Multihull Cup 2025 - Day 2
by Multihull Cup 28 Sep 2025 07:09 NZST
26-28 September 2025
Brisker wind conditions and two races gave the second day of Multihull Cup 2025 added impetus today with close racing across the board.
Allegra reaffirmed her intention of repeating her title win in 2021 with a further two victories on GT Rigging Race Day, however both came with dramatically reduced winning margins as the chasing fleet upped their game.
On the water in today's first race the Morrelli & Melvin designed Gaea crossed the line 22 seconds behind Layla, but was promoted to second place on corrected time. While runner-up behind Allegra once again, the 65-foot Gaea more than halved the deficit to her 84-foot rival compared to yesterday's opening race.
Then in Race 3 the Gunboat 72 Layla picked up the baton, the striking blue cruising-optimised catamaran powering around the racecourse beneath her headsail featuring an eye-catching homage to the cover art of the 1970 Derek and The Dominos album of the same name. Pushing hard she came within 30 seconds of taking the win from Allegra on corrected time at the finish.
"This is my first Multihull Cup, but not the last," said Layla's Brian Thompson. "It was really champagne sailing today. Yesterday was quite light but today we saw 11 to 14 knots, and it was beautiful sailing and great to see four boats out there sailing super close. In the second race today we were lucky, and that is what made the difference."
And on their hopes for the final day of racing tomorrow he added: "In the first race we were fourth, third in the second and then second in the last race today, so there's a theme there and we'll see if we can cover all the numbers.
"We've got a fourth race tomorrow so there will be a discard, and we can get rid of our fourth place and see if we can get on the podium."
Gaea also ended Race Day 2 with a second and third place, and owner Zachary Plavsic was thrilled with the racing, and the more relaxed side of the Multihull Cup.
"It was pretty exciting racing and everyone was pretty close, though Allegra took off on everyone, it's great to see how fast the boats are out here," he said.
"We had a little bit more breeze today, so bigger waves and a bigger swell, and as one of the smaller boats in the fleet we struggled with it a bit, but it was fun to have more pressure in the sails.
"I'm lucky that I've got some good guys on the boat who can call shifts that I don't see, so with good tactics that kept us right in there in the first race."
And he added: "We are here to have fun, so we had some music on in the second race and we even cracked a beer on the last run. Just beautiful sailing and great vibes."
Though able to use her foils for some of the time today, the unique DNA F4 foiling catamaran Falcon has not found the conditions which would allow her to fully strut her stuff.
Nevertheless crew Vittorio Papa celebrated a good day on the water: "We are excited to be here and this is the kind of racing we want to do more of. It was a great day with two windward-leeward races, and we were a little closer to the bigger boats so it was exciting to be racing alongside the 65 and 72-footers."
Back ashore all the Multihull Cup crews were able to enjoy dinner hosted by Allegra's owner Adrian Keller, a constant presence and supporter of the event which is celebrating its seventh edition.
The third and deciding day of the Multihull Cup 2025 will feature a long coastal race, with the start scheduled for 11:00.