Matador2

Matador2 was the second IOR Maxi for US yachtsman and industrialist Bill Koch. Koch got into yacht racing in 1984, after buying a boat with Ted Hood briefly and then a cruising boat. His first maxi was a 1982-vintage German Frers’ designed maxi called Huaso which he refurbished and renamed as Matador (named after Koch’s father’s favourite ranch in Texas). While racing against Raul Gardini and others on the maxi yacht circuit, he launched a yacht design competition at home to fashion a new, world-beating yacht for this class which would become Matador2.

Matador2 powers upwind during the Newport leg of the 1990 Maxi World Championships (photo Guy Gurney)

That competition and subsequent research programme, took some six years in total and close to $8m was spent in the development and construction of Matador2. Along the way, Koch’s team developed the most extensive private research and development programme ever undertaken in sailing, although those costs were then able to be amortised somewhat wiht his subsequent America3 America's Cup programme. Before building his new maxi, Koch accepted 40 designs in 1985 for models from naval architects around the world. The models were built quarter-scale and tested for up to six weeks a year in the towing tanks at Hydronautics and the wind tunnels of the University of Maryland. Koch then chose the 12 most promising designs and had these 22-foot ‘models’ rigged for actual sailing. The Matador crew were then pitted against each other in the boats, and laser guns were used to measure minute speed differences. Keels were interchanged and the most promising ones were built at full-scale and tested on Matador. With these constant refinements, Koch managed to turn the aged Matador into a serious contender on the maxi circuit, which went on to finish second in the Maxi World Championships three times in a row, including in 1989.

One of the many models for the eventual Matador2 design that were tested at quarter-scale (photo Yachting magazine)

The ultimate goal, however, was Matador2. To further evaluate the speed potential of the new boat, the winning design was built as a 30-foot sailing dynamometer fitted with an interior frame loaded with stress gauges to measure sail and rig loadings. A mock-up of the deck was also built, which was then mounted on a block and tackle system to simulate heeling conditions and set the crew to work to discover empirically exactly where deck hardware should be mounted.

An early photograph of Matador2, thought to be on her original delivery sail (Seahorse)

What the designs taught Koch and his team was that under the IOR, a larger, heavier yacht would perform better, due to rating benefits conferred by the Mk IIIA version of the rule. This was a fact also discovered in the design of the Whitbread maxi Steinlager 2. The two designs that came out on top were from Bill Cook and Ted Hood, both known for favouring heavy displacement. Cook had been studying the concept of a larger maxi in 1984 and this had informed his design submission in 1985. He was given the nod and his design, finalised in 1989 (with input from Penn Edmonds and Buddy Duncan), was for a 85-footer and so she became the largest IOR maxi ever built. Her statistics relative to other maxis of the time demonstrate the extreme corner of the rule in which she was pitched. Along with being the longest yacht in overall terms, she was also as long in measured rating terms as Steinlager 2 at 72ft, 2ft longer than the 1989 maxi champion Longobarda for example. Her 100,000 pound displacement was 13,000 pounds heavier than Longobarda and over 18,000 pounds heavier than Raul Gardini's Passage (ex-Windward Passage 2). Alongside this was a powerful 14,700ft/lbs righting moment, significantly greater again than her competitors.

Matador2 with a dacron delivery main works up in early trials alongside her stablemate Matador

Her size appeared to be further amplified by reasonably high freeboard and a generous beam. She featured a strongly angled stem with a long and graceful transom, which narrowed in a typical manner in response to the after girth station measurement demands of the IOR. 

Matador2 was built by Eric Goetz in Bristol, Rhode Island. The hull, deck and internal structure were constructed entirely from carbon fibre over core materials of varying density (from aramid honeycomb in the basic hull and deck panels to high-density foam in more heavily loaded areas). Solid carbon was used in the area of highest loads (such as the keel, primary winches etc).

Matador2 after rounding a leeward mark (photo Histoiredeshalfs website)

Despite all the testing that had been undertaken in the build-up to her launch, the ultimate keel design was a last-minute decision. The design team came up with the idea of using a large bulb keel (reportedly utilising a thin stainless steel core or fin) with a fine trim tab on the trailing edge (which likely attracted a small rating penalty under the Moveable Appendage Factor measurement component). The Frers-designed Kialoa V (winner in 1987) had also used a trim tab but, Koch’s team felt that this was too large. The keel was kept shrouded from prying eyes like that first employed for the radical 12m, Australia II.

Matador2, 1990 (photo Seahorse)

While Matador had a masthead rig, Matador2 sported a large fractional rig, as was by then common even at maxi scale, owing in part to 1987 rule changes that favoured larger mainsail girths. Likely due in part to her high displacement and resulting rating credit, Matador2 also carried a larger sail plan than her rivals, by 200-300 square feet.

A view of the cockpit arrangement of Matador2 (photo Seahorse)

The cockpit layout was built around two principal requirements: dual steering wheels and all pedestals on the centreline. In this way, virtually any combination of pedestals could drive any combination of primary, secondary, mainsheet and runner drums, and the aft two pedestals are also able to power the hydraulic system. The mainsheet winch plinths also doubled-up as hydraulic panels positioned behind the wheels. There were two light control lines exiting either side of the plinth, which was for the trim tab control played by the tactician who sat behind the helmsman. The deck layout was otherwise flat with little apparent camber, but incorporated a shallow inset in the bow area to aid the crew's sail handling.

Matador2 in fine upwind trim

After her launch in early 1990, the new Matador2 beat Boomerang handily in the New York Yacht Club Regatta in June that year, although some of the guest skippers who visited Newport to sail the old Matador against the new one during the summer rumoured that the old boat was quicker.

Matador2 in power reaching conditions

The true test would be the 1990 Maxi World Championship, which was sailed over three separate regattas, each consisting of seven races. The series started in Newport in September 1990, moved to Miami in late October before concluding in St. Thomas.

As the march around the course began during the first race in the Newport regatta, the lead boat was Passage, helmed by Paul Cayard. Gardini had acquired Passage as a replacement for his 1988 World Champion Il Moro di Venezia III, now sailing as Vanitas. During earlier European Maxi regattas Longobarda, winner of the 1989 World Championship, still appeared to be the faster boat, but changes had been made to Passage’s keel and rudder and this appeared to be yielding dividends.

Matador2 during the 1990 Maxi World Championships (photo Yachting magazine)

Passage continued to lead the fleet around the windward-leeward course as the boats started up the last leg. However, a better sail selection by Matador2 in a building breeze saw her overtake Passage and secure first place. Longobarda meanwhile suffered a series of breakdowns, including and most significantly the loss of the clew of her mainsail. In the second race, with the apparent wind increasing to 25-30 knots or more, Matador2 dominated and Passage also blew out the clew in her mainsail.

Matador2 seen here during the 1990 Maxi World Championships to leeward of Passage and Longobarda, but ahead of Vanitas

Matador2’s two firsts on the first day was an emphatic start to the series, but on the second day it was her turn to make mistakes, with two fifths, while Passage took two wins, which essentially set up the rest of the series as a two-boat race between these two boats. While she started conservatively in the remaining three races, Matador2 displayed better tactics and speed through the use of her efficient trim tab that enabled the boat to point or lift three to four degrees higher in clear air than her competitors. She won the next two races but Passage was still leading by half a point going into the last race. But Matador2 won the final match, and with it the seven-race series to win the regatta by 1.75 points.

Matador2 - Maxi World Champion 1990 (photo/poster Facebook)

The navigator aboard Vanitas was reported to observe at this time that Matador2 “is major league fast". Matador2 tactician Gary Jobson noted that the racing became more difficult after Newport once the other six maxis realised that to have a chance at winning, they would have to gang up on the new boat. "We didn't have too many friends out there. Before every start, two boats would circle us while a third waited nearby to come in for the kill."

Matador2 alongside Longobarda during the Miami leg of the 1990 Maxi World Championships (photo Sharon Green | Ultimate Sailing) 

Photos of the second regatta in Miami can be seen here. No results are available but Matador2 finished either first or second.

Matador2 during the 1990 Maxi World Championships (photo Yachting magazine)

Later, in the third regatta in St Thomas, and with only two races left in the 21-race 1990 Maxi World Championship series, Matador2 and Passage were deadlocked in the point standings. As Passage gracefully rounded the inflatable orange marker in the penultimate race and headed upwind, her experimental carbon-fiber headboard car shattered and her main dropped to the deck. One of the crew scrambled up the mast to repair the damage but was passed by Matador2 and Longobarda. By the time the mainsail was fixed, Matador2 had won. The next day, Matador2 squeezed past Passage again to win the 75-mile distance race to clinch the world championship. Passage's mishap was worth a possible swing of five points: she ended up losing the world title to Matador2 by a mere 4.25 points.

This image is possibly from the World Championships in St Tropez in 1991, and demonstrates the dominance of Matador2 by this time

The 1991 Maxi World Championships were held in St Tropez. No results or race reports are available but it is known that Matador2 put on a dominant display, no doubt benefiting from a further year of tuning, and she won a second world championship title.

Matador2 racing in St Tropez in the 1991 Maxi World Championships (photo Phil Uhl)

The dominance of Matador2 unfortunately spelt the end of the Maxi class, at least as it was defined by the IOR. By the time of the 1990 World Championship there was no sign of Jim Kilroy (Kialoa) or George Coumantaros (Boomerang) planning to build new maxis, and while Alan Bond’s Pedrick-designed Drumbeat (1989) had been bought by a new owner, she was being converted for IMS. Much of the intensity of the class was being diverted towards the 1992 America’s Cup, and those programmes not involved in the America’s Cup were planning projects for the 1993-94 Whitbread race. These factors did not encourage existing or prospective owners to commit the increasingly enormous funds required for yachts that would remain competitive for just a couple of years, and become entirely obsolete not long after as the IOR entered into its final death throes (the next Maxi World Championship was not held until 1995, under IMS, and Coumantaros re-entered the fray with a new Boomerang to win in 1996).

Matador2 sailing in Australia (year unknown, but the Kevlar sails are no longer in use)

Matador2 was subsequently sold to an Australian yachtsman, Anton Starling, in 1993 and renamed Fudge, after her new sponsor. She is recorded as having competed in the 1998 Sydney-Hobart yacht race, finishing fifth in her division on corrected time. She has since become part of the fleet of old maxi yachts that are used for charter and sailing expeditions in the Whitsunday Islands. The website for 'Matador Whitsundays' records that she had competed in a total of 52 races and eight regattas and two World Championships, "boasting a total of 31 wins 5 seconds and 6 thirds".

Matador2 in her marina in Queensland and in current sailing trim (photos Facebook)

More photographs and articles (in French) can be seen on the Histoiredeshalfs website here.

Postscript: one of the models used for the Matador2 design process was recently for sale (May 2025):

Article updated June 2025

Maxi Worlds 1990

This post features another great selection of photographs by Sharon Green (Ultimate Sailing) of the action during the second stage of the 1990 Maxi Worlds, held in Maimi in late October 1990. The photos feature the increasingly dominant Matador 2 (launched in the previous spring and which would go on to win the 1990 Worlds overall following the third stage of the series in St Thomas), Longobarda, Passage (the ex-Windward Passage 2) and Vanitas (the ex-Il Moro di Venezia III).

Vanitas ahead of Longobarda, Matador 2 and Passage

Vanitas leads Longobarda, Matador 2 and Passage 

Matador 2 - the longest and heaviest Maxi in the fleet

Vanitas leads Passage (left) and Longobarda (right)

Longobarda, suffered from breakages on the first day of racing, including blowing out her mainsail clew

Passage

Matador 2

Longobarda

Vanitas

Matador 2 chases Longobarda and Vanitas around a gybe mark

Big boats, big gear and big crews - Vanitas seen here running ahead of Longobarda and Matador 2

Matador 2 on a downwind run with Longobarda just behind

Vanitas leads Passage on a reaching leg

The end of the IOR

I recently came across an article penned by well-known yacht designer Julian Everitt and which had been shared to the One Ton Class Facebook page. Julian has been kind enough to allow me to publish his insightful and thought-provoking article here (to which I've added a few images):

A while back David Macfarlane posed the question: “Why did the IOR die?” The answer is surprisingly simple and has little to do with economic downturns, crazy, escalating costs or the perception that the boats were unseaworthy and slow.

 Australia's Ragamuffin during the last Admiral's Cup under IOR in 1993, not long before the eventual demise of the IOR altogether 

The very people, the members of the International Technical Committee (ITC), who were tasked to protect and develop the rule for the benefit of the owners signed the death warrant some six years before the beast was finally deemed extinct. It wasn’t a deliberate act, by any means, it was just kind of allowed to happen as interests grew in the development of a new ‘super’ rule that would cure all the ‘ills’ of offshore handicapping. It was called IMS. The International Measurement System.

IMS was very much an American based initiative formulated by a burgeoning interest in the power of computers as envisioned by ‘idealists’ at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This belief in a ‘perfect’ system filtered into the ITC who then increasingly believed that IMS could replace IOR as THE rule for Grand Prix Offshore Racing. At a stroke IMS was perceived as a handicapping system that would allow the return of ‘wholesome’ cruiser racers to the Grand Prix level.

ILC40s, as a level-rating derivative of the IMS rule, seen here competing in the 1995 Admiral's Cup

The 1976 French cat rigged Mini Tonner L'Effraie

And so the scene was set for a showdown between the two rules. Funnily enough however, this ‘conflict’ largely took place behind closed doors - the closed doors of the ITC. This erstwhile Group of designers and boffins had done a reasonable job of helping to develop the original, Olin Stephens/Dick Carter created Mk 1 IOR, into an ever more complex Mk III IOR. They had dealt with the slings and arrows of ‘cat’ rigs, unballasted daggerboards, extreme overhangs, bumps, chines and many other rule dodgers thrown at it by a vast army of new, young designers. The rule really was the ultimate mathematical, but organic and holistic challenge imaginable and so it required a lot of policing and an awful lot of tweaking.

The Farr One Ton centreboarder, Jenny H, 1977

At the annual ITC meeting always held in November and euphemistically called The November Meetings informal submissions were invited from the ‘floor’ for what would eventually become IOR Mk IV. But the minds of the powers that be were elsewhere. Despite impassioned pleas from designers including Tony Castro, Geoff Stagg, representing Bruce Farr, the Dubois office, myself and several owners to use IOR as the ‘baseline’ for producing more user friendly designs, the ITC elected to promote IMS as the rule for the future. Gary Mull, chairman of the ITC at this time, seemed to be heavily influenced by a growing love affair from American designers, like Dave Pedrick, Bill Tripp and the ‘scientist’ Jerry Milgram, with IMS. Together they envisioned a new breed of fair hulled, moderate designs, with great stability, proper cockpits and fitted out interiors.

The IOR Mk IV, proposed from the audience at the 1988 November meetings promulgated similar outcomes, but utilising the proven and robust linear formulas of IOR rather than the largely unknown reliance on unproven Velocity Predictions inherent in the IMS formula.

Turkish Delight trying to stay on her feet during the 1987 Irish Admiral's Cup trials

In the proposed revisions to IOR, stability would be unmeasured getting rid, at a stoke, of the dreaded Centre of Gravity Factor - a measurement fraught with inaccuracies and held largely responsible for producing unstable boats and ones overly dependent on crew weight on the rail. CGF was also directly responsible for such undesirable idiosyncrasies as beam waterline bumps.

Gone too would be the ubiquitous 150 percent overlap on headsails which gave unrated sail area. This change would have opened the door to the development of non-overlap rigs.

Victory (left), Hitchhiker and Pinta sporting their big no.1 genoas during the first race of the 1981 Admiral's Cup 

The accursed creases and distortions around the aft girth measurements was to be addressed also. One simple suggestion was to rule out any form of reverse inflection in the aft profile. The days of the bustle were virtually over anyway and of course all of our proposed rule changes could be easily ‘grandfathered’ to prevent the existing fleet suffering too much. In reality small changes to the aft girth stations and most particularly the girth differences between inner and outer girth stations would have produced fuller, wider and fairer sterns in short order, while maintains an element of choice. Choice being a factor missing from today’s rules.

While the outcomes of such changes cannot ever be accurately predicted, cause and effect is highly influential in a formula like IOR. The simple removal of the penalty on stability would have quickly allowed designers to create lighter boats as stability could have been found in low CG keels rather than hull form and brute overall weight. In turn lighter and more powerful boats would have pointed the way to fuller sterns.

Gunboat Rangiriri - one of the new breed of Farr-designed light displacement centreboarders of 1977, showing the relatively clean lines that were possible before the ITC forced an increase in displacement

But the ITC very systematically destroyed these arguments as unworkable and felt IMS was a much more effective way of achieving the same outcomes. In fairness to the ITC a number of designers, including Rob Humphries - a member of the ITC board at the time - had IMS designs out racing that did showcase the rule rather well. But this was to be a short lived moment.

And so the ITC policy was set at that fateful November meeting in 1988. The two rules would run in parallel while the anomalies inherent in the VPP-driven IMS were sorted out and a new era of dual purpose offshore racers would begin.

Work would continue on the development of IOR, but with none of the suggested fundamental changes implemented. A Mk IV Rule was duly drafted, but few in authority had any real enthusiasm for it. As far as they were concerned IOR was dying and IMS was the new kid on the block to be nurtured.

The Whitbread Maxi ketch Steinlager 2 

In an earlier attempt by the ITC to be more inclusive of heavier, more cruising orientated boats an IOR MK IIIA was introduced, but this backfired spectacularly when Bruce Farr, in particular, exploited the carelessly drafted rule by producing the heavier, but much longer Steinlager 2 Whitbread Maxi in 1989. This amazing own goal of a rule amendment created by the ITC finally allowed the creation of the all conquering inshore Maxi Matador2. Far from allowing the development of heavier, more fitted out boats, the Mk IIIA rule simply promoted heavier stripped out boats which in the case of the Maxi’s allowed them to effectively gain 3ft, or so, of unmeasured length. This was one of many misdirections the ITC took in trying to ‘protect’ the rule and it had a seriously deleterious effect on owner confidence.

Matador 2, the biggest and fastest of the IOR Maxis 

But back to the ITC meetings of November 1988. I remember it like yesterday, Geoff Stagg’s final reaction to the ITC intragency. “We don’t really care what you do. Just give us any rule and we’ll go off and design winners for it”.

Gaucho (above and below)

And that is precisely what happened. Within two years Farr had produced the ultimate Grand Prix IMS boat in the form of the 43ft Gaucho. But it wasn’t the beginning of the new era predicted by the rule makers of elegance and internal comfort. Gaucho signalled a very different future. Her overhangs were very short, freeboard was high, the sheer line straight and the interior just as stripped as an IOR boat except for the introduction of a door on the ‘head’ compartment. Other required features like a galley and saloon table were treated with token gestures expensively built in carbon. But much more significantly, in order for velocity predictions to work ‘accurately’, actual stability had to be measured. It wasn’t long before lead was being replaced by wood at the bottom of keels. Not exactly the promised land of wholesome cruiser racers envisioned by the rule makers.

But while IMS continued to be promoted as the solution to ‘fair’ global offshore yacht racing IOR struggled on, shouldering virtually all of the blame for declining racing fleets.

I remember talking to Olin (Stephens) about it all. He was very sanguine - perhaps even a little surprised by the way IOR had developed, but ever the enthusiast for a mathematical solution he liked the theories behind IMS and perhaps felt that the apparent shortcomings in the IOR could be addressed more effectively by the overarching qualities of IMS. It was a mathematically-based theory that wasn’t born out in practice.

With the advantage of a 21st century perspective and taking into account yacht racing developments since the death of IOR in 1994, would keeping IOR been better for the sport as a whole? In terms of continuity and preventing the explosion of multiple, fleet sapping alternative classes, it would assuredly have been beneficial. But it did need a major shot in the arm at the end of the 1980s to reassure an ever more cynical owner base that their worries were being addressed.

Cookson's High 5 followed the Gaucho theme and was dominant in the 2000 Kenwood Cup 

In the rarefied atmosphere of Whitbread sponsored global racing, Bruce Farr, once again, showed the way. As IOR lay on its deathbed - an outcome accelerated by clumsy attempts to update events like the Admiral’s Cup with the proposed introduction of one designs and IMS handicapping - Farr, in tandem with the foresight of the Whitbread race committee who allowed asymmetric spinnakers to be flown, discarded the ‘heavy’ design route he had produced with Steinlager 2 and produced a new Maxi design that was some 7,500kgs lighter. This much lighter design was a great deal quicker around the world and potentially showed a new beginning for lightweight IOR racers. Sadly, however, these three Farr ketches, La Poste, Merit Cup and New Zealand Endeavour, were one of the last throws of the dice for IOR.

New Zealand Endeavour - one of three new Farr-designed Whitbread Maxi ketches for the 1993-94 race 

But back to theorising about where IOR could have led in design terms. Would keeping a highly modified version of the rule kept ocean racing on its feet? Would it have prevented the almost total demise of classic events like the Ton Cups, the Admiral’s Cup, the Kenwood, the Southern Cross, the Onion Patch, the SORC? Who knows? Maybe it was all about economics or personal time management, but what I do know is that the defining legacy of IOR was its success at global continuity in offshore racing. To have made the decision to ditch this in favour of a hugely more flawed IMS was a grave mistake.

Would a boat designed to an updated version of IOR as suggested back in 1988 at the ITC meetings evolved into something equivalent to today’s high performance designs as typified by the IRC racers, TP52’s and Fast 40’s? Yes. Is the simple answer. Advances in lightweight construction, appendage design, carbon spars would have all contributed hugely, but the biggest single factor effecting overall design and concept would have been the removal of attempting to measure stability. Just as is the case today, boats would not have become more stable, but would simply have become significantly lighter and capable of carrying larger rigs effectively. These are the primary elements driving the performance in today’s designs.

To have arrived at this point in the genesis of the offshore yacht within the IOR style framework would have resulted in far more fleet continuity across the globe and possibly allowed the major offshore championships to survive the various financial challenges and rule uncertainties that killed them off.

Julian's article concludes with the above image of his 43 footer Backlash, with the caption "It's not easy to pick a single picture that represents the entire IOR era from 1970 to 1994, but this comes from a high point of the rule in 1985. Fleets were huge and there was enormous variety of design from a multitude of designers".

Article dated August 2019

Longobarda (Farr Maxi)

Longobarda was a breakthrough IOR maxi that set a new standard in the class during 1989 until the early 1990s. She was the product of a successful combination of Bruce Farr design talent, SAI Ambrosini (Italy) build quality and a no-expense-spared budget, courtesy of her owner, Italian yachtsman Gianni Varasi (who had previously owned Raul Gardini's earlier yacht, Il Moro di Venezia II).

Longobarda benefited from an extensive design development programme carried out by the Farr office. This used the Spanish Navy’s maxi yacht, the Farr masthead-rigged Hispania (seen in more recent times here), as its springboard. This involved research into hull shape variations using velocity prediction programme (VPP) studies that were enhanced by concurrent Whitbread maxi hull testing, that was then corroborated with one-fifth scale tank testing. Longobarda had a rated length of 70.1ft, with 87,000lbs displacement and a rated sail area of 3,296 square feet.

Advances in structural engineering were also pursued to achieve the most beneficial weight concentration relative to required strength and stiffness criteria, utilising carbon fibre, Kevlar and Nomex in her hull layup. The development of foil shapes was no less rigorous, and four different keel configurations were wind tunnel tested in the Wolfson Unit in England.

Longobarda (middle, and displaying her distinctive rounded stemhead) at the start of one of the races during the 1989 World Maxi Championships (photo Franco Pace/Sea Spray)

Varasi’s new maxi was launched on 17 July 1989 and was fast from the beginning, winning her first regatta in the 1989 World Maxi Championships in Palma, Majorca, just two weeks after launching. Longobarda reigned supreme throughout the 15 race championship, which took place over three regattas of five races each. Longobarda won each event by wide margins against a formidable fleet of 12 internationally recognised yachts, including Alan Bond’s much heralded Dave Pedrick design Drumbeat, and Raul Gardini’s Frers design Il Moro de Venezia, the previous form boat of the fleet.

Interior profile view of Longobarda

Longobarda cockpit detail (photo Seahorse)

Longobarda during the 1989 World Maxi Championships (photo Franco Pace/Sea Spray)

Longobarda during the 1989 World Maxi Championships (photo Seahorse)

Longobarda’s easy victory in 1989 surprised some who expected the tuning of round-the-buoys' maxis to take some time, but she showed superior upwind speed to all the fleet, over a wide range of conditions, which allowed her to stay consistently ahead of her opposition. However, by 1990 Bill Koch's Matador2 arrived on the scene, a bigger and more powerful 85-foot maxi that was the product of unprecedented research and development. Longobarda finished second, although she won the St Thomas leg of the three-regatta series. She also lost her rig in the Newport leg of the series in spectacular fashion (see photos below), after also having to retire from a race after blowing out her mainsail clew. Nevertheless, Longobarda's impressive form set in train a string of international successes in the US, Australia and Europe; in iconic events such as the San Francisco Big Boat Regatta, the Sydney to Hobart and the Isle of Wight Round The Island Race.

Longobarda on a close cross behind Matador2 (photo Guy Gurney)

Longobarda in her first season of racing on the Mediterranean (photo Franco Pace/Sailing World)

Longobarda (photo Farr Yacht Design)

Following the 1993 Nioulargue regatta, the swansong of top-flight IOR maxi racing, Longobarda was sailed to Southampton where extensive modifications were carried out over that winter, in preparation for a year of international sailing. These modifications included strengthening of the hull structure to take the rigours of offshore racing and ocean crossings, fitting of watertight collision bulkheads for'ard, provision of a quality 'racing' interior, strengthening of both rigs for offshore and delivery, and the fitting of a hydraulic winch pack.

Re-launched in the spring of 1994, Longobarda was sailed to Newport, Rhode Island, where she took part in that year's Bermuda Race before the Onion Patch Trophy and New York Yacht Club's 150th Anniversary Regatta. From this article it appears that it was in this period that she lost her mast in spectacular fashion, with the exploding running backstay lifting a crew member clear off the deck.

Longobarda powers upwind (photo Sharon Green | Ultimate Sailing)

The classic shots by Sharon Green/Ultimate Sailing (the crewmember survived, but with a broken nose)

The aftermath, with Longobarda's rig in tatters and the crewman (aft) landing heavily back on deck 

Longobarda was later transported across the US to take part in the Big Boat Series in San Francisco, then delivered across the Pacific for that year's Sydney-Hobart classic. Following this she was sailed back to the England to take part in European regattas including the Maxi Worlds in Sardinia 1995.

Longobarda thunders downwind (photo www.sailingyachts.com)

During the winter of 1995/96 further modifications were carried out to enhance her performance and rating under IMS. These included the addition of a new bow, with a more upright profile, modifying the rocker and filling in the bustle under the stern. The internal ballast was also removed, significantly lightening her. Later modifications included the addition of a bulbed IMS-type keel and further reduction in displacement. As a result of these changes, Longobarda grew in length by over 3 feet at the waterline, and reduced displacement by nine tons for the same righting moment.

Longobarda (above and below) in her more recent revamped ex-IMS and cruiser-friendly configuration (photo Farr Yacht Sales)

Longobarda took on a new role after 2000, and became available for charter in the Caribbean and beyond, providing an opportunity for guests to enjoy sailing in a Maxi-class yacht, combined with luxury cruising.

In January 2008 Longobarda took line honours in the Barbados Round the Island Race in a time of 5 hours 29 minutes, a new record for the south-about route. Longobarda has recently returned to Europe and is now understood to be located in Portiamo, Portugal.

Longobarda, 2021

Article updated November 2024