line 26 minutes ahead of ARCA SGR. When corrected for IRC time, she was even further on. This year's course was shorter than last year's, at 240 miles, but Magic Carpet Cubed still took 34 hours and 7 minutes to complete, compared to the previous year's race which took 26 hours and 24 minutes.
Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones was delighted: "We were surprised to beat the scratch boat. We made some good navigational choices: Marcel [van Triest] is such a good guy who has been with us for many years, and we are very confident with his choices. That was very important because we came in on a much better angle than our competitors who had to come down in dying air…."
After the ARCA SGR race, the Tango came in third, followed by the Bullitt and the Spirit of Malouen. The overall IRC maxi prize was again won by a 60-footer, the Felci 61 Itacentodue, the club boat of the Genoa-based Yacht Club Italiano. Itacentodue crossed the finish line at 05:41:24 on Friday, winning the maxi class and coming in second place overall behind the Ker 46 Lisa R.
The crew of Itacentodue's offshore sailing academy sailed with accomplished pros America's Cup and Olympic legend Tommaso Chieffi and 2019 Mini Transat winner Ambrogio Beccaria last year. However, this year there were no pros in her crew. Giovanni Chiappano, the owner's 28-year-old grandson, was supported by Mario Rabo on strategy, Manuel Polo navigating, and Roberto Martinez as the main helmsman.
They came to a stop near Portofino before the Tramontana picked up and then made good progress on their way to the finish. "We changed sails maybe 30 times from the Code 0 to the gennaker and back. It was tough, but the crew was great."
The second maxi overall under IRC and the sixth overall, Benoît de Froidmont's Wally 60 Wallyño, finished at 07:01:47 on Friday. "That was long!" said de Froidmont, also International Maxi Association President. "At the end, we were a mile away from Itacentodue, but they finished more than an hour ahead of us. But that is 'typical' of the Giraglia. We did more gybes over the last two hours than the rest of the race."
It was a surprise to some that the third maxi yacht under IRC, Guido Paolo Gamucci's canting keel Mylius 60 Cippa Lippa X, did so well in light conditions. Aside from expending much effort constantly trimming the boat and the canting keel, tactician Paolo Cian said that approaching the finish, they had found a better rotation of the wind to the east (as Magic Carpet Cubed had a few hours earlier). In the end, two fleets converged, one with kites and others (like us) with the Code.
The 109ft Herreshoff-designed gaff schooner coming in last in the maxi class was not best suited to thiyear's’sthiyear's light wind race, but the crew of the 109ft long Mariette of 1915 enjoyed it very much. As Vendée Globe skipper Miranda Merron reported from on board" "The advantage of no wind for much of the day was the wildlife fest - whales, dolphins, turtles, sunfish, mahi-mahi, tuna, bonito" … "ASaturday's'sASaturday's's prizegiving at the Yacht Club Italiano, Wallyño received the trophy for the Best placed IMA Member in the Giraglia Offshore Race.
Magic Carpet Cubed ghosts towards the Genoa finish line with ARCA SGR. Photo: Studio Borlenghi / ROLEX.
