super maxi racing yachts

The super maxi (racing yachts under 100’ or 30m) are increasingly popular and as more yachts are launched the competition gets better. Super maxis are raced in all the large worldwide yacht events from the Fastnet to the Sydney to Hobart to the Middle Seas race.

LEOPARD 3 is a racing sailing yacht, as launched in 2007. She is a new concept for a 100ft super maxi from Farr Yacht Design.  LEOPARD 3 meets the demanding requirements of a luxurious, signature charter yacht, as well as a passage record breaker and a race winning super maxi in a fantatic new concept developed by Farr Yacht Design.

Racing maxi ‘Maximus’ is definitely the latest and most impressive super maxi to ever appear on the world stage.  She may even represent one of the biggest design leaps in all monohull yachting. The name comes from Maximus' unbridled maximum power to weight ratio. Maximus is quite a step forward in design and technology in the world of yachting and when compared to other super maxi designs (notably Zana/Conical Minolta & Scandia). This is perhaps not surprising given the project mission – To design, build and successfully race the world’s fastest and most innovative monohull under 100 ft with adherence only to the rules of science and experience. There are no class rule handbrakes here!

Why is Maxims set to be the fastest thing afloat and beat every other monohull she mixes with? Simple really - her team. She has the best possible design and building team, willing and extremely capable owners and a fantastic sailing crew. As with anything, if you want to do something great you need to gather around great people. EBS Yachting (Maximus) has achieved this without compromise.

Every now and then in history you can get a congregation of amazing people in one area and place – a class of genius. The Maximus team is comprised of perhaps the most outstanding individuals and companies in ocean yachting in the world. As it turns out they are almost all New Zealanders. Anyone heard of Greg Elliot, Clay Oliver, Chris Mitchell, Southern Spars, North Sails, Cookson Boat Builders? Why not throw in a nuclear physicist/innovator and a very successful race campaigner and businessman as the owners, into the mix!

At her launch Maximus was dressed in modernist silver and measured in at 100 feet or 30.5 meters in length overall, weight unknown. She made quite an impressive sight. In the words of Stewart Thwaites who was there (the owner, campaigner and racer of super maxi Konica Minolta): “It just looks beautiful really…”.  The old adage in Aeronautics that ‘if the plane looked good to the eye, she would fly well’, perhaps rings true here with yachting also.

The key with making a yacht fast is high power to weigh ratio, achieved with strategic weight distribution, high righting moment and low weight, yet strong materials. When righting moment is high, more horse power can be designed into the rig and sails. The hull, spars and sails therefore need to be light and the bulb on the keel deep and heavy. Class rules traditionally hamstring a designer from the challenge of taking design and technology to its full potential. This is not the case with Maximus. Throw in a streamlined, easily driven hull and a skillful crew and you have all the ingredients for speed.

Weight to power ratio and righting moment has been maximized in Maximus by an extremely frugal addition of weight throughout all parts of the yacht. The hull and much of the equipment and fittings are completely composed of carbon. So too are the spars – the mast could be lifted by one very well balanced Scottish caber tosser! Further weight is stripped down with the absence, rather alteration, of some fittings normally found on yachts, such as cleats and many usually conventional winches – the luff is tensioned down rather than pulled up with a halyard. The winches that are used are also made from carbon. Add to this a revolutionary rotating mast (the first for a monohull) for more efficient use of the wind (and less drag) and a keel which telescopes into itself and cants to a larger angle than ever before.

Perhaps unexpectedly, safety has not been compromised is favour of performance alone. Crash bars have been fitted in strategic places (carbon fiber off-course) and the hull has been designed, by Greg Elliott, with higher than necessary top sides to minimize the crew’s exposure to fast moving deck wash. Maximus is fully equipped with safety gear, has a strengthened canting keel and is able to function completely manually, without auxiliary power. It is not hard to understand why the team has a particular emphasis on safety and prudence as they are in uncharted territory in yachting with respect to boat speeds and pressures.

The Velocity Prediction Analysis suggests that Maximus will smash speed records with her long straight lines, low drag, high righting moment, maximum power to weight ratio, efficient and huge sail area, rotating mast, and extra canting keel. Add to this an excellent managerial and sailing team and she is likely to not only find racing regatta line honors but dissolve opponent’s spirits in her wake in the process.

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• The World’s Fastest Thoroughbred Racing Yachts Are Going Head to Head Again

Sailing’s most beautiful and technical racing yachts are battling for line honors once again.

David reed's most recent stories.

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They’re back. After a year of mostly canceled events due to Covid-19, the Maxis, the world’s largest thoroughbred racing yachts , are going head-to-head in one of sailing’s most exciting series. The most prestigious contests on the calendar are organized by the International Maxi Association , founded 41 years ago to manage the growing competition between yachting’s high-tech grand dames.

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Not to be confused with the elegant sailing giants known as Superyachts, which typically compete in gentlemanly regattas (sometimes called “buckets”) where boats are required to maintain at least 131 feet of distance between them, Maxis differ in size—Mini-Maxis at 60 to 79 feet, Maxis at 79 to 100 feet and Super Maxis from 100 feet—but are all built for close-hauled racing. With lightweight, carbon-fiber hulls and sails that can run into the six figures, Maxis are purpose-built speed machines, with crews scrambling across wet decks to lift giant spinnakers as skippers steer their race boats within spitting distance in an attempt to gain minor tactical advantages over the competition.

A yacht on course in the Rolex Giraglia 2021.  Giulio Testa

Among owners, the Mini-Maxi class has become the most popular, for the romantic reason that owners are required to steer their own boats. That involves much more than standing behind the wheel during a race. Owners often oversee the designs and builds of new boats, and help recruit veteran Olympic, America’s Cup and ocean-race sailors who fly in to crew the high-dollar machines. Planning a single campaign can take months.

We’re currently in the middle of Maxi season, the main events for which include the Maxi Yacht Capri Trophy , won in May by Vincenzo Addessi’s Fra Diavolo; June’s 241-nautical mile Rolex Giraglia , where Adalberto Miani’s Arca SGR was first to finish; the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup , in Porto Cervo, Sardinia, in early September; and late October’s 606-nautical mile Rolex Middle Sea Race , which starts and ends in Malta with a race around Sicily in between. (Some Covid-related changes are in effect this year, with the Giraglia, considered the oldest race in the northern Med, starting in Sanremo, Italy —rather than Saint-Tropez—and ending in Genoa.) As always, sailors are looking to claim not just the victory but the coveted “line honors” that accompany it: First across the finish line is first to the champagne.

Sailors competing on the Tyrrhenian sea in Capri, Italy.  Courtesy of Rolex

The year’s highlight is the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, featuring a week of intense coastal racing involving around 50 boats. The Aga Khan’s remarkable Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in Porto Cervo is the host club, with Sardinia’s picturesque hills and charming ports reminding visitors why it remains the Shangri-La of sailing. And backdrops like Sardinia are the added attraction of Maxi racing, beyond its thrilling competition. The contests take place in some of the Med’s most idyllic settings, which make for ideal vacation spots after the trophies have been awarded.

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Maxi Racing to the Max

• By Kimball Livingston
• February 21, 2023

Maxi racing in the Med is hot. Call it a lesson in the value of getting your act together. The game has grown and changed dramatically—and deliberately—with fleets of 50 as the new normal. Ten years ago, none of this was ensured. The secretary general of the International Maxi Association, Andrew McIrvine, tells us, “Rapid change was needed, or it was going to just die.”

How it didn’t “just die” is a story worth telling, and we lean on McIrvine for that. “The International Maxi Association was originally a social club for the owners of 80-footers. That generation was going out as I was invited in,” he says. “The racing had categories that were impossible to define, so people were always gaming it. What’s a racer-cruiser versus a cruiser-racer? And could we ever have effective class splits based on hull length?”

The answer to that, as proven, is no he says. “The categories are now performance-defined, using a single-number IRC rule that includes an accurate weight measurement, not a calculated weight. We photograph the interiors so we know who’s stripping them out. The database includes 155 boats, and it has checks on people who fly too close to the rules. That gives other people the confidence to come out and race.”

The 2023 Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge offers a series of six events, wrapping up in August with the Palermo-Montecarlo Race. That’s 500 miles from Sicily to the Champagne at Yacht Club de Monaco—not to forget the fly-through gate at Porto Cervo along the way and the option of leaving Corsica to port or to starboard. It’s a sporty race in a sporty calendar.

“I truly believe the IMA has made a difference. We’ve attracted a new, younger membership. We’ve added events, and the compass has expanded from the Med to the Caribbean . Whereas we used to have a big mini-maxi contingent and not many boats 80 to 100 feet, in 2022 we suddenly had 12 of the 80- to 100-foot maxis racing, and racing on proper terms. At least two of the current owners are building new boats, which I believe is the sign of a healthy class.

“Then there are the Maxi 72s that have all been modified outside the box they were designed for, but they still race together. They’re more optimized than the other boats, so no one outside their group wants to race against them—they’re a threat—but we can usually give them their own sandbox to play in.”’

And what of the Wallys that seems to have disappeared?

“We gave that up. Wallys come in different sizes, different speeds. I can’t think of a single case of twin Wallys. Now they’ve rejoined according to their ratings, and I think, frankly, the Wally era is over. Luca Bassani’s success with Wallys is such that all designers have copied his concept. When he started, big race boats were neither ergonomic nor pretty, and the decks were bristling with winches. If you go aboard any boat now, it looks like a Wally.

“You could also go the way of Rambler and Comanche, where you pay more and more money to be more and more uncomfortable. Down below, you’re sitting in a carbon-black hole (black because paint adds weight) beside an engine that runs to power the canting keel and the winches. On deck—and it’s true with the Maxi 72s—you find they are exhausting boats to sail because they’re fast upwind at steep angles only. They’re on the edges of the hull to keep the wetted surface to a minimum. The hulls are so wide at the stern, all the crew is hiked hard at the aft end of the boat. And then, in a tack, you’re going from 45 degrees to 45 degrees, and if you don’t get it right running across the deck, you’re in trouble. On a clean deck, there’s nothing to grab on to.”

Placing itself somewhere in between the extremes of the grand-prix set and the ­leaning cruisers, Nautor has a new ClubSwan 80 it’s touting as a one-design class. Loro Piana brought Hull No. 1 to the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup last year at Porto Cervo, and the boat performed well. Weighing the odds of developing a successful one-design, it’s worth remembering that the ClubSwan 50 had its skeptics, who were proven wrong. But the 80 is a take-no-prisoners statement. It’s a major turn for a company whose classic racing events feature boats with furniture. Now we’re talking all carbon with a canting keel, a tacking daggerboard, push-button controls, twin rudders, design by Juan K, and construction in Italy by Persico—very fashion-forward. I’m sure you had a look at that boat.

“It’s a fascinating project, and it looks extreme, but it has, theoretically, cruising potential,” McIrvine says. “Inside, it’s all black carbon—artfully crafted—accented with strips of mahogany veneer. No furniture, but you have the option of adding interior modules for cruising. And we shouldn’t overlook the carbon-fiber bidet in the owner’s head.”

Clearly, Nautor thinks the IMA has a good thing going, and it wants a bigger piece of it. Beyond rational class definitions, one very important thing is resonating, McIrvine says. The owners are driving.

“Our rule is critical, and we are strict about imposing it, with rest breaks allowed,” he says. “Generally, it takes a lifetime to amass the wealth to race a big boat. By the end of a day race, most owners are exhausted. Which is not to say that amateur drivers are on their own. An astonishing number of names you know show up to whisper, ‘A little higher, sir, a little lower.’ That keeps the standards high, and it’s a reminder that being a pro sailor is a dodgy profession. There are only 10 TP52s in the Med, for example, only nine SailGP teams in the world and five America’s Cup teams. However, we don’t restrict driving in the superyacht group at all.”

The other boat debuting at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup was FlyingNikka , which raised the concern of foiling monohulls threatening the order. “ Nikka showed that she can sail in the fleet safely, so at St. Tropez we put her in a class where her rating was absurd. The boat would do 35 knots in the right conditions, but they couldn’t keep her on foils going upwind. Tacks were agonizingly slow. What Roberto Lacorte is looking for is line honors in longer races.”

The venues where maxis can and now gather are also a draw. The Caribbean was the inevitable expansion opportunity beyond the Med, where it’s obvious that people like to go to St. Tropez, Capri, Sorrento, Giraglia and so on. Neither coast of the United States can accommodate such a fleet.

“Water depth is a huge challenge for race committees,” McIrvine says. “A lot of the Bay of Naples is 1,200 to 1,500 feet deep. Off St. Tropez it’s much, much deeper. We’re using MarkSetBot, which is promising. It’s not 100 percent reliable, but an upside beyond remote control is that you can’t wrap your keel around an anchor line because there is no anchor line [on a GPS‑directed robot mark].

“Our people are selective about where they choose to race. One owner told me it costs him $750,000 to take his boat, team and containers to Porto Cervo for five days. No one wants to spend that kind of money on a badly run regatta, so it’s a conservative bunch.

“The IMA has a small board of directors backed up by a dynamic, insightful team. IMA costs are supported by membership subscription except for Rolex, which has been fantastic. When I started with the IMA, the Rolex people told me, ‘We’ve been giving you money, but your people just put it in the bank.’ I said, ‘I’m sure I can fix that,’ and I have. There is a lot of travel now, a much more glam yearbook, a lot of publicity. About half the boats racing last year were flying the IMA flag.”

So, everything is coming up roses? “There are still supply-chain issues around securing building materials. Outside of maxi racing, the 30- to 40-foot range is falling off a cliff, except for shorthanded distance racing. Looking ahead, we still don’t know if we are in a recession or a hiccup, but in previous recessions, maxi racing has gone on, looking good for two or three years longer than you might expect. Then the boats stay on the dock.”

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100ft Black Jack wins Palermo-Montecarlo line honours and sets new race record - 44 hours, 34 minutes and 14 seconds. She crossed the finish line at 08:34:14 on August 22

(photo: Circolo della Vela Sicilia / Studio Borlenghi)

Palermo-Montecarlo offshore race is underway. It is the last event of the IMA 2023-24 Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge

Spectacular start for 2024 palermo-montecarlo offshore race. 50+ boats including 5 maxis were on the start line off mondello, siciliy, palermo-montecarlo offshore race sets sail tomorrow august 20 from off mondello, sicily.

(photo: Loro Piana / Studio Borlenghi)

New World Championship at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup (September 8 to 14): the Rolex IMA Maxi 1 Worlds will be open to maxi yachts with an IRC TCC of 1.700-2.200 and up to 30.51m (100ft) in length

(photo: IMA / Studio Borlenghi)

Aegean 600 prizegiving. AIOLOS, owner IMA member George Procopiou, wins 1 place in Maxi division and is also presented with the IMA George Andreadis Challenge trophy

(photo: AleN photography / Nikos Alevromytis)

V70 Aiolos (GRE), owner George Procopiou, finishes the Aegean 600 under the Temple of Poseidon on Cape Sounion. She will claim victory in Maxi class

(photo: Deea Buzzdugan /Aegean 600 HORC)

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Palermo-Montecarlo line honours and record for Black Jack; maxi prize for Lucky

• Posted by IMA
• Montecarlo, 22 August 2024

One of the windiest and most competitive Palermo-Montecarlo races concluded for the maxi yachts today with Remon Vos? ...

Record under threat in the Palermo-Montecarlo ?

• Palermo, 19 August 2024

The 19th Palermo-Montecarlo yacht race sets sail from off  Palermo, Sicily, tomorrow (Tuesday 20 August), concludin...

New World Championship for September's Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup

• Porto Cervo, July 30, 2024

The 2024 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup will feature the very first World Championship for Maxi 1. Taking place out of Porto Cervo...

39 years ago the International Maxi Association was started as a small gathering of maxi yacht owners wishing to bring more co-ordination to their sailing. Since then it has grown both in the size of its membership and its remit, to become an organization with much wider influence and endorsed by World Sailing to organize World Championships and to manage maxi racing globally. The IMA’s overall aim is to encourage greater participation in maxi racing around the world. To this end, the Association has become increasingly involved in all the regattas with significant maxi participation. Another of the IMA’s major responsibilities is to encourage the highest standards of race management, safety and measurement for both inshore and offshore maxi yacht events. For maxi regattas the IMA assists with the standardization of entry and the writing of notice of races and sailing instructions. The Association can also assist with race management and support and endorse events that are held to its high standards. For 2021 as well as all our usual events and our Mediterranean Maxi Inshore and Offshore Championships, we are adding a new regatta run by the Yacht Club Italiano as a season opener in Portofino at the end of April. We are also supporting the famous Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Hawaii and the Aegean 600. Our flagship event, the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, we trust will be able to proceed this September in Porto Cervo in near normal conditions. Here and at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez we will be joined by the J Class, a class formally affiliated with the IMA, as we await news of their next World Championship. The IMA’s membership remains healthy – a trend we hope will continue. We need maxi owners to support us so that we can support them! We remain extremely grateful for the generous long term and loyal support from our main sponsor Rolex and are pleased to welcome Credit Suisse as a further sponsor. We also thank the marine clothing company Code 0 for kitting out the IMA team in smart new gear. As usual I thank my hard-working and dedicated staff. Throughout the pandemic we have met weekly on Zoom but are greatly looking forward to seeing each other in person, as well as all maxi owner and sailors in the forthcoming season. We wish you an excellent season ahead.

February 2021 Andrew McIrvine IMA Secretary General

International Maxi Association Legal Headquarters: c/o BfB Société Fiduciaire Bourquin frères et Béran SA - 26, Rue de la Corraterie - 1204 Genève - Switzerland

Sailing yacht ICAP Leopard prepares for Transatlantic Record

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Written by Chelsea Smith

LEOPARD 3 Racing

The ICAP Leopard_3 , the 100ft super-maxi racing yacht is preparing to launch her assault on the west-to-east monohull transatlantic sailing record in the coming weeks.

The ICAP Leopard 3 features a radical new design concept and is a luxurious, signature charter yacht, a passage record breaker and a race winning super maxi sailing yacht.

The ICAP Leopard 3’s structural design and detailing were created by  Farr_Yacht_Design and her interior and exterior styling is by  Ken_Freivokh  Designs.  All other aspects have been managed by owner Mike Slade’s own very capable team, Ocean Marine.

The yacht is 30 m  (100ft) in length, with a 6.8 m beam, a 5.5 m  draft and a 4.5 metre fixed bowsprit. Her towering mast is 47 m high and her keel cants 40 degrees either side of centreline.

The yachts sleek hull is made of a powerful carbon fibre/nomex combination enabling exceptional speed. The interior volume allows for spacious accommodations which is a notable departure from the current fleet of extremely narrow boats. The wide hull of the ICAP Leopard 3 is especially suited for offshore high-speed sailing and racing and is enhanced by the presence of a chine that increases water flow off the hull and reduces structural weight.

LEOPARD 3 Racing.

The ICAP Leopard features a set of efficient underwater foils including a canting keel, twin asymmetric lifting canards forward and a single rudder on centerline aft. The stability of this canting the keel is equivalent to 200 crew members sitting on the rail, without the added weight. Two hydraulic cylinders typically operating at a load of 61 tonnes cant the keel.

The ICAP Leopards towering rig is  47 metres above the water and can carry up to 15,000 square feet of sail area.

Sailing yacht ICAP  Leopard_3 has other unique High Performance Features such as twin dagger boards, (rather than a single forward canard) mounted on hydraulic rollers and a single rudder.  The canards, located on either side of the mast, perfectly balance the sail forces and are lifted and lowered using hydraulically powered pinch rollers. A single, aft rudder controls the steering.  The sailing yacht has the ability to take aboard up to six tonnes of water in the transom area enabling the bow to lift in fast downwind conditions.

Designed and styled by ‘Ken Freivokh Design’ in Fareham, UK, the Leopard’s interior is fitted out in an ultra light, airy and modern decor. The elegant and modern saloon is fitted with home comforts and comfortably seats 12.  The large dining table is to port and to starboard a custom-built carbon coffee table is surrounded by ample seating in rich cream leather.

Following a period of extensive racing, sailing yacht Leopard will ‘evolve’ into phase 2 when three luxurious double guest cabins forward will be fitted prior to the yacht being offered to the termed charter markets of the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. Her interior is fully removable for racing.

LEOPARD 3 Saloon

The 100ft super maxi racing vessel ICAP  Leopard_3 is currently berthed in New York  preparing to launch her attack upon the west-to-east monohull transatlantic sailing record in the coming weeks.

Launched in 2007 ICAP Leopard, has already broken 12 major offshore racing records, including the fastest elapsed time ever set in the prestigious Rolex Fastnet Race. The west-to-east monohull transatlantic sailing record will see her tackle the path between Ambrose Light, NY and the Lizard Point, which marks the entrance to the English Channel.

ICAP Leopards target for this attempt will primarily be the record for monohull yachts with power-assisted systems of seven days, 19 hours and 21 minutes that she set in June 2008. Since setting this benchmark the yacht has undergone a series of modifications and the crew are confident that in the right conditions, they will be able to better Mari Cha IV’s outright monohull transatlantic speed record of 6 days 17 hours and 52 minutes.

Negotiating complex weather systems will play an integral role in ICAP Leopard’s latest transatlantic record attempt and will be monitored by veteran navigator Hugh Agnew. 

The Captain of the ICAP Leopard is  Chris Sherlock who commented: “We can’t wait to get stuck into another attempt on the Atlantic record. Last time a tight weather window forced us into accepting less than ideal conditions for our record run but we have slightly more leeway this time. Our weather window will open on the 11th May and then we will have roughly three weeks to plan our departure. This should allow us to set ourselves up for the best possible weather pattern.”

Mike Slade the owner of sailing yacht ICAP Leopard noted: “This is something that I have been looking forward to ever since we crossed the finish line last time around. It has been brilliant to hold the record for yachts with power-assisted winches but we know we can go faster. The yacht and crew have been tempered over a two year period of hard racing and we are now sailing faster and harder than ever before. We will have a decent period of time in which to pick our weather window and the crew are all preparing to go on standby for what promises to be a thrilling sprint across the pond!”

The sailing yacht  Leopard_3 is available for select charters providing a unique blend of on-board luxury coupled with out-and-out performance to make her one of the most desirable yachts available for charter today.

The Leopard is available for charter in 2 different arenas:

Corporate Charters – Leopard can entertain up to 20 guests making her the ideal platform for corporate or private functions.

Racing Charters – A limited number of guests can join Leopard’s own professional crew during selected races and regattas.

Contact CharterWorld today for further information on availability, rates and her program.

Pingback by Super-maxi ICAP Leopard to start Transatlantic record attempt. — 2010-05-27 @ 11:25 pm

[…] more about the ICAP Leopard, the 100ft super-maxi racing yachts Transatlantic attempt  here Super-maxi […]

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MaxZ86, WAY OF LIFE

McConaghy Boats, MaxZ86 Built 2003 / €690,000, + VAT

Broker’s Comments

WAY OF LIFE, formerly MORNING GLORY is quite simply an iconic MaxZ86, with an enviable racing history across the globe.

This record-breaking canting keel, built by McConaghy Boats, has had a strong presence in the USA and Mediterranean Maxi racing scene since new.

She was built originally as MORNING GLORY, alongside PYEWACKET – as a sistership, and encompassing the new (at the time) technology and design thinking of the CBTF (Canting Ballast Twin Foil).

Her immediate successes in the top offshore events at the time made the world turn their heads to canting keel technology. The hull form is surprisingly narrow compared with today’s wide reaching machines that reduce drag as righting moment comes mainly from the canting keel.

The clever rotating canard, or forward rudder is operated at the helm, and either independently, or fixed at a ratio with the main rudder, a very clever system.

Although arguably not quite as powerful reaching, she still holds her own in VMG, and flat water and capable of competing alongside the world’s most competitive yachts.

Recently under the guise of VESPER PI, she claimed line honours against some of the Mediterranean’s fastest Maxis and proved to be competitive in the 2019 Rolex Capri Sailing Week, and since then a top performer in the famous Barcelona race.

Now under new ownership and given a new lease of life with substantial investment in recent years. With replacement PBO standing rigging in 2019 – saving more weight aloft, and she has a substantial sail wardrobe.

This yacht is still taking line honours victories and offers a superb and fast platform for offshore and inshore racing.

Available immediately for charter or for purchase.

A 2019 survey is available.

EWOL Season 2019 Movie – Short

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Yacht Details

• Builder: McConaghy Boats
• Model: MaxZ86
• Yacht Name: WAY OF LIFE
• Hull Designer: Reichel Pugh
• Year Built: 2003
• LOA: 87’3” / 26.60m (inc. bow sprit)
• LWL: 78’8” / 23.99m
• Beam: 15’7” / 4.75m
• Min Draft / Max Draft: 7’3” / 2.20m
• Displacement: 21,495kg / 47,388lb
• Berths: 15 berths in 1 cabin(s) / 1 head/WC(s)
• Engine Count: 1 Yanmar 4LHA-HTP Diesel
• Country: Koper, Slovenia
• Asking Price: €690,000, + VAT

Contact Details

Ben Cooper Berthon UK Tel: 0044 (0)1590 679 222 E-Mail: [email protected] Click image for full broker profile.

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Jim Cooney buys Comanche – the super maxi will now call Australia home

One of the favourites to take line honours in the 2017 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, LDV Comanche, was purchased today (14 December 2017) by Sydney’s Jim Cooney from its American owner Jim Clark, making the super maxi yacht an Australian owned and skippered entry when it starts the Boxing Day classic.

“LDV Comanche is a truly awe-inspiring yacht, and the chance to race to Hobart, alongside my children Julia and James with a world class crew, is a once in a lifetime opportunity too good to pass up. I started ocean racing 30 years ago and we have raced as a family in many parts of the world for 12 years, but this is an incredible opportunity for us to challenge for the world’s toughest blue water classic,” says Jim Cooney, who finished sixth on line in last year’s race at the helm of his Volvo 70 ‘Maserati’ and campaigned his iconic maxi Brindabella for seven years before that.

“This year competition is fierce, with the strongest line up of super maxis ever seen in one race. Depending on conditions, any of the 100 footers could take line honours, it threatens be one of the best races in the history of the event,” Cooney stated today.

Jim Cooney is the Chairman and majority shareholder of TCI Renewables, a professional wind energy development company headquartered in Oxford, UK. Jim is a Chartered Engineer who co-founded TCI in Australia in 1996 and successfully developed the business to span the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada and the United States. He is an accomplished industry leader in renewable energy, specialising in wind energy, and under his direction TCI Renewables has developed some of the largest wind farms in the UK.  In 2005 Jim was honoured with the prestigious Ernst & Young Australian Entrepreneur of the Year.  He holds degrees from the University of Sydney, University of London and Imperial College, London.

LDV Comanche will continue to carry the colours of the Chinese vehicle manufacturer LDV, which is using the yacht and the race as part of the launch of  its new LDV T60 Ute.

The crew on LDV Comanche reads like a who’s who of the sailing world and following the change in ownership, will gain some new names. As well as Jim Cooney, the crew will now include Jim’s son and daughter Julia and James Cooney alongside Waratah Jeremy Tilse.

The stellar crew includes three time America’s cup winner and 2015 Rolex Sydney Hobart Winner Jimmy Spithill (Australia); eleven time winner of the Transpac race and round the world race winner Stan Honey (USA); round the world race winner Brad Jackson (New Zealand); Olympic and round the world sailor Dirk de Ridder (Netherlands); multiple America’s Cup sailor and Rolex Sydney Hobart winner Warwick Fleury (New Zealand); America’s Cup sailor, Nick Burridge (New Zealand); Olympic, America’s Cup and round the world sailor Shannon Falcone (UK); Rolex Sydney Hobart race winner on Comanche, John Von Schwarz (USA); six time round the world racer and seven time America’s Cup competitor, Tony ‘Trae’ Rae (New Zealand); Sydney Hobart winner on board Comanche and the sport’s world renowned ‘Mr Fixit’, Casey Smith (Australia); Extreme sailing expert Stuart Pollard (Australia); round the world sailor Justin Slattery (Ireland); Rolex Sydney Hobart winner on Comanche Keats Keeley (USA); round the world sailor David Rolfe (Australia); and project manager Tim Hackett who has managed some of the leading teams around the world.

Launched as ‘Comanche’, and now called ‘LDV Comanche’ for the 2017 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, the 100 foot maxi racing yacht holds a remarkable list of records, all of which show her to be the ideal yacht for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race. The yacht holds the 24 hour sailing distance record for monohulls and the trans-Atlantic crossing record of 5 days, 14 hours, 21 minutes and 25 seconds. In addition to the 2015 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, she won the no less tough Fastnet Race. This year she smashed the monohull record in the Transpac race with an average speed of 20.2 knots.

‘LDV Comanche’s nickname, “the aircraft carrier”, gives away what sets her apart from two of her rivals, Black Jack and Wild Oats XI. Indeed, her beam at the stern is so great it could accommodate both Black Jack and Wild Oats XI. Her optimum heel angle is anything over 20 degrees and she has the same wetted surface as Wild Oats XI at 25 degrees. The 46 metre/150 feet high mast sits directly above the canting keel and she designed deliberately to be able to – just – slip under Sydney Harbour Bridge. The mast has a static load of 75 tonnes and 150 tonnes under sail, or, to put it another way, the same weight as 80 LDV T60 Utes hanging from the mast.

Suspended from the mast is a 410 square metre mainsail, which will carry a massive picture of an LDV T60 Ute for the race. In downwind configuration, this expands to a massive 1022 square metres and the largest spinnaker is 1100 square metres. Under the yacht is a canting keel that may be swung out 35 degrees in either direction in as little as 25 seconds, while there is space on either side of the hull for 6.5 tonnes of water in the ballast tanks.

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Black Jack 100: On board the light airs supermaxi chasing Sydney Hobart glory

• November 26, 2019

Black Jack 100, originally Alfa Romeo, is a Reichel Pugh design that was launched in 2003 and famously and repeatedly duelled with Wild Oats XI for Sydney Hobart line honours. After several years racing in Europe, the iconic 100-footer has been rebooted and has her sights on the Hobart trophy once more. Crosbie Lorimer reports

“I always told Peter you never want to buy a 100-footer and eventually he ignored me. But now we’re all pretty happy that we’re here!”

The words of Mark Bradford, the easy-going skipper of the recently reminted Black Jack 100 (previously Esimit Europa 2 and originally Neville Crichton’s Alfa Romeo ), say something of the trust that underpins the ten-year relationship he has enjoyed with Peter Harburg, owner of a number of yachts carrying the Black Jack name.

The last big jump the Black Jack team made, from Harburg’s original Reichel Pugh 66 to a Volvo 70, was much less significant in terms of resources and expertise required than the leap to a 100-footer has been. The principal difference – costs aside – lies with the size and experience of a team required to crew a winning supermaxi.

More winches can be powered using latest tech hydraulics. Photo: Crosbie Lorimer

In that respect Bradford’s original reservations were not without grounds: “We used to sail those boats with 10-13 crew and we built a very strong team, but now we’ve got a crew of 20 and it’s a different scale of exercise altogether.”

One factor that has gone a long way to addressing that challenge is the calibre of the team that Harburg and Bradford have drawn together to complement the core of Black Jack regulars. The Volvo Ocean Race , America’s Cup and Olympic luminaries aboard Black Jack 100 include Tom Slingsby, Tom Addis and Chris Nicholson.

For any Australian supermaxi owner – and indeed for a good number of international owners – winning line honours in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is the Mount Everest of yachting ambitions. In 2017 there are potentially five supermaxis vying for that honour, including Black Jack 100 ’s sistership and multiple Hobart winner Wild Oats XI , and Jim Clark’s powerful Comanche .

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Over recent years the supermaxi arms race to secure the John Illingworth Trophy for first boat to cross the line off Hobart’s Battery Point has focused on powerful rigs and displacement-cheating foils to make the most of the rugged conditions for which this tough ocean classic is renowned.

Surprisingly, however, the average windspeed for this race is only 11 knots, reflecting the often lengthy light air transitions that typically follow southerly fronts, not to mention the capricious Derwent River’s dreaded night-time closedown, and leaving a potential loophole for Harburg’s new boat.

Black Jack 100 is two tonnes lighter than Wild Oats XI – shallower in draught, too, by some 700mm. That offers Harburg’s team an opportunity to exploit those light air punctuations in the 630 miles that lie between Sydney and Hobart, without having to make the costly hull and foil modifications that have seen Wild Oats XI dubbed the ‘Swiss Army knife’ in her quest to stay competitive with her more modern rivals.

Tom Slingsby is clearly impressed with this approach: “ Wild Oats is trying to match  Comanche a bit more in the breeze and it’s left a pretty big opening for the light air performer. That’s where these guys have optimised, and it’s a good move,” said Slingsby during Audi Hamilton Island Race Week in August 2017.

Weight loss

In her former guise as Alfa Romeo , Black Jack 100 won line honours in Hobart in 2009, but much has changed in the years since.

“We essentially bought a boat with a tungsten bulb, a two-year-old mast and a good hull – everything else was near enough original,” said project manager Alex Nolan. He describes the core objectives of the upgrade: “The big thing has been reducing weight and simplifying systems to be more user-friendly.”

The forward lifting rudder control panel can be accessed by the traveller trimmer or by another crew member on the rail. Note the emergency stop button under the instrument panel on the steering pedestal. Photo: Crosbie Lorimer

The weight loss strategy has been extensive with a total rewiring of the boat, including distributing the previously centralised hydraulics manifolds to a series of outlying hubs, reducing metres of wiring and hose, helping to shed several hundred kilos of weight in the process.

“We’ve added five sailing hydraulic rams and powered three more winches and overall we are still lighter in the hydraulics package,” said Nolan.

Replacing the original removable bowsprit with a fixed sprit has also saved weight in the bow by reducing the amount of structure required, a change that went hand in glove with moving the forestay forward and increasing the J measurement for bigger headsails.

The pit winches, which were originally top handled, are now powered and the tack lines are held with hydraulic rams located in a false cavity in the coachroof, freeing up winches. The same cavity holds the topmast deflector lines and jib sheet inhaul/outhaul lines. Photo: Crosbie Lorimer

Against the wind

The most significant change, however, has been the rebuilding of the forward rudder to integrate a lifting mode for downwind sailing. The Wild Oats XI team replaced their original forward rudder with a centreboard and added lifting daggerboards, but for Black Jack 100 the need to capitalise on upwind conditions made the complexity and expense of this lifting rudder an obvious investment.

With barely more than a couple of training sessions under her keel, Black Jack 100 showed immediate form on her first outing in the Land Rover Sydney to Gold Coast Race, remaining within close sight of old rival Wild Oats XI for the entire two days of the mostly light wind 380-mile race.

That promising form continued into Audi Hamilton Island Race Week with Black Jack 100 only losing out to the Oatley family’s all-conquering silver machine when heavier breezes closed out the last two days of the regatta at the end of August.

The instrument readouts on the central mainsheet winch console only display information on tack loads and positions. All sailing-related readouts are shown on instruments on the mast or at the helm. Photo: Crosbie Lorimer

Not only does Black Jack 100 ’s early form suggest that she will give her rivals a run for their money in the race to Hobart. Her crew are not lacking in motivation either – the late Sir Jack Brabham, the legendary Formula One racing driver after whom the boat is named, inscribed three words on a bulkhead of his friend Peter Harburg’s previous boat. It simply read: “Get after them!”

Specification

LOA: 30.5 m (100ft) Beam: 5.2 m (17ft) Draught: 5.1 m (16.7ft) Displacement: 26.5 tonnes (58,423lbs) Mainsail area: 360 m 2 (3,875 sq ft) Downwind sail area: 1,126 m 2 (12,120 sq ft) Upwind sail area: 593 m 2 (6,383 sq ft) IRC rating: 1.917

First published in the January 2018 edition of Yachting World.

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Galateia, Y3K and Svea win at Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup

The 33rd edition of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup drew to a close on Sunday after four days of close racing out of Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in Porto Cervo.

The final classification remained unchanged from the penultimate day of competition after the last day of racing was cancelled due to lack of wind. The race committee took the decision to send the 45-strong fleet back to port for prize giving.

Fresh off of a win at the PalmaVela regatta, David Leuschen and Chris Flowers' 30.5-metre Wallycento Galateia won the Maxi A class with a seven-point lead from Leopard 3 and eight points ahead of fellow Wally , Bullitt . While Leopard 3 made the strongest start to the event, Andrea Recordati’s newly refitted Bullitt won two races in lighter winds, but it was Galateia that maintained a consistent series of podium finishes.

On his return to the dock, David Leuschen said: "It has been an exceptional week, the key factors for our success have been our consistency, nothing but second and third-place finishes, and our starts, probably the best we have ever had in a regatta. Winning the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup is an extraordinary achievement, for us it’s like the Holy Grail, so we feel very good."

In the Super Maxi class there was a two-horse race between Claus-Peter Offen’s new custom Wally 101 Y3K and Juan Ball’s Swan 115 Moat , both having scored two bullets, but with Y3K prevailing by one point in her first-ever event.

Y3K, the brand new Wally 101 owned by YCCS member Claus-Peter Offen, won the Supermaxi class on her debut outing, ahead of the Swan 115 Moat and the Briand 108 Inoui. Karol Jablonski, Offen's trusted tactician of many years, explained how they got there: "We are more than pleased with the result. We only had three days to test the boat and we are very happy with the job Wally has done. It is all about teamwork and how fast you learn about the new boat. We’ve been improving from day to day. I must admit that conditions in the first three days were perfect for learning about the boat, because it was blowing quite hard. Then we had light breeze conditions, so we had to learn very fast how to sail the boat in the light breeze as well. It’s a learning process, and we managed well in this first event."

The most dominant performance of this year's Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup was in the J Class where Niklas Zennström and Filip Engelbert’s Svea achieved a perfect scoreline, beating fellow Js Velsheda and Topaz in every race. The result means two class wins in a row for the 43.6-metre Vitters sailing yacht following her win at last year's Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup.

And for the first time, the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup introduced a new Maxi Multihull class that welcomed three boats to the circuit: a 24-metre APC78 Allegra , the new Gunboat 80 flagship Highland Fling 18 , and a Gunboat 68 Convexity2. Allegra made a strong start claiming the first two races in strong winds, while it was Highland Fling 18 that prevailed in lighter winds that followed in the latter half of the week. Ultimately, Allegra claimed class victory finishing two points ahead. 

Owner Adrian Keller said: "We couldn't have wished for better, the venue is top class, the first two days were great racing, and I think some of our colleagues on the monohulls have understood that catamarans can also be competitive. I think we will see more participants next year, we have agreed among ourselves to make a joint effort to attract more boats, so it will be even more exciting in the future. A big thank you to Sardinia and the YCCS of which I am a member, wonderful hosts.”

The 34th edition of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup will take place from 8 to 14 September 2024.

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