Taking place out of Saint-Tropez, the Loro Piana Giraglia is organised by the Yacht Club Italiano in collaboration with the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez.
While maxi yacht racing is often extremely close, for this year’s Loro Piana Giraglia inshore and coastal races, two clear leaders have already emerged after four races.
Two race wins today for Karel Komárek’s 100ft V has left them on 10 points, five points clear of arch-rival Galateia, being raced here in Saint-Tropez by father-daughter combo Chris and Lizz Flowers.
Event sponsor Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s 80ft My Song, leader after the first day of racing, lies one point further adrift on 16.
While V’s position at the top of the leaderboard looks strong, the podium places are far from decided with just four points separating Galateia in second to Alessandro Del Bono’s Capricorno in seventh.
Impressively on the ascent in the smaller class today was Wallyño, a three time winner of the IMA’s Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge and a multiple winner of previous maxi races here in Saint-Tropez.
She scored two second places today, which comes as a slight surprise as this is the first regatta for Wallyño in more than a year after she sustained keel damage during the 2025 IMA Maxi European Championship.
As a result Wallyño has now pulled out a small lead in the ‘battle of the IMA Presidents’ with current President, Maurits van Oranje and his Wally 80 Sud now lying in fourth, three points behind Wallyño after scoring a 3-4 today.
The four days of inshore and coastal racing (prior to Wednesday’s offshore to Genoa) is the third event in the International Maxi Association’s 2026 Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge.
