Twelve Swan Maxis, over 60 feet, will head to the shores of Saint-Tropez from the 8 June for the third event in the 2008 Swan Maxi Class Circuit. The Giraglia Rolex Cup is a well established, prestigious sailing tradition and sees competitors congregate from all over Europe. The Swan Maxi results will be extracted from those for the overall IRC Class with seperate trophy dedicated to the highest placed of the Swan Maxi Class competitors. The results of the long Giraglia Race will not count towards the Swan Maxi Circuit scores, leaving the three days of challenging inshore racing to decide the Circuit leader going into the Rolex Swan Cup in September.

Swan 80 Favonius will be among the competitors, skippered by owner Roel Pieper, and fresh from success at the Rolex Capri Sailing Week where he won by the narrowest of margins ahead of Sir Peter Ogden’s Spirit Of Jethou. Sir Peter won the first event of the Class in Portofino so competition will be tough going into the third regatta of the circuit. Much like the performance in Capri, the Giraglia will deliver a good measure of drama, as the Swan 601 Spirit of Jethou goes into the regatta leading the Circuit and will yet again face a fierce challenge from Swan 82 Grey Goose, Swan 601 @Robas and Swan 70 Flying Dragon.

The regatta, now in it’s 56th year, takes place between 8 – 14th June and only the results from the initial three days of the event, the inshore races around Saint-Tropez, will count towards the overall points for the Swan Maxi Class Circuit. The second section of the regatta will feature the 243 nautical mile race, which will take them through the Iles des Hyeres to round the Giraglia off northern Corsica , before heading back to the finish line off Genoa in Italy. Following on from their success in Capri, the Swan Maxis can look forward to a week of idyllic Mediterranean racing at its best.

The final regatta of the Swan Maxi Circuit is the Rolex Swan Cup which takes place towards the end of the season from 8 – 14th September. This great Regatta last held in 2006 saw more than 110 Swan’s take part. The 2008 event will see the Swan Maxi Class, the Club Swan 42 Class and the Swan 45 Class racing in the ISAF recognised world championship, with the other beautiful Swan’s racing in the “Classic” group.