Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez: Incredible Maxis!

– Spirit of Malouen X with a firm grip on the controls! – Magic Carpet 3 teasing the Maxi 72s – The podiums becoming clearer in Maxi 3 and Maxi 4

“A very light mistral at Les Issambres!” Booming out over the VHF, it was all that was needed by the Race Committee, who were waiting early this afternoon to release the Maxis into the arena created by the Gulf of Saint Tropez. And so it was, shortly after 14:00 hours local time, that the start signal got today’s racing underway. A soft breeze, building slightly, drew the fleet of Maxis out towards Les Issambres, upwind at a gentle trot, before a sequence of manoeuvres with the wind on the beam by way of a prelude to the energetic final stampede downwind. These amazing Maxis are capable of driving out any sniff of a breeze along the shores of France’s Var region, where the summer continues to linger. That’s right, the wonderful seaside setting of Saint Tropez once again played host to the spellbinding spectacle of Maxis in full race mode, positioned on the racetrack with incredible skill by their top-flight international crews. The first two days of racing this week have already revealed the movers and shakers in each category, and today’s races gave each crew a sharp insight into the sometimes stark reality of the handicaps in corrected time.

Source: Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez official news