Seconds in it but J Class Svea completes title hat trick at Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup

J Class at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup © ROLEX / Carlo Borlenghi

By winning the second and final coastal race of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup by only a handful of seconds, the highly polished crew of the Swedish J Class yacht Svea won the Super Maxi division overall.

After finishing second on the first coastal race behind the successful Swan 115 Moat - winner at the regatta last year and at the summer's Giorgio Armani Superyacht Regatta on the same Costa Smeralda waters, Svea clinched the overall title on count back. Even then the overall class victory was down to their slender winning margin of just 28-seconds earned over the 31-nautical miles course clockwise around La Maddalena and Cabrera islands.

Svea finished second on the first coastal race which was won by the big NautorSwan, only just pipping the persistent Velsheda by 17-seconds after a thrilling head to head all the way around the route through the beautiful La Maddalena Islands archipelago. The pinnacle regatta was blighted somewhat by the strong Mistral which blew through most of the week, allowing only these two races to be contested.

After two days of waiting the first coastal was on Wednesday morning in perfect conditions - starting in 11kts, peaking at 13kts but the breeze fading to seven - whilst Saturday's finale was a test of crew work and speed in the brisk conditions, 13-24kts of W'ly wind meaning a beat up the so called 'bomb alley' and broad reach down the outside of the islands to finish back off Porto Cervo on the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda finish line.

After winning the J Class twice in a row, in 2022 and 2023, this is Svea's third successive victory at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup.

Svea's boat captain Paul Kelly enthused "Today [Saturday] we managed to extend on Velsheda all the way up and around the top but on the downwind they had some serious, serious boat speed. We thought they were going to roll us at the finish but we managed to hold them off. It was enough for the overall win, three years in a row we are super, super happy. Time on water is key for us and having a game plan and sticking to it. That is what we do. Moat was gone on the reach but we ate into her on corrected time."

Tom Dodson, tactician on Velsheda reported, "We had a clean day today [Saturday] but we got our timing wrong before the start and Svea got a much better start than we did, on our bow. We had a sniff of Svea up the first short beat - at 1.8 miles it was pretty short and so it was only a sniff, we got to the lay line too quickly and from there it was just trying to see if we could keep it tight and wait for them to make a mistake. We got into them a little on the downwind. Once the boat speed is over 11kts, Velsheda is enjoying it, but it was one of those courses where you could catch up but unless you could find somewhere to catch up there would always be a corner they could push you back into."

"It is a shame but I think the race committee did the best they could, it was always going to be tight to get more than a couple of races in. They did that and looking after these boats is pretty important too, you don't want to be out there breaking gear or people."

All eyes on the J Class Barcelona Regatta 2024 now, taking place 5-11 October.