After nearly two weeks of strong winds and big seas that have prevailed for the hundreds of teams and Olympic-class sailors who have been training on Mallorca’s Bay of Palma, competitors at the 53 Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca look set for a breezy, sunny opening day on Monday before winds revert to early Spring thermal breezes later in the week.

Irish Olympic sailors will be competing as Afloat reported earlier here.

The huge showcase regatta, which opens the 2024 Sailing World Cup, should be an indicator of medal potential as the first event of the year to muster all 10 Olympic events in advance of this summer’s Olympic regatta. Nearly 850 boats sailed by 1100 athletes from 76 different nations will take to the waters of the Bay of Palma, racing between Monday and Saturday. For many countries this traditional curtain raiser to the European Olympic classes season is an Olympic selection event.

Singapore’s Max Maeder won the overall Trofeo Princesa Sofia top award last year at just 16 years old and on current form has established himself as the most likely candidate to take the inaugural men’s Olympic gold medal when the high speed, high octane Formula Kite makes its Olympic debut this summer (see interview). Logically, given that most of the top French riders who will be his nearest rivals this summer are not at this Mallorcan showcase event, Maeder is out and out favourite.

Strength and depth

The Mixed 470 sees the host nation’s favourites, recently crowned World Champions, Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman back racing on the same Bay of Palma waters where they clinched their world title in very breezy conditions one month ago.

Olympic selection pressures are now relieved for the likes of the British duo Vita Heathcote and Chris Grube as world champs runners up, and France’s double Olympic bronze medallist Camille Lecointre and crew Jérémie Mion, the stress continues for those still chasing the golden ticket such as the top Japanese crews, 2023 world champions Keiju Okada and Miho Yoshioka and Tetsuya Isozaki and Yuri Seki – who led in the early stages of the world championships here – and more especially among Germany’s 470 squad which shows incredible strength and depth with 14 duos in Palma.

After the worlds Sofía is the second of Germany’s three selection events, ahead of the decisive European champs in Cannes. Theirs is very much an empirical, first-past-the post system and with their fourth at the worlds Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort are clear ahead. But all three top German duos could be considered Olympic medal contenders, Luise Wanser and Philip Autenreith were 2022 world champions and Malte and Anastaysia Winkel already took silver at the Marseille test event last year.

Selected French are smiling

Around the Palma boat parks there have been big smiles among the French crews which are present after having selection to their home Olympics confirmed on Friday. Their announced Formula Kite representatives Lauriane Nolot and Axel Mazella, are among France’s best medal chances are not in Palma, but les plus grosses bananes (colloquial French for biggest smiles) belong to France’s first ever, newly crowned 49er World Champions Erwan Fischer and Clément Pequin. They are ready to defend the Palma title they won here in 2022. Pequin was injured this time last year, Fischer also immediately after and so the worlds win in Lanzarote was only their second regatta together since the end of the 2022 season.

“There is no pressure for us here at all other than we want to perform. It is great here to have the respect in the boat park from the other sailors as world champions and to feel we are on the right course. I think we have a special energy, a hunger because we missed so much through our injuries, so it we feel good here.” Says crew Pequin. Considering the forecast for light sea breeze winds through the week he adds, “We are quite big guys, yes, but I think we are confident too in the light winds and have to be as it can be quite similar to Marseille here.”

Their 49er FX counterparts Sarah Steyaert and Charline Steyaert are selected but are not in Palma. Absent also are the Netherlands’ 2024 world champions Odile van Aanholt and Annette Deutz which should leave Brazil’s double Olympic champions Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze with a strong chance of defending the Palma title they won last year although Sweden’s vice World Champions Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler and Italy’s Jana Germani Giorgia Bertuzzi overshadowed the Tokyo gold medallists at the worlds.

From a full strength fleet Great Britain’s Micky Beckett sets out to win the Trofeo Princesa Sofia ILCA 6 title for the third time in a row. Olympic and world champion Matt Wearn is the sailor most likely to stand in his way at a regatta that the Australian has made a high scoring start to at these last two editions.

“In some respects I am under much less pressure than this time last year as this event was part of our selection trials that was stressful so I am really looking to just enjoy this week."

"Monday looks like it will be a reasonably large day and then it will drop" According to Beckett, "Monday looks like it will be a reasonably large day and then it will drop. The fleet has really reached a point where everyone has been forced to get good at the conditions they don’t like, myself included, so I am happy in the medium breeze and maybe less so the real extremes. This is such an iconic event which has been around for twice as long as I have been alive, everyone watches it closely because it is the first big event of the season so I really want to win.”

Denmark’s Tokyo gold medallist Anne Marie Rindom who won her fourth ILCA 6 world championship title in Argentina in January took not won the Sofía title since 2019 but will be among the favourites on the Bay of Palma. Last year’s winner Marit Bouwmeester only earned the right to challenge for her fifth Olympic medal when she beat Dutch rival Maxime Jonker on the last race in Argentina. Last year’s runner up Zoe Thomson leads a strong contingent of Australian women whilst Hungary’s Mária Érdi has just won the European title at a light winds Europeans in Athens.

Since winning the Sofia Nacra 17 title here last year GBR’s John Gimson and Anna Burnet have not finished off the podium at any major regatta, most recently the 2020 Olympic silver medallists collected the European title. Their training partners, Olympic champions Rugero Tita and Caterina Banti, have had their selection for Paris 2024 confirmed, and this week should see an engaging foretaste of who might win gold in Marseille this summer.

Sam Sills and Emma Wilson added to GBR’s medal success last year, both winning the iQFOiL classes and both will be among the top contenders next Saturday when the giant regatta concludes.

Day 5 of the 49er and 49erFX World Championships in Lanzarote featured challenging conditions with stronger winds and waves. French sailors Erwan Fischer and Clément Pequinsecured consistent finishes, keeping a big lead between them and the Dutch in second place.

With the breeze gusting between 15 and 19 knots from the north-west, today would be the toughest physical challenge yet. The Gold Fleet departed Marina Rubicon for three hard races on the huge Atlantic swell.

Irish gold fleet contestants Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove, who say they are struggling in the unpredictable conditions, remain 25th overall after scores of 13.0,17.0 and 12.0, while Cork silver fleet sailors at these championships, Seafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan, are ranked 30th overall. See results below.

In a consistently surprising performance, British sailors Grummett and Hawes entered the Gold Fleet for the first time as a team and secured a race win which puts them in 4th overall.

PORT TACK STARTS FOR THE FRENCH

Fischer and Pequin favoured a port-tack approach to the starts, passing behind the bulk of the fleet starting on starboard. It proved to be a winning strategy as the French launched into clear air on the right-hand side of the course nearer to Marina Rubicon on the Lanzarote shore. They sailed to finishes of 3,2,3, a level of consistency that none of their rivals could match.

Sebastien Schneiter and Arno de Planta (SUI) won the first race of the session, next it was the reigning World Champions Bart Lambriex and Floris van de Werken (NED), and last winners of the afternoon were the surprise package of this week from Great Britain.

GBR 12 - James Grummett/Rhos Hawes Photo: Sailing Energy

NEW BOY IN GOLDEN FORM

James Grummett had never competed in the Gold Fleet of a major 49er regatta before, but having teamed up with Rhos Hawes just three months ago this new partnership have clicked straight away. Their race win puts them in 4th overall, just 0.2 points off the Spanish in 3rd.

Meanwhile there’s a close battle developing between two Polish teams both vying for Olympic selection. Currently Mikolaj Staniul and Jakub Sztorch sit in 5th but just 5 points ahead of Łukasz Przybytek and Jacek Piasecki in 6th.

France's Erwan Fischer and Clément Pequin might be the first French sailors in 25 years to become 49er World Champions Photo: Sailing Energy

FRENCH REVOLUTION?

With one more Gold Fleet race in the morning followed by the Medal Race on Sunday afternoon, the French team go into the final day with a 30 point advantage over the Dutch, and 12 points further back are the Spanish favourites Diego Botin and Florian Trittel.

In more than a quarter of a century of 49er World Championships, France has never won the world title. On the strength of today’s performance, Erwan Fischer and Clement Pequin could be on the brink of making 49er history.

Top 3. 49er Worlds. Lanzarote. Day 5

1. Erwan Fischer / Clément Pequin (FRA), 11+1+7+3+1+3+1+2+3+(10)+2+3+3+2+3=45
2. Bart Lambriex / Floris van de Werken (NED), 5+4+1+7+4+1+1+1+(20)+16+3+20+4+1+7=75
3. Diego Botín / Florian Trittel (ESP), 13+18+3+3+2+3+15+1+6+7+1+1+9+5+(20)=87

Eve McMahon, the 19-year-old Dublin sailor, has secured a nation place for Ireland in the women’s single-handed event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Sailing Regatta.

McMahon's result came with a race to spare at the ILCA6 World Championships in Mar del Plata, Argentina and after some drama on the penultimate day when she suffered a broken tiller extension and could not compete in one race.

The Irish Sailor of the Year qualified in second place of the seven-nation spots being decided at the competition, with official confirmation expected after the event concludes on Wednesday evening. 

It is McMahon's second attempt at qualification, having missed at the first opportunity in The Hague last summer. 

The Argentinian event is following a new format in that the top ten boats will sail their medal race as normal but the remainder of the Gold fleet will also race in their own fleet for higher points.  This leaves McMahon mathematically unbeatable for Olympic qualification.

McMahon's qualification follows her Under 21 world championship title win in the ILCA6 class in October, which marked her debut year at senior level. In 2022, at the conclusion of her youth career, the Howth sailor delivered three Gold medals at a series of world championship events in the same class that Annalise Murphy, one of her coaches, won Silver at the Rio Games.

Ireland has now qualified three boats for this summer's Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Rio 2016 veteran Finn Lynch secured nation qualification for the men's single-handed event in August 2023 and Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove qualifying Ireland for the men's 49er skiff event in November. 

As the sole Irish contender in her class at senior level, McMahon's name will go to the Olympic Federation of Ireland for inclusion in the Olympic team for Paris 2024.

Both of the other boats will face a trial series to decide on nominations to the OFI at a series of regattas this spring.

Ireland is looking for places at the Paris 2024 Olympic Regatta this week when it competes at the Sailing World Championships in Holland.

As Afloat reported previously, Irish hopes for Paris 2024 Olympic Qualification are high, with some strong performances after July's Test Event in Marseille.

The Championships is a multi-class regatta that takes place once an Olympic cycle. In 2018 the Danish city of Aarhus held the regatta, and now it’s the turn of the Dutch capital, The Hague, to play host, with the action taking place in the beach resort of Scheveningen (below).

Sailing for Ireland in The Hague are five Dublin sailors and two from Cork Harbour. Three of the seven are already Olympians from both Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

Unlike the Paris 2024 test event that saw only one entry per class per nation, the Sailing World Championships is open to multiple entries in each class – and that means huge fleet sizes. More than 1,400 of the world’s best sailors will descend on The Hague (above) for the regatta

2022 World Youth Champion Eve McMahon from Howth Yacht Club sails in the ILCA 6, and her brother Ewan McMahon also from Howth and 2016 Olympian from Rio Finn Lynch (National Yacht Club), compete in the Men’s ILCA 7. Dublin reps from Tokyo, Robert Dickson (Howth Yacht Club) and Seán Waddilove (Skerries Sailing Club) and Cork duo Séafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan (both Royal Cork Yacht Club) are all competing in the 49er Men's skiff event.

A top 16 finish in each of the ILCA events will secure a spot for Ireland at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, while in the 49ers, a top 10 finish is required.

Racing starts on August 11 and finishes on August 20.

Unlike the Paris 2024 test event that saw only one entry per class per nation, the Sailing World Championships is open to multiple entries in each class – and that means huge fleet sizes. More than 1,400 of the world’s best sailors will descend on The Hague for the regatta, including over 60 British Sailing Team and British Sailing Squad athletes. 

The second of two major regattas this summer, the Sailing World Championships promises to be massive. It’s the first time that nations can qualify for a spot on the start line at next year’s Olympics. And just to up the ante even more, many nations are still in the process of choosing their Paris 2024 team, so performance on the waters of The Hague is absolutely critical.

Read all the news on the build-up to Paris 2024 on Afloat here