The Mallorca Sailing Centre Training Regatta for the Olympic classes ended over the weekend with Howth Yacht Club's Ewan McMahon finishing 10th overall after eight races sailed in an ILCA 7/Laser fleet of 66 entries.
The National Yacht Club's Finn Lynch had an uneven scoresheet, despite scoring a three in race four he did not compete in three other races of the series.
Freya Black and the Royal Irish Yacht Club's Saskia Tidey were 13th in their new Team GB partnership for Paris.
The Mallorca Sailing Center Regatta reaffirmed the status of the Bay of Palma as one of the world’s benchmarks for Olympic class sailing competition. Nearly 280 sailors made the best of three intense days racing at this traditional training regatta to familiarise themselves with the scenario in which they will compete in the 51 Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca.
Greece’s Vasileia Karachaliou (ILCA 6), Britain's Matt Beckett (ILCA 7), Spain's Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman (470 Mixed), Poland's Domonik Buksak and Szymon Wierzbicki (49er), Brazil's Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze (FX), and Denmark's Natacha Saouma-Pedersen and Mathias Bruun (Nacra) sailed into the top spots in their respective classes at the Mallorca Sailing Center Regatta. The huge training regatta which is the warm up to Princesa Sofía Mallorca mustered 280 crews to race on the bay of Palma last weekend for three days of fine-tuning in full competition mode.
"It was an excellent exercise," explains Ferrán Muniesa, from the Club Nàutic S'Arenal. "We were able to hold many races and the bay offered us two days of typical southerly wind conditions and one, on Saturday, a rougher day, with westerlies and showers. It's true that it was a training regatta but there was a real competitive edge in each division, nobody likes to lose, especially the champions. It was especially interesting to see that several boats were using the new Olympic equipment for the first time, how the teams took advantage of this training session to measure speeds, and the presence of coaches on the course to record and take note of everything".
The focus will now shift to the full-on Trofeo Princesa Sofia from 1 to 9 April, the first scoring event for the 2022 Hempel World Cup Series with an entry of 700 boats expected.
ILCA 6 – Final leaders after 6 races (73 entries)
1st POR 218913 Vasileia KARACHALIOU – – 17 pts
2nd NED 213474 Mirthe AKKERMAN – – 22 pts
3rd NED 211391 Maxime JONKER – – 23 pts
ILCA 7 – Final leaders after 6 races (66 entries)
1st GBR 7 Matt BECKETT – – 36 pts
2nd ITA 21 Lorenzo CHIAVARINI – – 38 pts
3rd BEL 217953 Wannes VAN LAER – – 44 pts
470 Mixed – Final leaders after 6 races (43 entries)
1st ESP 44 Jordi XAMMAR and Nora BRUGMAN – – 19 pts
2nd AUT 1 Lara VADLAU and Lukas MAEHR – – 36 pts
3rd ITA 5 Marco GRADONI and Alessandra DUBBINI – – 47
49er Men – Final leaders after 6 races (53 entries)
1st POL 19 Dominik BUKSAK and Szymon WIERZBICKI – – 23 pts
2nd DEN 3 Frederik RASK and Skovshoved sejlklub – – 24 pts
3rd FRA 16 Erwan FISCHER and Clément PEQUIN – – 30 pts
49erFX Women – Final leaders after 6 races (39 entries)
1st BRA 12 Martine Soffiatti Grael GRAEL and Kahena KUNZE – – 28 pts
2nd ITA 10 Jana GERMANI and Giorgia BERTUZZI – – 44 pts
3rd SWE 77 Vilma BOBECK and Rebecca NETZLER – – 57 pts
Nacra17 Mixed – Final leaders after 6 races (12 entries)
1st DEN 31 Natacha Violet SAOUMA-PEDERSEN and Mathias Bruun BORRESKOV – – 9 pts
2nd FRA 51 Billy BESSON and Noa ANCIAN – – 16 pts
3rd SWE 439 Emil JÄRUDD and Hanna JONSSON – – 17 pts
Full results here