Before Wednesday’s midday start of the Loro Piana Giraglia offshore race from Saint-Tropez, maxi crews were preparing for a laborious light wind race.

Most shed crew and smaller sails, their routeing predicting an arrival in Genoa well into the second night. In the event the wind gods smiled on the Yacht Club Italiano’s annual offshore race, which is the fifth event of the International Maxi Association’s 2025-26 Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge. Incredibly the leaders in the 21-strong maxi class would beat their routeing by as much as 12 hours (or by one third).

With Galateia and V not taking part and Leopard 3 pulling out at the start, this left the 100 footer battle between perennial Giraglia competitor Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones’ Magic Carpet e and Furio Benussi’s ARCA SGR: very different canting keelers, the former a state of the art Verdier design, the latter much older – originally Skandia, the 2003 Rolex Sydney Hobart winner.

Paul Cayard and Pier Luigi Loro Piana congratulate one another upon finished aboard My Song – photo © Loro Piana / Studio Borlenghi

After a beat out of the Golfe de Saint-Tropez over the next hours the wind slowly veered to the extent that the leaders had to put in two gybes to reach the Rock. Unforecast was a solid breeze propelling the leaders all the way. This caused the more powerful Magic Carpet e to pull 3.8 miles ahead of ARCA SGR. Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones commented: “We thought we would stop completely on the way to the Rock and also at the Rock for some time. Instead we made one of our best passages around the Rock: The wind was just at the right angle.” In fact here, unusually, they enjoyed the breeziest part of the race with 14-15 knots.

Getting ahead of their routeing enabled them to hold the breeze for longer, explained navigator Marcel van Triest: “We got around the Giraglia Rock just before midnight, a couple of hours ahead. That made it all a lot better as a hole was expected to form at 0300. With these boats, in one knot more breeze, you can be three knots quicker. It was all a little bit windier than forecast.”

Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s 80ft My Song was third home on the water – photo © Loro Piana / Studio Borlenghi

Inevitably the shutdown arrived an hour after passing the Rock, providing ARCA SGR, with her beam of 4.9m (compared to her opponent’s 7.2m) and some 10 tonnes lighter at 27 tonnes, the opportunity to make inroads. “She was like Pac-Man, slowly eating into our lead,” mused van Triest. By 0700 the two were neck and neck, ARCA SGR then edging past her opponent. From there she covered effectively, crossing the finish line at 13:04:56 yesterday in a time of 25 hours 4 minutes 56 seconds.

With the black-hulled ARCA SGR tied up outside the Yacht Club Italiano’s Genoa-based clubhouse, a beaming Furio Benussi described their race: “Magic Carpet e passed us before the Giraglia, because they arrived in 15 knots of wind and, reaching, their boat goes two knots faster. But we expected that. Giraglia to Genoa was a 90-mile match race. When the wind dropped, we closed the gap to them metre by metre and passed them after a gybing duel. They have a nice boat with an amazing crew, but we did a good job and are really proud of that.”

The lightweight, dart-like 100ft ARCA SGR excelled in the light conditions – photo © Loro Piana / Studio Borlenghi

For Benussi this outcome represented minor revenge. ARCA SGR had won line honours in this race on her first attempt in 2021, but the next year she had led for most of the way only to be pipped at the post by Owen-Jones’s previous Magic Carpet maxi. “We are one-all now.”

On board Benussi was joined by his tactician brother Gabriele who had an amazing week having preceded this line honours victory with a perfect scoreline calling tactics on Carlo Puri Negri’s Atalanta II in the Loro Piana Giraglia inshore/coastal races. Also in the crew were Rio Nacra 17 Olympic bronze medallist Thomas Zajac and Slovenian three time 470 Olympian Tomaž Copi, who enjoyed beating his old Olympic 470 training partner and opponent Ian Walker (back in Magic Carpet e’s afterguard). Also on board were five young crew from the Istituto Nautico in Trieste, ARCA SGR’s homeport.

Once out of the Golfe de Saint-Tropez on Wednesday, the leaders carried the breeze all the way to the Giraglia rock – Loro Piana Giraglia – photo © Loro Piana / Studio Borlenghi

Magic Carpet e finished some five minutes later at 13:10:07. “We spent a lot of time within 100 yards of each other. When it gets really light, they have an advantage,” commented Owen-Jones of their relative performances. “When it’s more than 7/8 knots, we have an advantage.” This comes after Magic Carpet e was fitted with a longer bowsprit and boom and a larger mainsail over the winter.

Next home in 27 hours 17 minutes 15 seconds was event sponsor Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s 80ft My Song. “We were expecting to have very low winds from the early afternoon, but in the end we made the Giraglia relatively fast,” confirmed Loro Piana. “After the Rock we had half an hour of good wind and then, all of a sudden, it died and we spent the rest of the race looking for breeze, particularly here at the arrival – we had at least two hours of no wind at all, which was quite challenging.”

George Sakellaris on Proteus: The media chopper arrived and all the crew dived below.. – photo © Loro Piana / Studio Borlenghi

For the race My Song shed crew, going with 14 people rather than the usual 20+. Loro Piana continued: “I have a great team, which worked like crazy because when there is less wind, you change sails more and try to find new solutions. Everybody was always committed, always fresh and strong.”

Calling tactics on board was former round the world race winner and reigning Star class World Champion Paul Cayard. “I’m very happy to have had this experience with him because he’s such a nice person and he is a champion. I learned a lot from him,” said Loro Piana.

Small army of crew on board Magic Carpet e. – Loro Piana Giraglia – photo © Loro Piana / Studio Borlenghi

Despite his giant sailing CV, this was Cayard’s first Loro Piana Giraglia. He commented: “After the rock there were zones of absolutely no wind and pretty tough conditions. But we were happy on My Song. We had a good strategy and controlled our competitor – Capricorno. We had seven miles on Proteus before the last big hole. Unfortunately they came in from seven miles to five and beat us. Offshore races like this you have to treat more like short courses, playing the smaller shifts a lot.”

Wednesday’s start from the Golfe de Saint-Tropez – Loro Piana Giraglia © Loro Piana / Studio Borlenghi

The highest placed of the ‘larger’ maxis under IRC and fifth overall in the IRC 0 maxi class was George Sakellaris’ 72ft Proteus. “It was a really enjoyable race,” commented navigator Will Oxley. “For five or six hours, we had a little burst of 12+ knots. It was not expected to stay up that long. But that got us around the rock at really good pace and away. But then it went true to form… We had zeros on the dial. So we had a staysail hoisted on the forestay – just something to windseek. But not for very long.”

Proteus also sailed with a reduced crew of just 12 (enabling them to race with just one liferaft). “George [Sakellaris] is thrilled,” Oxley continued. “Only now his new crew number is 12 – it’s so peaceful on board! George loves offshore – he steers a lot. It was beautiful with Venus and the moon.”

The slower maxis are continuing to arrive in Genoa today.

• Read more about Loro Piana Giraglia here
• Full results here
• For more on the International Maxi Association visit www.internationalmaxiassociation.com