maxi yacht rolex cup 2022 results

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Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup

The Costa Smeralda provides a stunning setting and a variety of challenging conditions for the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, one of the highlights of the Mediterranean yachting season. The first Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup (known then as the Maxi World championship) was held in Sardinia in 1980. The brainchild of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and its president, the Aga Khan, the regatta is now an eagerly anticipated annual event attracting a sizeable fleet of majestic maxi yachts to Porto Cervo each September.

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Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup Day 2: Windward-leewards begin in Porto Cervo

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Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup – Day 2 Windward-Leewards

Tuesday it was the turn of the J Class and Mini Maxi 1’s former Maxi 72s to sail windward-leewards on open water on day 2 of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup.

Sailing two windward-leewards today were the four Js and it was again Svea, steered by a former two time Rolex Mini Maxi World Champion on these waters, Niklas Zennström, that prevailed to maintain the Swedish J’s perfect scoreline.

Under the J Class rule Svea finished 2 minutes 18 seconds ahead of Velsheada in the first race and 1 minutes 39 second in front of Topaz in the second.

Among the former Maxi 72s it was again the turn of the ‘less pimped’ examples to prevail – of the two races sailed Tuesday George Sakellaris’ Proteus won the first by 10 seconds on corrected time from Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente.

Monday’s winner, Jim Swartz’s peppermint-coloured Vesper, claimed the second and now leads Mini Maxi 1 by three points from Proteus with Dario Ferrari’s heavily modified Cannonball holding third.

Meanwhile all the other classes sailed a long windward-leeward, up and down Bomb Alley with the faster yachts rounding the island of Spargi, while the slower boats had a turning mark just south.

In the Super Maxi class that was another Swedish victory for Monday’s winner, the Swan 115 Shamanna, her time correcting out to 1 minutes 2 seconds ahead of the Spirit Yachts 111 Geist.

Meanwhile in the largest class competing, the 13-strong Maxi class, there was upset . . .

Initially it appeared that Claus Peter Offen’s Wally 100 Y3K had won, only to lose out to Massimiliano Florio’s Southern Wind 82 Grande Orazio following a protest over a start line infringement.

Nonetheless Y3K won the unofficial ‘battle of the 100s’ of which there are five racing here.

The tightest leaderboard after two days is in Mini Maxi 2 where one point separates yesterday’s leader, Sven Wackerhagen’s Wally 80 Rose, from Alessandro Del Bono’s ILC maxi Capricorno and Luciano Gandini’s Mylius 80 Twin Soul B, winner of last year’s 151 Miglia-Trofeo Cetilar.

The jet black Twin Soul B seems equally comfortable inshore as she won Wednesday’s race.

There was a repeat winner too in the combined Mini Maxi 3 and 4 class where again it was the turn of the regal-looking silver Vallicelli 78 H20 of Riccardo de Michele to come out on top.

However on the ascent is the 1976 vintage Swan 65 ketch Shirlaf of Guiseppe Puttini, which now lies second overall, one point ahead of Luca Scoppa’s Dehler 60 Blue Oyster, having finished second.

Roberto Lacorte and FlyingNikka sailed the correct course today and having set off last achieved their ambition to sail up the fleet to finish in the middle of the Maxi class (which started 45 minutes before them).

Wednesday the wind is forecast to be from the southwest and slightly lighter than today. The Maxi class is scheduled to race windward-leewards with everyone else on coastal courses.

Full Results available here . . .

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Many owners – Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones, Pier Luigi Loro Piana, Lord Irvine Laidlaw, Claus Peter Offen, Carlo A. Puri Negri, Riccardo De Michele to name a few – have raced the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup for years.

But on the opening day of the 2022 edition of the International Maxi Association’s pinnacle event, organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, it was generally not the old hands but the new that enjoyed the best results.

With the 10-20 knot wind from the southeast, the race committee sent the 46 competing yachts in seven classes on an upwind leg and then on an anti-clockwise lap of the La Maddalena archipelago, with a long run up the seaward side of the picturesque islands before a beat up ‘Bomb Alley’. The courses were 31nm for the faster maxis (Super Maxi; Maxi; J Class; Mini Maxi 0 and 1) 23.5 for the slower ones (Mini Maxi 2 and 3-4).

There was drama at the J Class start when the massive genoa on Topaz exploded requiring her army of crew to scrabble to recover the broken sail and plug in a replacement before they got going. For the three other classic 1930s designs, the competition was close with Velsheda claiming line honours but Svea winning under the J Class Rule.

On Velsheda they got off to a good start and led up the first beat. “We had a good tussle with Svea – we are probably a similar speed upwind and they have a little edge downwind,” said tactician Tom Dodson, paying tribute to owner/helmsman Ronald de Waal. “He had a brilliant day, even though it was tricky – we weren’t that far in front and a couple of times in Bomb Alley we only just scraped in front of Svea.” Ultimately Velsheda finished third on corrected time behind Ranger.

Another Swedish-owned yacht prevailed in the Super Maxi class with the Swan 115 Shamanna scoring her first ever race win. The crew comprises a mix of the owner’s friends and seasoned pros like Guy Barron, Jens Christensen, David Gilmour and Andrew Taylor. “It is exciting to have won our first race,” said Barron. “It is nothing special apart from people working to get better and better as a team…”

Shamanna’s owner added: “It felt good! It was a nice race, but unremarkable – we are trying to avoid making any mistakes, but you can always improve. It is our first day here and we have been going through what we can do better.”

Similarly in the Mini Maxi 2 class, it was not Spirit of Lorina or other regular winners, such as Capricorno or Twin Soul B, that prevailed but German Sven Wackerhagen’s new team on the Wally 80 Rose.

Danish former World Match Racing Tour winner Jesper Radich is calling tactics on board: “I think we stayed cool. The race course was fairly straightforward, but the devil was in the detail and a trade-off between making too many sail changes and optimising what you have flying. We made a massive gain on the reaching leg by just keeping our A2. The owner is thrilled.”

Among the former Maxi 72s in Mini Maxi 1, it was not the highest rated – Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente, nor reigning champion Dario Ferrari’s Cannonball that won today but Jim Swartz’s Vesper; one of the least tampered-with Maxi 72s.

Jim Swartz’s Vesper won Mini Maxi 1 today. The boat knows this race course well having previously been the two-time Rolex Maxi 72 World Champion Momo. Photo: IMA / Studio Borlenghi

“We just had a good day,” said Swartz, who won Les Voiles de Saint Barths earlier this year. “The boys really sailed the boat well. We had a couple of passing opportunities and that was pretty much the race.” Swartz acknowledged that some of the usual heavy hitters are having to relearn their boats following extensive modifications made to them.

One of their passing moves was what tactician Gavin Brady described as a ‘power set’: “We came around the top mark third and just left the jib up and started hiking immediately, while Cannonball went into more of traditional jib down/staysail-up bear away. We got up into the passing lane before they realised we were up inside them and there was nothing they could do because they had five guys on the bow while all our guys were hiking. We had talking about that move last night over some red wine..!”

Ultimately Sir Peter Ogden’s 77ft Jethou beat them on the water to claim second under IRC corrected time with Proteus third.

In the Maxi class it was Lord Irvine Laidlaw’s Reichel-Pugh 82 Highland Fling XI that came out on top, while David M. Leuschen’s Wallycento proved that her clean sweep at PalmaVela wasn’t a fluke: first on the water, second on corrected time and winning the unofficial fight of the 100 footers over Leopard 3 (4th overall today) and last year’s winner, Magic Carpet 3 (7th).

Meanwhile Highland Fling XI’s crew are keeping their fingers crossed. They won the first two races here last year but then a broken forestay caused them to plummet from the podium. According to the boat’s captain Xavier Mecoy: “It was a nice surprise for us today. We had a shocking start because we had a problem with the runner winch hydraulics getting off the line, so we were buried. By the offset mark we had got ahead of Y3K and then stretched out nicely from there. I was surprised how well we held on to the 100s – we sailed a great race.”

This was also the very first race for Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s brand new canting keel ClubSwan 80 My Song, which finished an encouraging third in the 13-strong Maxi class.

In the combined Mini Maxi 3 and 4 it was the familiar silver form of repeat class victor here – the Vallicelli 78 H20 – that was today’s run-away winner, finishing more than seven minutes ahead of Luca Scoppa’s Dehler 60 Blue Oyster and the Swan 65 Shirlaf. H2O’s owner Riccardo De Michele said they enjoyed today’s conditions. “With this wind I can say that H20 has no rivals in her class. Shirlaf worries us because she has a lower rating, but she arrived 40 minutes later, so no problem in the end for us.” H20 also has had much the same crew for the last five season including Lorenzo Bodini calling tactics.

There was much smiling for Roberto Lacorte and the crew of the 60ft foiling maxi FlyingNikka, which also sailed her first ever race today. The extreme boat got off the start line well and demonstrated exceptional ability, comfortably foiling upwind in just 10-12 knots. “It was the day we have been waiting for to demonstrate our project. We are happy and doing a very good job from the performance point of view,” said Lacorte.

Tomorrow Mini Maxi 1 and the J Class will race windward-leewards and the rest will continue on coastal courses with a first start at 1200. Moderate southeasterlies are again forecast.

Results here  and  J Class results here .

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By David Schmidt

There is no shortage of beautiful sailing regattas. Few offer the same combination of world-class sailors and yachts, outstanding geography and conditions, professional racecourse management and refined yacht club hospitality as the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup .

Most high-end regattas typically draw boats in the 20-, 30- and 40-foot range, with limited numbers of larger yachts, or the events are organized for a particular design, like for the 23-foot J/70s, in which all competing boats are identical.

Not here. The Maxi cup, which is being hosted by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and which begins on Monday in Porto Cervo, Sardinia, is open only to maxi yachts. According to the regatta’s Notice of Race, this means sailboats that measure at least 60 feet, bow to stern. Of the 50 yachts that are competing this year, almost half exceed 80 feet, with the largest entry — the J-Class yacht Svea — measuring 143 feet.

These are fast, expensive and complex sailboats — with an average crew size of 25 sailors — which will race against similar yachts around tactically engaging racecourses. Veterans say the regatta’s dependable weather patterns, convivial atmosphere, and the yacht club’s hospitality and organization make it one of sailing’s greatest events.

Pier Luigi Loro Piana, the owner of My Song, a Club Swan 80, described the Maxi cup as the most professional and well-organized regatta on the Mediterranean Sea.

“We do a week of really beautiful and good sailing,” Piana said, referring to the regatta. “You can be 100 percent satisfied if you have good weather, good wind, good people, good food. During the race, after the race, there’s always something nice to enjoy.”

Andrea Recordati, the owner of Bullitt, a Wally 93 , said it was the most prestigious race on the Mediterranean circuit.

He said that other maxi-class regattas might draw, on average, six or seven yachts that are his competitive peers. “Here you could have 15, if not even 20,” Recordati said.

While their designs differ, each yacht in the Maxi cup has a handicap rating (think of golf) that allows vessels of different lengths, widths and weights to race competitively. The yachts “are relatively similar,” Piana said, “so we can make a very nice regatta.”

And with a bigger fleet size comes a higher level of competition.

“It’s the big dance,” said Peter Holmberg, an Olympic silver medalist and the helmsman of Topaz, a J-Class yacht. “Everybody goes to it, and so it will give us the greatest competition of all the events we’ll do in the Med over the year. If you’re going to put one on your list, it’s usually [the] Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup. And is that the draw? Of course it is.”

Then there are the racecourses.

The regatta offers two styles of racing. The windward-leeward courses are set in open water and use movable buoys that are set parallel with the wind to test each team’s ability to sail upwind, or into the wind, and downwind, or with the wind.

The longer coastal races instead employ the area’s natural geographical features, including the nearby Maddalena archipelago, to create courses that require teams to sail fast at a variety of wind angles.

“Coastal racing is more interesting,” Holmberg said. “It’s more diverse, complex, challenging.”

These challenges include the art of predicting what the still-unseen wind will be doing around the islands, anticipating how this will affect tactics and ensuring that the yacht is flying the right sails.

“Windward-leeward is a sprint, and coastal is a marathon of many sprints,” he said.

While he enjoys both styles of racing, and was clear that both have their place at the regatta, Holmberg said that if he had to choose one, it would be the coastal courses: “It gives us the extreme range, and it tests you on all aspects.”

Paul Westlake, a 10-time world champion sailor and the trim coordinator on Svea, said racing a “coastal course is a pretty stressful time for navigators.”

“It makes the racecourse much more open for the tacticians and strategists,” he said, adding that there are numerous places where yachts can hit the bottom. “Everyone is trying to cut the corners and push as hard as they can.”

Recordati said the regatta attracted some of the best sailors in the world. He said that the loads — or forces — generated by the maxi yachts demanded expertise. “They are pretty high-tech pieces of machinery, which — if they break or are not run properly — can not only be economically damaging, but it can be very dangerous for the crew.”

Anthony Kotoun, a five-time world champion sailor and the strategist aboard Galateia, a Wally Cento, described the regatta as the Masters for maxi yachts.

“It is called the Maxi yacht cup, but in the lingo, it’s called just the Maxi Worlds,” he said, adding that it’s the unofficial world championship of the big boats. “You save sails for it, you get new sails for it, you bring in the top crew — that’s the one you aim for.”

One important difference between the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and other world-championship regattas is that this event always takes place off Porto Cervo in early September, while the others typically rotate among clubs, continents and calendar dates.

The regatta’s consistent scheduling and location also make it an important social gathering. “It is a bit of a homecoming event,” Westlake said.

While the yachts, the sailors and the racecourses are a significant draw, so too, say veterans, is the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda.

“The whole show is a level beyond any other event you go to,” Holmberg said. “Y.C.C.S. — they set the mark. They are the standard, the highest that I’ve seen around the world” because of its extraordinary amenities and the professionals it brings in to help run the regatta.

Edoardo Recchi, the club’s secretary general and sports director, called the regatta the club’s signature event. While Recchi was clear that the regatta’s conditions, courses and competition level are its most important attributes, he noted that having a “high level of services and a lot of details is pretty attractive to all the owners,” about 90 percent of whom return each year.

In addition to the racing, the yacht club organizes post-sailing and evening social events. This includes Saturday’s ceremony, where the winners of each class receive Rolex watches.

“Every single owner that enters the [regatta], for sure, is dreaming of being handed a Rolex,” Westlake said. “You never see a bigger smile on an owner’s face [than] when he stands on the podium holding onto that Rolex.”

While there are easier ways of acquiring a Rolex than winning the regatta, none involve seeing one’s name topping the leaderboard outside the yacht club.

“For me, the Maxi is the race to win, full stop,” Recordati said, who has never won a watch, but missed winning his class at the 2011 event by just two points. Of the coastal inshore races, he said, it’s “the one that everybody wants to win.”

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The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2022

The eagerly anticipated Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup will return to the sun-lapped shores of Sardinia this September in celebration of its 32nd edition.

Taking place on the azure-blue waters of the Mediterranean, Costa Smeralda provides an idyllic setting and a variety of challenging conditions for the large fleets of superb Maxi yachts, promising to be one of the most iconic sailing regattas in the international yachting calendar.

Discover more about this world-class sailing regatta in 2022 and what you can expect to see this summer with Yachting Partner International’s expert guide.

Founded in 1980, the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup is one of the Mediterranean yachting season's most exclusive highlights, organised with the support of longstanding partner Rolex and in collaboration with the International Maxi Association. Encompassing unparalleled glamour and dramatic sailing, it is a truly spectacular event.

The beautiful Maxi yachts will gather on the water from the 5th to the 10th of September, in a dramatic race across the coastal courses around the islands of the La Maddalena archipelago and along the infamous "Bomb Alley" strait between the islands and Sardinia.

Over the thirty years of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, the average size of the competing sailing yachts has increased considerably, thanks to great strides in material, science, and technology developments.

This year's sailing regatta in 2022 reaches its 32nd edition. As promised, the world's largest, most elegant and powerful fleet of boats, exemplifying cutting-edge technology and design, is set to hit the enchanting waters of the Costa Smeralda, with internationally accomplished sailors at the helm.

As the pioneer in sailing for almost 60 years, Rolex has forged strong relationships with the yachting industry by supporting the most influential yacht clubs, sailors, and regattas. Rolex is exceptionally proud of its association with the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and this flagship sailing regatta in 2022. This longstanding partnership is founded on the shared standards of excellence and passion for premium performance.

Yacht Club Costa Smeralda

The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, located in the seaside village of Porto Cervo, is home to one of the finest marinas in the Mediterranean and a superb location to participate in the yearly regattas. This exclusive Italian marina offers 16 berths for yachts of 20 metres, as well as unparalleled nautical experiences, including fine restaurants, designer boutiques and relaxation facilities.

Alternatively, Porto Cervo Marina is one of the best equipped and luxurious docks in the Mediterranean, set in a bay perfectly sheltered from all weather fronts. Porto Cervo Marina offers 700 berths, with 100 slips reserved for superyachts.

Entries for the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2022 will be open until 30 July.

If you want to attend the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2022 this summer, contact our trusted team of luxury yacht brokers to discover our exquisite selection of sailing yachts for sale and charter.

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The biggest yachts competing at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup

The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup gets underway next month and is set to be one of the biggest gatherings of racing royalty in the Mediterranean this summer. Taking place from 3 to 9 September, the regatta will welcome 50 competitors to Porto Cervo for a week of rail-to-rail racing through the Maddalena Archipelago. Take a look at some of this year's contenders...

Kauris IV is not only the largest contender competing in this year's Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, but also one of the newest. This Wally 145 was built by Persico Marine and delivered in 2020 as a vessel that can be enjoyed as a family boat but also compete around the cans. Kauris IV has a lifting keel with a 67-metre-tall mast and flies an area of 1,968 square metres of sail. 

The largest (and newest) member of the J Class fleet, the 44-metre Vitters yacht Svea will be back racing in Sardinia after being crowned overall winner of the J Class last year. The original lines for this Super J were designed by Tore Holm in 1973 and Hoek Design Naval Architects was called on to revive the 75-year-old drawings and bring her up to date, complete with a 53.75-metre carbon fibre main mast. As a result, Svea displaces just 182 tonnes — two tonnes less than her fellow J Hanuman and six tonnes less than Ranger . 

After a fourth-place finish in last year's Maxi Rolex Cup, Topaz and crew have some work to do. The Holland Jachtbouw J Class is based on an unbuilt 1938 design and was revisited by Andre Hoek . Topaz ’s hull design features a reduced wetted surface and higher keel aspect ratio to her 27-metre waterline length, making her quick.

Velsheda is the only original J Class racing at this year's Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and, after securing third place in 2022, is back to see if she can beat her result. This 38.5-metre yacht is the only original J Class not to have been built for the America's Cup , commissioned in 1933 by the chairman of Woolworths and named after his three daughters: Velma, Sheila and Daphne.

The 36-metre Viriella will be returning to Porto Cervo after a fifth-place finish in the Maxi class last year. She is the flagship of the Maxi Dolphin fleet, designed by German Frers , and features a lifting keel with a Southern Spars carbon fibre mast.

Delivered as Highland Fling 15, this 35-metre Swan 115 was born into a racing dynasty. She changed ownership in 2021 and was renamed Moat and it was under her new name that she and her crew were crowned winners of the inaugural Ibiza JoySail regatta. Moat finished just two points behind second place at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in 2022 and will be eager to climb the finishing order this time around.

Geist is the flagship of British shipyard Spirit Yachts. She is undeniably beautiful but also a powerhouse on the racecourse. In 12 knots of true breeze, she beats upwind at nine knots, and while she’s clearly a very large yacht, she’s also a proper sailing boat with all the feel you’d expect of something a third of her size. After coming second in last year's event, Geist will be eyeing the top spot in the Maxi class. 

Inoui is a lean, green, racing machine. A regular on the regatta circuit, she was built by Vitters to a design by Philippe Briand and is built entirely from carbon with a square-top mainsail, shallow sloping reverse-transom and a retractable fin-and-bulb keel. She will be competing off the back of a win at the Giorgio Armani Superyacht Regatta.

Y3K is a competitive racer with a powerful sail plan (she flies 1,162 square metres of sail downwind). She won three consecutive Maxi Yacht Rolex Cups from 2009 to 2011 and will be racing once again in the Maddelena archipelago. She was the third Wally to be ordered by German yachtsman Claus-Peter Offen. He and his racing team have won 11 Wally regattas over the years, both on Y3K and on his previous Wally Galma .

Magic Carpet ³

With wins at the Giorgio Armani Superyacht Regatta, Rolex Giraglia, Maxi Worlds and Les Viles de St Tropez, Magic Carpet 3 is a fierce competitor. She was launched as the second in a series of next-gen performance cruisers by Wally, named the Wallycento and has a displacement of just 50 tonnes (if you remove the keel and the mast, that figure drops to 18 tonnes), which makes her one of the lightest cruising boats ever built. During her construction, every item was weighed, right down to the titanium screws holding it all together. Her Southern Spars rigging flies 640 square metres of sail while a lifting keel reduces her draft by two metres.

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Last call for 2024 rolex big boat series.

Registration closes August 31.

For sailors who’ve competed in Rolex Big Boat Series over its 60-year history, “It’s the most fabulous event there is, period," according to Chris Perkins, who’s raced it since the 1980s and is the 2024 Commodore of event host St. Francis Yacht Club.

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New Website & Hotel Sponsor, Plus Early Entry Ends Soon for Rolex Big Boat Series hosted by St. Francis Yacht Club

For six decades, Rolex Big Boat Series has been at the forefront of the latest and greatest in competitive yachting. Balancing tradition with progress, this legendary West Coast regatta continues to embrace a spirit of evolution, showcasing the latest in fleet technology and race management.

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News Entries open today for Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2022

Entries open today for maxi yacht rolex cup 2022.

Entries have officially opened today for the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2022, organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda (YCCS) with the support of longstanding partner Rolex and in collaboration with the International Maxi Association. 

The regatta will take place in Porto Cervo, Sardinia, Italy, from September 4 to 10. The Notice of Race is now available online on the YCCS website: www.yccs.it.

The event turns its 32 nd edition in 2022. An impressive fleet of maxi yachts at the cutting edge of yacht design and construction are expected to join, with internationally renowned sailors on board.

First races are planned for Monday September 5. Coastal races are then planned for the following 5 days, around the islands of the La Maddalena archipelago and along the infamous “Bomb Alley”. Final awards ceremony is scheduled for Saturday September 10.

Entries for the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2022 will be open until 30 July. For further details and to access the Entry Form please see the event' Notice of Race. 

CONTACTS: 

Event' website: www.yccs.it

YCCS Race Office: [email protected]   and     [email protected]

Media: [email protected]     and   [email protected]

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• Bronenosec, RUS

Swan 60, Bronenosec sails under Saint Petersburg Yacht Club, Russia which was founded by skipper Vladimir Liubomirov. He believed there were not enough marinas in Saint Petersburg or genuine yacht clubs; as a result of this he combined his architectural ambition and his love for the sea to design and build the Yacht Club of Saint Petersburg. Vladimir Liubomirov is now Commodore of the Yacht Club of Saint Petersburg and also the Vice President of the Saint Petersburg Sailing Union.

The club deals with real sport, everything from Olympic classes to the children’s sport school. It is important to Vladimir to create community and develop the children’s sailing academy at Saint Petersburg Yacht Club. The ultimate aim is to put Russian back on the sailing map.

After several years of sailing Dragon boats, Vladimir, wanted to try something new. He had experienced classic boat sailing but was craving for something a little more technologically advanced. He knew he didn’t want to be a professional sailor but he wanted a boat that combined top of the range technology with exceptional aesthetics and the right shape. The choice was simple, a Swan 60 fitted his criteria perfectly.

Bronenosec’s crew is a cosmopolitan mix of some of yacht racing’s most esteemed names, dominated by Russian and Italian sailors. Tomasso Chieffi, previously tactician aboard the Italian America’s Cup entry Azzurra, with Francesco Bruni, play a vital role on board Bronenosec for all of their races. Chieffi is backed up by Lorenzo Mazza also a seasoned pro on the America’s Cup circuit having raced with Alinghi and being part of the 1997 EF Language team for the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race.

The Russian sailors on-board have different racing backgrounds; Alexander Shalagin was Gold Cup Champion in 2010 and won the Dragon Russian Open Championship for the third time in 2012. Vladimir Liubomirov, along with crew member and colleague Igor Frolov, has also proved his worth in the Dragon Class. Kirill Vonogov was Champion in the Overall Russian Windsurfing Cup before moving into yachting where he sails Farr-30’s and Topcats and Vladimir Ikonnikov was the winner of the Star Class Finnish Championships in 2005.

The big-boat experience has been a steep learning curve for all. One of the goals has been to teach and educate the Russian sailors and bring them up to a standard where they can compete against the most experienced teams in the world. Events have included PalmaVela, Rolex Volcano Race, Giraglia Rolex Cup and Copa del Rey. The team have grown in confidence over the past two years and proved their capability of competing on the highest level by taking first place in the Mini Maxi Cruising division at the Rolex Maxi Cup, first place in the Maxi Class at the Rolex Swan Cup and first place in the inaugural Nord Stream Race 2012. The offshore race took crews over 750 miles across Baltic waters, racing in extreme conditions.

The Team are winners of the Gazprom Swan 60 Class Circuit 2013, having taken first place in the Delta Lloyd North Sea Regatta and first place in the Gazprom Swan 60 World Championship. The new World Champions took first place in the Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week and second place in the Nord Stream Race 2013. These fantastic results led them to win the Circuit overall.

The team also competed in the Rolex Fastnet Race 2013.

Swan 60 Bronenosec had a fantastic start to 2014, finsihing first in the Nord Stream Race and the Gazprom Swan 60 World Championship they now go on to compete in the 2014 Rolex Swan Cup

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The Yacht Club of Saint-Petersburg’s Swan 60 yacht Bronenosec to attend the Rolex Volcano Race 2012

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Written by Zuzana Bednarova

The prestigious Russian Yacht Club of Saint-Petersburg is preparing for the second stage of their 2012 campaign with the delivery of both their Swan 60 sailing yacht Bronenosec as well as race crew to Italy to take part in the Rolex Volcano Race 2012. Running for the second time this year, the event will be a race through history of sailing with participation of eleven different nations.

Swan 60 yacht Bronenosec competing in the Mapfre PalmaVela 2012 Credit: MartinezStudio.es

Starting on May 19th the Swan 60 sailing yacht Bronenosec, will take part in windward leeward in-shore racing with the Rolex Volcano fleet halfway between Rome and Naples which will require fixed boat handling skills acquired during training. The team will then commence leg one of the 400 nautical mile offshore race on May 20th. This will start from the medieval seaport town of Gaeta and head past the Pontine Islands to reach Capri . On reaching Capri all race teams will berth on the island during the night of May 21st in preparation for the most arduous part of the overall race which includes a 300 nautical mile second leg.

This will be the most challenging leg for the Yacht Club of Saint-Petersburg crew as this segment of the race classified as an ‘adventure’ will take the team around eight volcanic Aeolian Islands. This volcanic archipelago is named after the Greek demi-god Aeolus, just north of Sicily , Stromboli, Vulcano and Alicudi listed at UNESCO World Heritage sites. This will be the first overnight race for the team as a unit and will be a good test of their overall performance during long distance racing in an area that is renowned for light and challenging meteorological conditions.

The Gazprom sponsored Swan 60 yacht will then head towards the finish line back at Capri where this year’s winner will receive the highly coveted Rolex Trophy and timepiece during the traditional party to be held at the iconic La Canzone del Mare.

Vladimir Liubomirov, Commodore, Yacht Club of Saint-Petersburg and helm on board the Swan 60: “I am personally very much looking forward to such a special race in Europe ’s most volcanic region. I know that this will be our most testing event to date due to the conditions we will be experiencing including light and fickle winds if we have similar conditions to the previous year’s race. We are up against a fleet of 22 race boats out of which 9 of the crews took part in 2011 and therefore know the waters and metrological secrets of this region. I am confident that our Italian contingent on board our Swan 60 will be a huge asset to us, especially during the overnight section of leg two and I feel adept at helming the Swan 60 in lighter conditions.”

Yacht Club of Saint-Petersburg, Swan 60, Event Agenda 2012 Palma Vela 18-22 April Rolex Volcano Race 19-25 May Giraglia Rolex Cup 9-16 June Copa del Rey                16-21 July Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 3-8 September Rolex Swan Cup 10-16 September

Please contact CharterWorld - the luxury yacht charter specialist - for more on superyacht news item "The Yacht Club of Saint-Petersburg's Swan 60 yacht Bronenosec to attend the Rolex Volcano Race 2012".

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