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**Photoboy** · 04-08-2022, 02:48 PM

The giant 51 Trofeo Sofia Mallorca was up to full strength for the first time on a windy Bay of Palma. All ten classes raced with all eight race course areas in action. There were 1,015 athletes racing on a total of 779 craft.

The giant 51 Trofeo Sofia Mallorca was up to full strength for the first time on a windy Bay of Palma. All ten classes raced with all eight race course areas in action. There were 1,015 athletes racing on a total of 779 craft.

Formula Kite kitesurfing blasted into the Olympic sailing arena for the first time with a barnstorming opening day on a gusty Bay of Palma. France leads in two of the three qualifying groups of the Formula Kite Men, while Slovenia’s Toni Vodisek won Yellow Group with a clean sweep of four victories on the three-lap race track. One of the Frenchmen, Benoit Gomez, also racked up four straight bullets in Blue Group and his compatriot Theo de Ramecourt almost managed the perfect opener but for a UFD disqualification in his second race. “It’s not so bad to push the edges,” shrugged de Ramecourt, the reigning World Champion. “I have been too far back in my starts in regattas last year, so it’s OK if I get a UFD, I’m finding the level.”
Different statures

The two leading Frenchmen couldn’t be more different in stature, de Ramecourt weighing in around 80kg while Gomez is more around the 110kg mark. Perhaps over time the athletes will all move towards a more similar size, but right now it’s technique, fitness, courage and tactical intelligence that makes the difference in this brand new Olympic discipline.

Winter squad training appears to have gone well for the British squad in Formula Kite Women. Ellie Aldridge takes the lead after four races, two points ahead of her teammate Maddie Anderson. In third place is the reigning World Champion from the USA, Daniela Moroz.
iQ go long distance

The iQFOiL foiling windsurfers were out on the water early to beat the crowds for their 13 nautical mile long distance race. The Men and Women fleets set off ten minutes apart just after 9am on an upwind downwind loop of about three nautical miles.

France’s H?l?ne Noesmoen, World and European Champion, won the Women’s long distance iQFOiL race but after an hour of high speed upwind-downwind racing round the three miles loop in a gusty offshore breeze peaking at 25-26kts she was no more than 20 metres ahead of GBR’s charging Saskia Sills who was catching fast on the final leg.

A multiple youth world champion who made a point of completing an engineering degree, Noesmoen is a member of the SailGP France team. She opened with a 1,2,1 on Monday and is quickly stamping her authority on the class. “The long distance race was good, if a bit hard for everyone as the wind picked up a lot. I was always in the first pack and then on the second downwind I took the lead but at the finish line the British girl Saskia Sills was pushing me hard and finished close. There were only 20 metres in it. But that is a good start for me for the week. It was one of the windiest races we have done since the beginning of the iQ. My best here on the RS:X was maybe a top 10 but I never made the podium. It is choppy here and so you really need to be focused on your foil.”
A strong statement from the French 49er

Having missed out on selection for Tokyo in favour of Emile Amoros and Lucas Rual the French 49er duo Erwan Fischer and Cl?ment Pequin are doubly determined to represent their nation in just over two years’ time in Marseille. They are hoping that the fact the national flag for their new, black 3Di sails did not arrive and they are sailing on their well used, older sails, proves to be a good omen for this time. The French team made a strong statement of intent today with two solid wins in breezy conditions which, again, put a premium on avoiding capsizes.

Fischer and Pequin briefly tipped over in the first race but a quick recovery allowed the duo – who have been sailing together since 2018 – to stay in the hunt.

“We had 20-25kts which we like. It was pretty hard to keep the boat upright. We capsized during the bear away in the first race but recovered quickly. It was really choppy and shifty. We made good manoeuvres all the way through.

“We wanted to use the new sails but we had an issue with our national flag. It did not arrive. And so we sailed with the old sails which we know well. In these conditions it is not about speed – it is about surviving, with good manoeuvres and gybing safely.”

Fourteenth here in 2019 they have just finished third in the Mallorca Sailing Centre training regatta after a winter training in Vilamoura, Portugal.

“Our selection race for Tokyo was very strong and very close and in the end we did not go. For sure this regatta feels like the start of our passage to Marseille and I hope today is a good omen,” smiled Fischer.

In the 49erFX the new Dutch combination of 2021 World champion, Odile Van Aanholt sailing with Tokyo bronze medallist Annette Duetz is off to a powerful start, sharing the overall lead after three races with Brazil’s double gold medallists Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze.

470 Italians fast-track their plans

It was on the plane back home from the Tokyo Games that Italy’s early leaders of the Mixed 470 class Giacomo Ferrari and Bianca Caruso pledged to team up together and campaign the new Olympic class. Childhood sailing friends from Rome who raced Optimists against each other in 2004, they recognised that with the short runway to the 2024 Olympic regatta, as Italy’s men’s and women’s 470 helm and crew in Tokyo, pairing up was a strong proposition. They count two firsts and a second to narrowly lead Spain’s bronze medal winning helm Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman.

“I was fourth in the Men’s fleet here in 2018 so I know the regatta well,” says helm Ferrari who was sixth in Tokyo with Giulio Calabro. “But here we are, with so little time before the next Games. We have to sail together a lot, a lot, a lot. We are super friends and know each other well. We are equal in the boat, it is a democracy. We have been friends so long we talk a lot. And this is a nice way to start our campaign.”
ILCA – Beckett on top, gold medallist back on form

Britain’s Michael Beckett moved to the top of the 180 boat ILCA 7 leaderboard after scoring 1, 2 in the Blue Group of Qualifying. Reigning Olympic Champion Matt Wearn, winner here in 2018, scored the reciprocal results of 2,1 in Blue Group but the Australian has risen only to 32nd overall in the 167 boat fleet after gear breakage caused a DNC on the opening day.

Beckett was pleased with his day but is expecting a much harder fight from tomorrow Wednesday when the top tier is reorganised into Gold Fleet racing. “None of it’s easy but in those conditions today the top five do start to stretch a bit of a gap after a while,” said Beckett. “Tomorrow it’s going to be much harder, the margins will be much smaller and the quality of the fleet will make it a bigger challenge.”

Jonatan Vadnai, from landlocked Lake Balaton, enjoyed the shifty conditions on the race course. “Sunshine, windy and shifty, my favourite!” said the Hungarian.

Canada’s Sarah Douglas revelled in the cold, gusty weather to score two bullets, a perfect follow-on from her second and first places from the opening day in the ILCA 6 class. Douglas holds a four-point lead over Hungary’s M?ria ?rdi who is two points in front of Maxime Jonker of the Netherlands.
Nacra 17, a steep learning curve

The first day results seem to suggest it is business as usual for Italy’s Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti as the 2020 Olympic champions rolled out a 2,1,1 from their first three races in the Nacra 17. Despite such a strong start, Tita admitted the 2018 world champions are still in the very early stages of developing their new rudder control system.

“It was a bit crazy out there. We are trying to learn this new rudder control system which makes the boat much faster so we did our best. We found a good mode for upwind on the foil but beyond that let us say it is a work in progress, it is still under development. We have sailed only three days in Cagliari with this system. For sure there is a lot of development still to come,” explained Tita who has an increased commitment to Italy’s Luna Rossa America’s Cup team. “It is a bit hard now with the America’s Cup now set to be in 2024 too. But for sure seeing the Cup coming to Barcelona, closer to home, is good news.”
51 Trofeo S.A.R. Princesa Sof?a Mallorca, first event of the 2022 Hempel World Cup Series
05 April, 2022
? Sailing Energy / Princesa Sof?a MallorcaTAGS

**Photoboy** · 04-10-2022, 08:38 AM

At the Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca, the opening Hempel Sailing World Cup Circuit regatta of 2022 which is the first major Olympic classes sailing event since the 2020 games last year, the penultimate day of racing saw one pair of Italian Olympic gold medallists carry on from where they left off in Tokyo, one Dutch female duo comprehensively overshadow the 2020 Olympic champions and one delighted Canadian single-hander make a dream start to her post-Tokyo pledge to start the new ‘quadrennial’ on the podium. All three have clinched their Palma World Cup titles with a day to spare.

all images ? sailing energy/Trofeo Princesa Sof?a Mallorca

With a convincing overall class win in the ILCA6 single-hander on a sparkling Bay of Palma’s, Sarah Douglas today delivered on a promise to herself to prove she was much more than ‘the queen of sixth places’ – the position she finished in Tokyo last year and one which has been too common on her final scoresheets. She has been the dominant force in the class this week in winds which have varied from nine to 25kts. Tokyo medallists have yet to return to the class but Douglas is now doubly determined to become Canada’s first ever female sailing medallist,

“It is so surreal at the moment.” Grinned a delighted Douglas who grew up in Barbados where she started sailing in Optimists, ”I am so excited. Last quad I realised I had become the queen of sixth place, I had a lot of them. And so I started here saying ‘This quad I want to step on the podium and here I am. I have worked so hard this week. I was mentally fresh. I had stepped back from the ILCA 6 for some time and did some big boat sailing and SSL sailing, so it was great to be connected to the sport still. I have been full force since January, training in Mexico and Florida. Our training is always very specific and in Mexico I did nothing but two weeks of downwind sailing. I have seen improvement here and that was my weakness in the last quad. This is only the beginning. My aim was to be on the podium and to be more comfortable in that position with the pressure.”

Douglas sailed for Barbados until 2008 in the Optimist and then ILCA 6 before a brief spell in the Byte She took a break from sailing, quitting at the age of 16 before coming back in 2014 with the sole aim of pursuing the Olympic dream.

Italians Do It Better

The reigning Nacra Olympic Champions Italians Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti (ITA) started their journey towards Paris 2024 in the best possible way. With a 24 point gap back to the Finnish crew in second place, they have wrapped up the Palma World Cup title with the Medal Race to spare.

As the whole foiling catamaran fleet gets to grips with the adjustable rudder elevators and experiments with the possibilities of upwind foiling, the Italians seem to be further along the learning curve than their rivals.

“Every upwind leg of this week has been a new learning opportunity,” said helm Banti. “We were very focused on trying to make this work as it changes the way we sail so much. Tita added: “We had no idea where the level was until this week. We did a good job in improving day by day and learned quickly how to sail with the new system. I don't really know what we did differently, we didn't really watch the others. We just focus on our sailing, just to get the best from the boat.”

Behind the unbeatable Italians, the Medal Race will still be a close battle for the silver and bronze. Sinem Kurtbay and Akseli Keskinen (FIN) have been improving throughout the week and now sit in second overall, six points ahead of the Tokyo silver medallists John Gimson and Anna Burnet (GBR). Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei (ITA) are 12 points behind, are the only other team with a shot at the Nacra podium.

Gold Medallists Left In The Shade

Already assured of the overall win in their class are Holland’s Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz who, this time, have left Brazil’s reigning Olympic Champions Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze in their. Solid scores of 1,6,4 were sufficient for the new pairing to secure the Palma title early.

"We are very happy and we sailed a great event,” smiled van Aanholt, the reigning World Champion and rapidly rising star of the women’s skiff. “It was the first time Annette and I sailed together in a major regatta, so we have good reasons to celebrate, and also a lot of improvements to make. We work really well together but we are still finding our feet in some places too.”

Duetz, the 2020 Olympic bronze medallist, added: “Today was quite a hard day, but even if we didn’t get away well at the start we were still able to fight back, boat by boat. That’s a good sign.”

In Saturday’s Medal Race the Brazilians will have to sail at their best to defend the silver from a chasing pack who are close behind on points. Currently in bronze are Isaura Maenhaut and Anouk Geurts (BEL), with Italian, Swedish and Danish teams in close pursuit.

When A Lead Is Not A Lead
Going into the showdown Saturday with a lead of 24 points like the Italian Nacra duo have, if she was in a dinghy class or still on the RS:X French iQFOiL windsurfer H?l?ne Noesmoen would have won her division with a day to spare.

But the Finals format for foiling windsurfers - which are making their Olympic classes debut - here means Noesmoen goes direct to the three board Final tomorrow to face the two riders who will have advanced all the way through tomorrow’s quarter and semi finals. But at least she, like Mens iQFOiL leader GBR’s Andy Brown, is certain of a medal.

Noesmoen is well used to the winner-takes-all finale and, as world and double European champion, has both track record and experience in her corner. She enthused, “I am happy with the week. And it is all the same in the final, we have all done a lot of racing and are tired but this is not the first time I have been in this position and I like it. I do my own warm up and get into the mind set you have to have. We know in this kind of final anything can happen. I just try to have a good technique on the foil and I always manage to look around and adjust my tactics. For some girls that is a problem.”

Staying Cool Under Pressure
GBR’s Andy Brown is also certain of a medal and is keeping a positive, open mind, ready to take on whoever he comes up against whether they are strong or light winds specialists

Brown’s British counterpart in the ILCA 7 singlehander class Michael Beckett is also similarly guaranteed a medal and equally chilled about carrying an 11 points lead into his medal race, ahead of Germany’s 2020 world champion Philipp Buhl and Australia’s Tokyo gold medallist Matt Wearn:
Beckett said , “I love the medal races. It is good to have a points gap. Last time I did this regatta I was 21st and this is a great regatta and everyone is back after the Games. I have done a lot of work with the squad and this week I have been fast and it has just felt as good as I have felt in training.”

Kites Up In The Air…Or Not
In the 470 Mixed class Spain’s bronze medallist helm Jordi Xammar now sailing with Nora Brugman carries a margin of 16pts into the medal race and so looks a good bet to go one better than his silver here in 2019.

And France have a strong chance of securing medals in the 49er where Erwan Fischer and Cl?ment Pequin lead into the medal race by 11pts while the Formula Kite classes see French riders Lauriane Nolot and Theo de Ramecourt. The kite class leaders now carry two points into their four rider final and need to win just one race in what amounts to a first to three points showdown.

The 51 Trofeo Princesa Sof?a Mallorca is jointly organised by the Club N?utic S'Arenal, the Club Mar?timo San Antonio de la Playa, the Real Club N?utico de Palma, the Real Federaci?n Espa?ola de Vela, the Federaci?n Balear de Vela and World Sailing, with the backing of the main Balearic public institutions.

**Photoboy** · 04-10-2022, 08:45 AM

At the Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca, the opening Hempel Sailing World Cup Circuit regatta of 2022 which is the first major Olympic classes sailing event since the 2020 games last year, the penultimate day of racing saw one pair of Italian Olympic gold medallists carry on from where they left off in Tokyo, one Dutch female duo comprehensively overshadow the 2020 Olympic champions and one delighted Canadian single-hander make a dream start to her post-Tokyo pledge to start the new ‘quadrennial’ on the podium. All three have clinched their Palma World Cup titles with a day to spare.

With a convincing overall class win in the ILCA6 single-hander on a sparkling Bay of Palma’s, Sarah Douglas today delivered on a promise to herself to prove she was much more than ‘the queen of sixth places’ – the position she finished in Tokyo last year and one which has been too common on her final scoresheets. She has been the dominant force in the class this week in winds which have varied from nine to 25kts. Tokyo medallists have yet to return to the class but Douglas is now doubly determined to become Canada’s first ever female sailing medallist,

“It is so surreal at the moment.” Grinned a delighted Douglas who grew up in Barbados where she started sailing in Optimists, ”I am so excited. Last quad I realised I had become the queen of sixth place, I had a lot of them. And so I started here saying ‘This quad I want to step on the podium and here I am. I have worked so hard this week. I was mentally fresh. I had stepped back from the ILCA 6 for some time and did some big boat sailing and SSL sailing, so it was great to be connected to the sport still. I have been full force since January, training in Mexico and Florida. Our training is always very specific and in Mexico I did nothing but two weeks of downwind sailing. I have seen improvement here and that was my weakness in the last quad. This is only the beginning. My aim was to be on the podium and to be more comfortable in that position with the pressure.”

Douglas sailed for Barbados until 2008 in the Optimist and then ILCA 6 before a brief spell in the Byte She took a break from sailing, quitting at the age of 16 before coming back in 2014 with the sole aim of pursuing the Olympic dream.

Italians Do It Better

The reigning Nacra Olympic Champions Italians Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti (ITA) started their journey towards Paris 2024 in the best possible way. With a 24 point gap back to the Finnish crew in second place, they have wrapped up the Palma World Cup title with the Medal Race to spare.

As the whole foiling catamaran fleet gets to grips with the adjustable rudder elevators and experiments with the possibilities of upwind foiling, the Italians seem to be further along the learning curve than their rivals.

“Every upwind leg of this week has been a new learning opportunity,” said helm Banti. “We were very focused on trying to make this work as it changes the way we sail so much. Tita added: “We had no idea where the level was until this week. We did a good job in improving day by day and learned quickly how to sail with the new system. I don't really know what we did differently, we didn't really watch the others. We just focus on our sailing, just to get the best from the boat.”

Behind the unbeatable Italians, the Medal Race will still be a close battle for the silver and bronze. Sinem Kurtbay and Akseli Keskinen (FIN) have been improving throughout the week and now sit in second overall, six points ahead of the Tokyo silver medallists John Gimson and Anna Burnet (GBR). Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei (ITA) are 12 points behind, are the only other team with a shot at the Nacra podium.

Gold Medallists Left In The Shade

Already assured of the overall win in their class are Holland’s Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz who, this time, have left Brazil’s reigning Olympic Champions Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze in their. Solid scores of 1,6,4 were sufficient for the new pairing to secure the Palma title early.

"We are very happy and we sailed a great event,” smiled van Aanholt, the reigning World Champion and rapidly rising star of the women’s skiff. “It was the first time Annette and I sailed together in a major regatta, so we have good reasons to celebrate, and also a lot of improvements to make. We work really well together but we are still finding our feet in some places too.”

Duetz, the 2020 Olympic bronze medallist, added: “Today was quite a hard day, but even if we didn’t get away well at the start we were still able to fight back, boat by boat. That’s a good sign.”

In Saturday’s Medal Race the Brazilians will have to sail at their best to defend the silver from a chasing pack who are close behind on points. Currently in bronze are Isaura Maenhaut and Anouk Geurts (BEL), with Italian, Swedish and Danish teams in close pursuit.

When A Lead Is Not A Lead
Going into the showdown Saturday with a lead of 24 points like the Italian Nacra duo have, if she was in a dinghy class or still on the RS:X French iQFOiL windsurfer H?l?ne Noesmoen would have won her division with a day to spare.

But the Finals format for foiling windsurfers - which are making their Olympic classes debut - here means Noesmoen goes direct to the three board Final tomorrow to face the two riders who will have advanced all the way through tomorrow’s quarter and semi finals. But at least she, like Mens iQFOiL leader GBR’s Andy Brown, is certain of a medal.

Noesmoen is well used to the winner-takes-all finale and, as world and double European champion, has both track record and experience in her corner. She enthused, “I am happy with the week. And it is all the same in the final, we have all done a lot of racing and are tired but this is not the first time I have been in this position and I like it. I do my own warm up and get into the mind set you have to have. We know in this kind of final anything can happen. I just try to have a good technique on the foil and I always manage to look around and adjust my tactics. For some girls that is a problem.”

Staying Cool Under Pressure
GBR’s Andy Brown is also certain of a medal and is keeping a positive, open mind, ready to take on whoever he comes up against whether they are strong or light winds specialists

Brown’s British counterpart in the ILCA 7 singlehander class Michael Beckett is also similarly guaranteed a medal and equally chilled about carrying an 11 points lead into his medal race, ahead of Germany’s 2020 world champion Philipp Buhl and Australia’s Tokyo gold medallist Matt Wearn:
Beckett said , “I love the medal races. It is good to have a points gap. Last time I did this regatta I was 21st and this is a great regatta and everyone is back after the Games. I have done a lot of work with the squad and this week I have been fast and it has just felt as good as I have felt in training.”

Kites Up In The Air…Or Not
In the 470 Mixed class Spain’s bronze medallist helm Jordi Xammar now sailing with Nora Brugman carries a margin of 16pts into the medal race and so looks a good bet to go one better than his silver here in 2019.

And France have a strong chance of securing medals in the 49er where Erwan Fischer and Cl?ment Pequin lead into the medal race by 11pts while the Formula Kite classes see French riders Lauriane Nolot and Theo de Ramecourt. The kite class leaders now carry two points into their four rider final and need to win just one race in what amounts to a first to three points showdown.

The 51 Trofeo Princesa Sof?a Mallorca is jointly organised by the Club N?utic S'Arenal, the Club Mar?timo San Antonio de la Playa, the Real Club N?utico de Palma, the Real Federaci?n Espa?ola de Vela, the Federaci?n Balear de Vela and World Sailing, with the backing of the main Balearic public institutions.

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Massive Monday In Mallorca

Massive Monday In Mallorca

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