Sun comes out for World Cup Palma

Palma, Spain (April 7, 2022) – The Bay of Palma turned on the perfect combination of sunshine and solid SW’ly winds for the fourth day of competition at the Trofeo Sofia Mallorca Olympic classes regatta, the first Hempel World Cup Circuit of 2022.

Canada’s Sarah Douglas is running away with the ILCA 6 Sofia Mallorca title. After four finals races she is already 20 points clear of Greece’s second placed Vasileia Karachaliou, strengthening her hand today with two more wins.

With sixth overall, she had the best Tokyo 2020 result of the ILCA 6 fleet assembled here. Now Douglas is intent on making every possible gain while Olympic medalists such as gold and silver winners Anne Marie Rindom (DEN) and Marit Bouwmeester (NED) are still on their post Tokyo break.

“I was reasonably happy with my games,” noted Douglas. “I was happy with how I sailed. Going into the medal race I was in fourth and could have medaled so I was disappointed to miss out, but I have grown as a sailor since then. I had a break after Tokyo.

“I got back in the boat in January and trained in Florida and Mexico with the Canadians and Americans. The biggest thing for me has been the mental rest. I needed the time off and away from the boat after Tokyo; that has been the biggest factor. This is my first five-day regatta since Tokyo so it is pretty tiring!”

France for kiting
France is on top of the Women’s Formula Kiteboard, as Lauriane Nolot (FRA) extended her lead to 11 points over Ellie Aldridge (GBR) in second overall. However, reigning World Champion Daniela Moroz (USA) started to find her form today. Apart from a UFD disqualification for breaking the start line too soon, three first places and a second made the American the stand-out performer of the day and puts her in third overall, just a point behind Aldridge.

In the men’s fleet, it was the first day of Gold Fleet racing in the Formula Kiteboard where a battle of the bigger and smaller French riders ensued, with 110kg of Benoit Gomez (FRA) powering to a race win in the opening heat. Reigning World Champion, Theo de Ramecourt (FRA), was second behind Gomez but then hit his stride to win the next four heats. This puts de Ramecourt three points ahead of Gomez in the rankings with Toni Vodisek (SLO) seven points off the lead in third.

“The wind and the waves were super-tricky, and it was very technical upwind and downwind, easy to lose control,” explained De Ramecourt. “At the start of one race Toni got in front of my line just before the gun, so I had to stop and wait to get going. But it was a fun mission to play catch-up.”

Consistent
Most consistent in today’s course racing on the Men’s iQFOiL windsurfing race track was Luuc van Opzeeland (NED) who scored two bullets from five heats to rise to second overall. Also winning two heats and only marginally less regular was GBR’s Andy Brown who continues to lead the competition by 4 points from the Dutchman. Some way back, 25 points off the lead, is Italy’s Nicolò Renna in third overall.

Brown’s rise through the ranks of the iQFOiL has been impressive. After struggling to make the top tier on the RS:X windsurfer, the higher power and speed of the foiling board seems to suit Brown much better.

“I was sixth in last year’s Worlds and put in some good effort over the winter,” he said. “For me the difference this week is thinking about the race more, listening to what my coach Nick Dempsey (three-time Olympic medalist) is telling me. The speed was already there, and now it’s the racing, the tactics and the strategy, it is starting to come together.”

In the Women’s iQFOiL, GBR’s Islay Watson overhauled her French rival Hélène Noesmie and now leads her class by two points even after the young Scot landed a BFD disqualification in the first of today’s four course races which Noesmie did not compete in.

Notably, Watson and fellow Scot Andy Brown are from the same place, Loch Insh in the Highlands of Scotland.

ILCA 7, Gold medalist on the rise
Best of the Men today was Olympic Champion Matt Wearn who continues his comeback from 32nd overall on the opening day of the competition.

The Australian was third in the first race when it paid to go left and struggled a bit more in the next when it paid to go right, still scoring a reasonable 12th. Michael Beckett (GBR) was only a point less consistent than Wearn with 14th in the first race and narrowly missing out on a race win against Filip Jurišić (CRO) to finish second.

“I got the day half right,” said Beckett, “which was probably about all that anyone managed today. It was hard to read the pattern of the breeze so that was a pretty good day out, really.”

A race win for Philipp Buhl (GER) puts the 2020 World Champion just two points behind Beckett’s lead, with Wearn now 15 points off the top. France’s Jean-Baptiste Bernaz, the overnight leader, did not race today.

Solid Spaniards, Germans on the prowl
Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman (ESP) maintain a solid lead in the 470 Mixed class with a steady fourth and fifth today. Underlining that the female helm, male crew combination is equally potent is Germany’s Luise Wanser and Philipp Autenrieth who are just four points shy of the medal zone.

“We are just waiting to get on the podium here. We are stalking them like a big cat hunting,” said Wanser who was sixth in Tokyo with Anastasia Winkel, “If we could do better on the first upwinds we would be there. We are fast and we are sending it downwind and going fast. I don’t think it matters if you are a female or male helm and that is super cool. We won a race the other day when it was super over-powered conditions!”

The 49er class looks set to go to the wire with the top five teams going into the final day of gold fleet racing with only four points between them. Leaders are Poland’s European Champions Mikolai Staniul and Jakub Sztorch.

Spain’s Diego Botin, poised in fourth said, “We did not burn our discard yet and today we just focused on consistency. The third race we made mistakes and it was not so good. The new rig is quite different. I think it is stiffer and that makes it harder to sail. The old rigs probably have a small edge in these conditions but it is nice to have the change in the class.”

FX, Honors shared
Jana Germani and Giorgia Bertuzzi (ITA) were the most consistent team of the day, keeping all four race scores inside the top six. This lifts the Italians to fourth overall and just one point behind Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler (SWE) who also put in a solid day in the medium to strong conditions.

The two frontrunners had a game of two halves, with Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz winning the first two heats, then a third place but slumping to a 14th. This was still good enough for the Dutch to retain a nine-point lead over the Brazilian Olympic Champions who started the day a bit shakily but gradually improved as Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze scored 9,15,2,1 to hold second place overall.

Event details – Results – Facebook

MORE: For the North American contingent, Sarah Douglas (CAN) has won five of the eight races in the ILCA 6 – a rarely seen dominating performance at this level. Daniela Moroz of the US Team is finding her mojo as temperatures rise to sit 3rd in the Formula Kite, while Ian Barrows/Hans Henken are now in second in the 49er and just one point off the lead, but only four point separate the top five teams. Also finding their groove is Steph Roble/ Maggie Shea, posting all top-seven scores today to move up to ninth in the 49erFX.

Racing is being held April 4-9.

With 62 nations represented, there are 1,015 competitors with 779 boats in Palma de Mallorca for the largest Olympic class regatta since the Tokyo 2020 Games.

Part of the Hempel World Cup Series, the popular Princesa Sofía regatta is back after a two year break due to COVID-19, and is the first of two regattas in 2022 that gathers all Olympic class boats in one place.

2022 Hempel World Cup Series:
April 4-9 – Hempel World Cup Series Palma (Princess Sofía Regatta), Spain
May 31-June 5 – Hempel World Cup Series Amsterdam (Allianz Regatta), The Netherlands
TBC – Hempel World Cup Marseille, France

The Hempel World Cup Series is the definitive annual circuit for the world’s leading sailors and Olympic hopefuls. Mirroring the Olympic style of sailing in format, duration and fleet sizes, the World Cup Series visits prestige venues across the globe at all stages of the four-year Olympic cycle, supporting athletes in their quest to qualify for the Games and connecting fans with the very best sailors in the sport.

Source: Trofeo Sofia Mallorca