Sofía at full strength

After a second consecutive day of shifty, difficult offshore winds many of the 1100 athletes at the gigantic 55th Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca by FERGUS Hotels Olympic regatta, and for certain the on-the-water race officers running the races, would welcome a return to the Bay of Palma’s reliable, more regular sea breeze regime. But forecasts suggest this will not happen until later in the week, maybe even for Saturday’s finale.

With the regatta at its full size from today as the kites and iQFOiLs started their racing, the fleet leaders seemed better able to predict and use the unsettled breeze. In the Nacra 17 Mixed Multihull Swedish duo Emile Järudd and Hanna Jonsson, the 2023 World Championship bronze medallists, have managed to deliver four race wins from six starts. They now lead the class by 12 clear points ahead of both of their winter training partners, from Argentina Mateo Majdalani and Eugenia Bosco, the 2024 Olympic silver medallists who are second, and their third placed Swedish compatriots Ida Svensson and Marcus Dackhammer.

Järudd enthused, “We are still sailing smart and fast. Hanna is working through some sickness but I think is feeling a bit better today. Our course was very shifty but we found ourselves in phase with the shifts quite well. And we have had good training in Cagliari with the other Swedish team and with the Argentinians. Now we have had so many hours on the water together, getting the big amounts we have really needed, then I think that is paying off for us now. This is a regatta to perform at a high level for us. In general it was a good day for us, you had to keep your eyes ahead while foiling and that is not so easy but 1,5,1  for the day is good. We still did not get good starts but making good decisions early on the first upwind, working upwards from fifth or so.”

Coming back
As one of the first fleets to race today the Nacra 17s did probably benefit from the more settled early winds, as did the Women’s 49er FX skiff where Holland’s Odile Lambriex van Aaanholt – who won Paris 2024 Olympic gold with Annette Duetz – has returned to the class after giving birth to her first baby. She is working with the Dutch federation to find a new crew for the LA2028 campaign. Their innovative approach has seen them bring in elite sportswomen from outside sailing, although this week she is sailing with Marissa Ijben, a former ILCA 6 sailor, she has been recently sailing with two other triallists including Karlinde Van Arendonk – who has come to Olympic sailing from field hockey - who this week is crewing Helene Naess.

Lying in 14th after today’s races Lambriex van Aaanholt grinned, “ It’s a bit overwhelming to be back. The fleet is so close together and we are still finding our feet. It is also so much fun. I did not realise how much I missed it until I was back in the boat and after a few times when it still felt a bit awkward then once you get back into training I really love it so much.”

Brits 2025 winners on top
Last year’s Sofía champions, GBR’s Freya Black and Saskia Tidey, have a slender lead in the 49er FXs, sharing the same 20 points aggregate as the local Spanish favourites Paula Barcelo and Maria Cantero.

After posting a first and a sixth and a 16th place discard, Tidey explained, “For us it was an up and down day we had two solid races and the last one it got quite shifty and hard to control your positioning up the second beat as we got a big windshift to the left downwind and so it was a good day allround but rather too many points from that last race than we would have wanted. From a day like to day it would be easy to come away with some big scores so I feel we managed our risk quite well. There was a little less breeze than we thought and so it is less easy to bounce around."

"The format is quite interesting, we watched how it played out at the 470 Europeans, it is interesting, it fair enough we have to see how it goes this week. But you really want to keep it clean in the qualifying series and go through with a nice position. Our aim is to stay in the game through the middle of the week, chip away to the front.”

“We have not had much of an off season. With the worlds so early, in May, we were training again quickly after the worlds last year and so we were in Sicily initially in some big sea state and so it is nice to be back in the chop and flat water of Palma.”

Tough on the ILCAs again, another long day
Once more the ILCA 6 and 7 singlehanders seemed to bear the brunt of the unsettled conditions, spending many hours waiting in order to get their heats away. Ireland’s Evie McMahon leads the ILCA 6s after an excellent second and first today. The 2025 world championships bronze medallist reported, “It has been another long day of waiting around again. We had our warning signal scheduled for 11 o'clock, but we were postponed for two hours. We had to wait on the shore for the wind to settle. I don't think it ever really did settle when we were out there. It was pretty crazy. We were racing in an offshore breeze, so a really tricky day but I'm really happy with my results so far. You have to be one step ahead and constantly looking up the course. I mean, you can't take your eye off the ball for a second, otherwise you're completely out of phase with the windshifts. That's how you keep your head in the game.”

Double Olympic champion Matt Wearn of Australia still leads in the ILCA 7s as they move into the Finals series which will decide Saturday’s medals, now contested over two 10 boat races rather than a double points Medal Race. Defending Sofia champion Micky Beckett of GBR is now up to third.

French duo Matisse Pacaud and Lucie de Gennes are on top of the 470 Mixed standings, Harry Price and Max Paul of Australia lead the 49er Men’s Skiff, Italy’s Riccardo Pianosi has three race wins in his leading scoreline in the Mens Formula Kite after four heats, as does Holland’s Jessie Kampman in the Women’s kites. Britain’s young Duncan Monaghan leads the Men’s iQFOil by a single point after their four heats today whilst in the Women’s iQFOiL Poland’s Anastasiya Valkevich tops the leaderboard.

The Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca by FERGUS Hotels is organised by Bahía Activa (the foundation formed by the Real Club Náutico de Palma, the Club Nàutic Arenal, the Club Marítimo San Antonio de la Playa and the Balearic Sailing Federation) and is supported by World Sailing. The event is co-financed by the Balearic Islands Government’s Sustainable Tourism Tax fund and sponsored by the Mallorca Responsible Tourism Foundation.

The Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca by FERGUS Hotels forms part of the 2026 Sailing Grand Slam alongside the Semaine Olympique Française, Dutch Water Week, Kieler Woche and the Long Beach & San Pedro Olympic Classes Regatta.