The 2025 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, sailed from Porto Cervo from 7 to 13 September, delivered the kind of finish big-boat racing promises and rarely provides: Galateia took the Maxi 1 title on countback over Leopard 3, the two giants inseparable after a full week of racing.
The event remains the annual summit of the maxi calendar, drawing the largest racing yachts in the world to Sardinia's Costa Smeralda for a week that blends grand-prix competition with the particular theatre of Porto Cervo in September.
For the sailing world, the countback verdict was a reminder of the class's depth: two professionally campaigned maxis, a full race programme, and nothing between them but the tiebreak. The 2026 edition cannot come soon enough.
Photography: Dicard, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons; representative photograph, not the vessel named
