★ Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup

01Warum es relevant ist

For the maxi fleet this is the week that decides the year. The world titles are awarded here, the newest boats are measured against each other for the first time in anger, and the owners who commission this kind of yacht are almost all present. No other maxi event concentrates the class in the same way, and the International Maxi Association builds its calendar around it.

In our reading, the Costa Smeralda setting does more work than people credit. The archipelago courses are genuinely difficult and genuinely beautiful, which is why designers and afterguards treat a result here as meaningful rather than promotional, and why the regatta has kept top-level entries through periods when other superyacht events drifted toward parade sailing. It also sits at exactly the right point in the calendar — after the August holiday, before the Cannes and Monaco shows — so the yachts can race here and be on the Riviera two weeks later.

02Die Woche darum

The Costa Smeralda in the first half of September is in its last active fortnight. August has emptied, the Italian holiday traffic has gone, and the resort runs at a manageable level with everything still open. The marina fills with the racing fleet and with the spectator and support boats that follow it, and the Molo Vecchio quay becomes the place everyone walks in the early evening to look at the boats.

The Rolex Swan Cup follows immediately in even years — 13 to 19 September in 2026 — so a certain number of boats, crews and sponsors simply stay on for a second week, and the resort's hotels and restaurants run continuously busy for a fortnight. Beyond Porto Cervo, the beaches at Liscia Ruja, Capriccioli and Romazzino are at their best in September, and the boat trips out to La Maddalena and Budelli operate through the month. Olbia, forty minutes south, is where the airport and the ordinary Sardinian economy are.

03Anreisezeitpunkt

Arrive Sunday if you are sailing, since registration and measurement are that day and the first race is Monday. For a visitor, the mid-week days are the ones to see — the coastal race to the archipelago is the most interesting to follow and the windward-leewards off Porto Cervo are the easiest to watch from land. Stay through Saturday for the final race and the prizegiving, and leave Sunday. Four nights, Wednesday to Sunday, is the efficient version.

04Unterkunft

Porto Cervo village and the immediate resort around it put you within walking distance of the club and the marina, and that is the only real reason to pay the premium. Cala di Volpe, Romazzino and Pitrizza are within a few minutes by car and are quieter. Baja Sardinia and Cannigione, on the other side of the headland, are noticeably cheaper, have a normal Sardinian holiday economy and are fifteen to twenty-five minutes away. Palau and Santa Teresa Gallura, at the top of the island, are further and cheaper again and have the ferry to La Maddalena. Olbia has hotel stock, an airport and none of the atmosphere; it is a practical base rather than a pleasant one. Hotels here are named only as landmarks and most of the resort's properties close in early October.

05Zugang und Hospitality

Racing entry is by registration with the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda under the published Notice of Race, open to monohulls and multihulls of sixty feet and over; boats must satisfy International Maxi Association measurement requirements for the class they enter. The clubhouse and its terraces are for members, competitors and guests, not for the public. There is no admission charge to Porto Cervo, the village or the marina quays, and no ticket is sold for spectating. The prizegiving is a competitors' function.

06Wo das gesellschaftliche Geschehen stattfindet

Public life during the regatta is the marina and the village. The Molo Vecchio quay, where the fleet lies, is walkable and is where the crews, the sailmakers and the photographers gather in the late afternoon; the Piazzetta and the arcaded walkways above it hold the cafés and the shops and take the early-evening crowd. The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda's building is the week's institutional centre and is not open to visitors, but the quay and the terrace steps below it are. In the evening the restaurants around the Piazzetta and along the marina are the obvious choices and need booking; the beach clubs at Liscia Ruja and Cala di Volpe run through September. For watching the racing, the headlands north of Porto Cervo and the road toward Capo Ferro give clear views of the windward-leeward course area, and the Capo Ferro lighthouse is the classic vantage point.

07Anreise

08Praktische Hinweise

09Geschichte

The regatta belongs to the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, which was founded in 1967 by the Aga Khan alongside the development of the Costa Smeralda itself, and which has since become one of the most active organizing authorities in Mediterranean sailing. The club runs Porto Cervo's marina and sailing centre and hosts a dense season of regattas from late May through early October.

The organizer numbered the 2026 regatta the 36th edition. Maxi racing at Porto Cervo is considerably older than that count suggests, and the discrepancy indicates the series has not been held in every intervening year. Rolex's involvement made the event one of the earliest and most durable of the watchmaker's sailing partnerships, alongside the Rolex Swan Cup, which the same club stages the week afterward.

10Wer ist dort

Maxi yacht owners, most of whom race their own boats with professional afterguards; the professional grand-prix sailing community, including America's Cup and Olympic sailors hired for the week; designers, sailmakers, rig and hardware manufacturers; the International Maxi Association's membership and technical staff; Rolex and the regatta's other partners; specialist marine media and photographers; and the Costa Smeralda's September resort population, who watch from the quay and the headlands.