Sail Talk with Ed Baird
- SAIL TALK - Sail Talk - Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2025

Ed Baird, American, Laser world champion in 1980, winner of the America's Cup in Valencia at the helm of Alinghi, skipper of TP52 Quantum Racing until 2016 – winner of four seasons of the 52 Super Series circuit and three TP52 world championships - was in Porto Cervo as tactician on Jolt, competing in the Rolex IMA Maxi Grand Prix World Championship. We met him on his return to the docks.

Ed, after winning the Admiral's Cup with Jolt 3, you’re here with another Jolt yacht, the Grand Prix Maxi.

Yes, the Admiral's Cup came back this year and the Jolt team (consisting of the 52-foot Jolt 3 and the 42-foot Jolt 6) racing for the Yacht Club de Monaco was successful in winning that event, which was fantastic. They put together a great team with two really good boats and we had good fortune in the event. So, that was good fun
Here, we’re racing the Maxi Grand Prix (formerly Maxi72 Class) and it’s very challenging against all these teams.

Do you think you’ll be back here next year with Jolt 3 and 6 for the Sardinia Cup?

It's certainly an interesting prospect. It’ll be great to see the Sardinia Cup make a strong return with lots of teams. I think there is a lot of interest if we can put the programme together.

Going back to the 72-footer, how is the overall programme for the season going?

There have been quite a few changes to many of the boats this year, ours in particular. We are now expected to be the fastest boat in the fleet and have to give everyone else a bit of a time at the finish. So we're learning how to handle the boat and how it behaves in different conditions.
This boat (with its previous owner, under the name Cannonball – Editor’s note) originally competed in 2017, 2018 and in 2019 we won the World Championships in this class. But the class has moved forward since then and this boat has only just recently had some major changes done to try and bring our boat speeds forward. It seems that the team has done a great job with that.

Yesterday we saw you sailing very fast on a close reach towards the island of Monaci.

It was an exciting day yesterday. We were a little unfortunate. We got far enough ahead to win the race on corrected time, but then when we turned and came downwind, we were sailing in lighter conditions.
The fleet, when they rounded behind us, had a new wind fill in and they came up to us quickly, so we didn't finish far enough ahead. But it was a good race and the boat performed very well.

Speaking of great races, sailors usually have a lot of fun racing here in Porto Cervo. Would you agree?

Well, I love coming here. The race course is very special and unique. We always have good conditions here and it's an amazing venue for the kinds of boats that are here, the people that are around, the quality of the club and the race management.

Do you remember the first time you came to Porto Cervo?

I do, I remember it very clearly. It was 1983 and I was sailing with another American, Mike Toppa, who was working with Italian teams. We were sailing on a 43-footer, I believe it was called Elettra. It was my first time really racing on a bigger boat internationally. I was a small boat sailor. It wasn't the Maxi Worlds, but it was something big at the end of the season with a lot of boats. It was a lot of fun.
I remember that every day Mike would stop at a small newsstand and buy USA Today to find out what was happening at home. I remember this morning routine, then we would come down to the boats and see all the fantastic sailors who were in the sport at that point. I met a lot of people that year who are still friends and we still race against each other, so it's good fun.