The Loro Piana Giraglia is one of the great offshore races of the Mediterranean calendar, and the 73rd edition arrives with a fleet that reflects everything that has made the event so enduring. Organised by Yacht Club Italiano in collaboration with the Societe Nautique de Saint-Tropez, under the guidance of the Federazione Italiana Vela and the Federation Francaise de Voile, and held with the support of the Yacht Club de France, Yacht Club Sanremo, Yacht Club de Monaco, the Union Nationale pour la Course au Large and the International Maxi Association, the race draws together the finest sailors and yachts from across the world for what has become a rite of passage in the sport.
Four days of inshore racing in Saint-Tropez run from 12 to 16 June, set against the glamour and sun of the Cote d’Azur, before the offshore fleet departs on 17 June for the 241-nautical-mile course around the Giraglia Rock off the northern tip of Corsica and into the proud maritime port of Genoa. This year, over 130 yachts from around the world will take part. The race also serves as a qualifying event for the IRC-UNCL Mediterranean Championship and forms a central part of the 2026 Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge, organised by the International Maxi Association.
The Giraglia has been building its reputation since 11 July 1953, when 22 boats set off from Cannes on a 196-mile course to Sanremo via the rock that gives the race its name. A French yacht won that inaugural edition in 31 hours. Since then, the event has grown steadily in ambition and stature. The record entry of 302 boats was set in 2016, and the course record belongs to Igor Simcic’s Esimit Europa 2, which set an astonishing time of 14 hours, 56 minutes and 16 seconds in 2012.
Loro Piana joined as title partner in 2024, bringing its long connection with the sea and the values of enduring quality to a race that shares exactly those qualities.
A Maxi Showdown
The line honours battle at the Loro Piana Giraglia 2026 brings together four of the most formidable offshore racing yachts on the water today: Magic Carpet E, Leopard 3, V and Arca SGR. Each is a 100-foot class yacht with serious offshore pedigree, and the 2026 edition marks the first time all four have competed against each other in an offshore race. That alone gives this year’s contest a historic quality that the Maxi world has been looking forward to.
Magic Carpet E, the Verdier 100 that only began racing in 2025, announced itself with a near-miss at last year’s Giraglia, finishing just two minutes and 43 seconds behind Skallywag 100 for line honours. The performance signalled the arrival of a genuinely fast yacht and a campaign that will be difficult to stop in the years ahead. The Mills 100 V adds further quality to the contest, having developed a strong profile in Maxi inshore racing, while the Don Jones 100 Arca SGR, skippered by the experienced Furio Benussi, arrives with consecutive victories in the 151 Miglia and a Barcolana win already secured. Arca SGR is a yacht that knows how to close out long races.
Leopard 3, the Farr 100 that has been operating under new ownership for several years, has developed into one of the most decorated offshore racing yachts in the world. Its record includes the RORC Transatlantic Race, the Rolex Middle Sea Race, the Maxi World Championship and two wins in the RORC Caribbean 600. Programme Manager Chris Sherlock has overseen a targeted programme of improvements ahead of the Giraglia, including new downwind sails and a lighter boom with a longer-footed mainsail, designed to sharpen performance in the lighter airs that the Mediterranean can produce at any point in the summer season.
“The Giraglia is our main offshore race for the Mediterranean summer, so we have to be ready for everything. VMG upwind in breeze and waves is our strong point, and the daggerboards are a big part of that. In the Caribbean 600 we could be more certain of the weather, but in the Med you do not know what you are going to get. You have to be fully ready.”
Chris Sherlock, Programme Manager, Leopard 3
The perfect pairing
Among the mid-fleet racer-cruisers, the entry of Franco Niggeler’s MAT 1220 Kuka 4 is one of the most compelling of the season. The Mark Mills design is brand new for 2026 and will make its competitive debut at the Sardinia Cup before joining the Giraglia fleet in Saint-Tropez. It is precisely the kind of yacht the Giraglia rewards: fast, capable offshore and designed to perform across the full spectrum of conditions that the course presents.
What gives Team Kuka its particular character is the partnership between Niggeler and double Olympic medallist Mitch Booth. The two men first raced against each other in A Class catamarans before going on to win the Melges 24 European Championship together and share a long list of offshore campaign successes. Their collaboration is founded on genuine trust and a shared instinct for high-performance sailing at the highest level. Booth serves as an integral part of the team rather than a hired professional, and the dynamic that creates on board is one of the things that makes Kuka 4 such an exciting entry.
“Kuka 4 is exactly the sort of boat the Loro Piana Giraglia was made for. Franco loves that middle distance, overnight endurance style of race, and this boat is perfectly suited to it. Franco is absolutely hands on. He is not an owner who just turns up and steers. He is loading sails, making sandwiches, trimming, steering, doing everything. That is what makes this project special.”
Mitch Booth, Skipper, Team Kuka
The MAT 1220 is a wide-sterned, planing hull that demands active, committed sailing to extract its performance. Booth describes it as a boat that must be sailed like a dinghy, fast downwind and fully alive when the conditions are right. The mid-fleet competition at the Giraglia is consistently strong, which means that any result achieved here carries real weight. For a new boat, a new season and a long-standing partnership given fresh expression, the 2026 Giraglia feels like the right stage at the right moment.
A Family Affair
Alessandro Del Bono, a prominent member of Yacht Club Italiano, returns to the Loro Piana Giraglia with his JV82 Capricorno having finished second overall in 2025. That result was earned through consistent pace and the deep collective knowledge of a crew that has largely remained together over many seasons, while also welcoming younger sailors from smaller classes to bring fresh energy to the campaign. The combination of experience and renewal is central to how Capricorno operates, and it shows in the results.
For the Del Bono family, the connection to Italian offshore racing goes back to one of the sport’s landmark moments. Racing under the burgees of Circolo della Vela Marciana Marina, the team captained by Rinaldo Del Bono, alongside Pasquale Landolfi and Paolo Gaia, won the Admiral’s Cup in 1995, a victory that remains one of the proudest achievements in Italian sailing history. Alessandro Del Bono carries that legacy into each season with genuine pride, and Capricorno is the vessel through which that story continues.
“My intention is to preserve her tradition while continuing to add to her story through constant renewal. Capricorno is in constant development. Our goal is to do better than last year.”
Alessandro Del Bono, Owner, Capricorno
Del Bono speaks warmly about the standard of competition at the Giraglia, noting that the Maxi fleet routinely includes Olympic medallists and America’s Cup sailors across the competing crews, with the age allowances built into the rating rule ensuring that the racing remains close and hard-won. Capricorno’s development programme is ongoing, and the ambition for 2026 is clear. A yacht with this much history and this much pace is an exciting prospect at any startline.
Living history
Baruna holds a rare and cherished place in the history of offshore racing. Designed by Olin Stephens and launched in 1938, built in Massachusetts for Henry C. Taylor using a layered timber construction of mahogany, cedar and oak, she was conceived as a serious offshore yacht with the grace to also serve as a family cruising vessel. She proved her credentials immediately, winning the Newport Bermuda Race in her launch year by eight hours, with Olin Stephens himself navigating. That debut planted her firmly in the folklore of the sport.
Owner Tara Getty oversaw a meticulous restoration of Baruna lasting approximately seven and a half years, with the guiding principle being to return the yacht as closely as possible to her original character. The result is a vessel that sails as she was always intended to, with the authenticity and presence that only deep care over many years can produce. At the 2026 Loro Piana Giraglia, Baruna arrives as a living piece of offshore history, a reminder that the values of sound design, quality construction and genuine seamanship have always been at the heart of this race.
The Giraglia has been a meeting point for great yachts since its earliest editions, and Baruna is wholly at home in that tradition. She sails not as a relic but as a working yacht, earning her place in the fleet through ability and character in equal measure. Her story is one of the most compelling in this year’s entry list.
73 editions and counting
The Loro Piana Giraglia has travelled a long way since those first 22 boats set off from Cannes in the summer of 1953. The race has witnessed the full arc of offshore sailing development, from wooden hulls and canvas sails to carbon fibre and performance computing, and it has absorbed each era without losing the core qualities that make it special. The gathering in Saint-Tropez, the inshore racing in the gulf, the offshore start and the long night passage around the Giraglia Rock to Genoa, this structure has remained essentially unchanged since 1998, and its appeal has only grown.
The event benefits from a strong network of institutional support. Yacht Club Italiano serves as the organising authority alongside the Societe Nautique de Saint-Tropez, with patronage from the Yacht Club de France, Yacht Club Sanremo and Yacht Club de Monaco, and further support from the Union Nationale pour la Course au Large and the International Maxi Association. The cities of Saint-Tropez and Genoa, along with the Liguria Region, all lend their backing to an event that has become a point of pride for the communities it passes through.
Loro Piana’s role as title partner since 2024 brings a connection that goes well beyond sponsorship. The Italian house, renowned for the quality of its materials and its fidelity to craft, shares with the Giraglia a deep respect for things done properly and built to last. The 73rd edition of the race gathers an exceptional fleet of yachts, sailors and stories at one of the world’s great sailing venues. For those who know the race, that is everything it has always promised. For those who have yet to experience it, the 2026 edition is a very good place to start.