Two champions return to defend at Porto Cervo

Two defending world champions are back on the start line as the 36th Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup gets under way in Porto Cervo. Galateia and Django 7X, winners of the Rolex IMA Maxi 1 and Maxi Grand Prix World Championships in 2025, both return to defend, and Galateia's afterguard carries a strong Kiwi accent, with Murray Jones and Kelvin Harrap back on board for the title defence.

The regatta runs from 6 to 12 September at Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, hosting both IMA World Championships for the second year running. Of 43 provisional entries, 38 boats are rated and racing across six classes, Maxi 1, Maxi Grand Prix, Maxi 3, Maxi 4, Maxi 5 and Multihull, with racing opening Monday and the final prize giving set for Saturday at 17.30.

Galateia's record on the line

Owned by David M Leuschen and Chris Flowers, the WallyCento Galateia carries a TCC of 1.799 and returns as world champion after class victories at Porto Cervo in 2017 and 2023, then the Maxi 1 world title in 2025. That run puts her among the most successful campaigns currently racing at Porto Cervo, but Galateia is not the highest-rated boat in her own class this week. Karel Komarek's V (TCC 1.803) arrives having already topped the IMA's 2026 Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge standings, while Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones's newly launched Magic Carpet e tops the entire fleet on TCC at 1.863.

Joost Schuijff's Leopard 3, runner-up in 2025, also lines up again, alongside Pier Luigi Loro Piana's My Song, Alessandro Del Bono's Capricorno with Torben Grael, Flavio Favini and Alberto Bolzan aboard, and two female-helmed entries in Pascale Decaux's Tilakkhana and Wendy Schmidt's Deep Blue. Eight boats make up Maxi 1, the largest class in the regatta.

For Jones and Harrap, the defence plays out in a Maxi 1 fleet where V, Galateia and Magic Carpet e sit within 0.07 of TCC of each other, close enough that the class result is unlikely to be settled by rating alone.

Django 7X starts from the bottom of the rating band

Django 7X carries the lowest TCC of any boat in Maxi Grand Prix, at 1.620, yet she's the defending champion the rest of the fleet has to beat. Tactician Vasco Vascotto is framing the title defence as anything but conservative: "We are not defending, we are attacking."

There's plenty new in Maxi Grand Prix too. Peter Dubens arrives with the recently launched JV76 Northstar III, carrying the highest TCC in the class at 1.684, six hundredths clear of Django 7X. She debuts with double Olympic medallist Nick Rogers calling tactics, and unlike the class's water-ballast boats, Northstar III sails with a keel that cants up to 12 degrees.

Sir Peter Ogden's Jethou, with Kiwi sailor Brad Butterworth calling tactics, and Hap Fauth's Bella Mente, a four-time winner at this event, are back again, as is George and Christina Sakellaris's Proteus, 2024 class winner, with another Kiwi sailor Hamish Pepper on tactics. Peter Harrison's Jolt was runner-up to Django 7X last year and arrives as reigning IMA Maxi European Champion.

The class runs on a tight rating band, from 1.620 up to 1.684, so speed differences between these seven boats are small.

New Zealand influence in Porto Cervo is not limited to the two title races. Dean Barker, tactician on James Neville's Artemis Bleu, lines up in Maxi 3 fresh off steering the same crew to victory at the Range Rover Sardinia Cup on these waters in June. Between Jones and Harrap on Galateia, Butterworth on Jethou, Pepper on Proteus and Barker on Artemis Bleu, Kiwi sailors are calling tactics or handling the helm across three of the regatta's six classes this week.

How the week plays out

Both World Championship classes sail up to seven races, a mix of coastal courses and windward-leeward days, while the remaining classes race up to five coastal races. Thursday 10 September is the scheduled lay day, though it can be used to reschedule any races lost earlier in the week. Racing resumes Friday and Saturday before the final prize giving at Regatta Village on Saturday evening.