Under a week before the curtain goes up on the 54th Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca, the entry lists are now almost definitive and confirm a historic post-Olympic edition, with almost 850 boats registered, comparing favourably to the 779 which took part at the first Sofia regatta of the Paris 2024 cycle. In each of the two men's classes in which Ireland is competing, a new generation of sailors will be looking to shine on Mallorca’s Bay of Palma, taking their place in the spotlight in the absence of some of the most successful big names.
In 49er, the Paris 2024 medalists take a well-deserved break in their Olympic campaigns. Spaniards Diego Botín and Florian Trittel, gold medalists in Marseille, will be absent from the Mallorcan event due to their commitments on the SailGP circuit, which is currently racing in the United States. The silver medalists New Zealanders Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie, Olympic and American bronze medalists Ian Barrows and Hans Henken, bronze medalists in Paris 2024, also miss the Princesa Sofia. But Ireland's Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove, who narrowly missed out on the Olympic podium in August last year, are already hard on the 2028 campaign trail and come to the Mallorcan event energised and focused, the only Irish crew registered after the dropout of Seafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan. The great Mallorcan regatta is also on the early season itinerary of Poland's Dominik Buksak, who, after finishing fifth in Paris 2024 with Szymon Wierzbicki, is now embarking on a new campaign with Adam Glogowski as his new crew.
In ILCA 7, Cypriot Pavlos Kontides (silver in Paris 2024), Peruvian Stefano Peschiera (bronze in Marseille) and Hungarian Jonatan Vadnai (fourth in the Olympic event) will be the men to beat, although with a fleet of 174 participants there could be emerging promises. Although the Spanish representative at the Paris Games, Joaquín Blanco, has dropped out of the Olympic team for a while, the Gran Canarian Joel Rodríguez, an Olympian in Tokyo 2020, is expected to compete at the highest level, along with other Spaniards ready to present their best cards in Mallorca. On form, Ireland's Finn Lynch, who won the warmup at the same venue a week ago will in the line up as will Green Rebel's Ewan McMahon.
The Mallorcan event is part of the Sailing Grand Slam 2025, along with the Semaine Olympique Française, the Dutch Water Week, the Kieler Woche and the Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta. As Afloat reported earlier, Ireland is also contesting the ILCA 6 class.
