Hempel World Cup Series at the Princess Sofía Regatta - Flying French Foilers Forge Ahead on Day 2

The giant 51 Trofeo Sofia Mallorca was up to full strength for the first time on a windy Bay of Palma. All ten classes raced with all eight race course areas in action. There were 1,015 athletes racing on a total of 779 craft.

Formula Kite kitesurfing blasted into the Olympic sailing arena for the first time with a barnstorming opening day on a gusty Bay of Palma. France leads in two of the three qualifying groups of the Formula Kite Men, while Slovenia’s Toni Vodisek won Yellow Group with a clean sweep of four victories on the three-lap race track. One of the Frenchmen, Benoit Gomez, also racked up four straight bullets in Blue Group and his compatriot Theo de Ramecourt almost managed the perfect opener but for a UFD disqualification in his second race. “It’s not so bad to push the edges,” shrugged de Ramecourt, the reigning World Champion. “I have been too far back in my starts in regattas last year, so it’s OK if I get a UFD, I’m finding the level.”

Different statures

The two leading Frenchmen couldn’t be more different in stature, de Ramecourt weighing in around 80kg while Gomez is more around the 110kg mark. Perhaps over time the athletes will all move towards a more similar size, but right now it’s technique, fitness, courage and tactical intelligence that makes the difference in this brand new Olympic discipline.

Winter squad training appears to have gone well for the British squad in Formula Kite Women. Ellie Aldridge takes the lead after four races, two points ahead of her teammate Maddie Anderson. In third place is the reigning World Champion from the USA, Daniela Moroz.

iQ go long distance

The iQFOiL foiling windsurfers were out on the water early to beat the crowds for their 13 nautical mile long distance race. The Men and Women fleets set off ten minutes apart just after 9am on an upwind downwind loop of about three nautical miles.

France’s Hélène Noesmoen, World and European Champion, won the Women’s long distance iQFOiL race but after an hour of high speed upwind-downwind racing round the three miles loop in a gusty offshore breeze peaking at 25-26kts she was no more than 20 metres ahead of GBR’s charging Saskia Sills who was catching fast on the final leg.

A multiple youth world champion who made a point of completing an engineering degree, Noesmoen is a member of the SailGP France team. She opened with a 1,2,1 on Monday and is quickly stamping her authority on the class. “The long distance race was good, if a bit hard for everyone as the wind picked up a lot. I was always in the first pack and then on the second downwind I took the lead but at the finish line the British girl Saskia Sills was pushing me hard and finished close. There were only 20 metres in it.  But that is a good start for me for the week. It was one of the windiest races we have done since the beginning of the iQ. My best here on the RS:X was maybe a top 10 but I never made the podium. It is choppy here and so you really need to be focused on your foil.”

A strong statement from the French 49er

Having missed out on selection for Tokyo in favour of Emile Amoros and Lucas Rual the French 49er duo Erwan Fischer and Clément Pequin are doubly determined to represent their nation in just over two years’ time in Marseille. They are hoping that the fact the national flag for their new, black 3Di sails did not arrive and they are sailing on their well used, older sails, proves to be a good omen for this time. The French team made a strong statement of intent today with two solid wins in breezy conditions which, again, put a premium on avoiding capsizes.

Fischer and Pequin briefly tipped over in the first race but a quick recovery allowed the duo – who have been sailing together since 2018 – to stay in the hunt.

“We had 20-25kts which we like. It was pretty hard to keep the boat upright. We capsized during the bear away in the first race but recovered quickly. It was really choppy and shifty. We made good manoeuvres all the way through.

“We wanted to use the new sails but we had an issue with our national flag. It did not arrive. And so we sailed with the old sails which we know well. In these conditions it is not about speed – it is about surviving, with good manoeuvres and gybing safely.”

Fourteenth here in 2019 they have just finished third in the Mallorca Sailing Centre training regatta after a winter training in Vilamoura, Portugal.

“Our selection race for Tokyo was very strong and very close and in the end we did not go. For sure this regatta feels like the start of our passage to Marseille and I hope today is a good omen,”  smiled Fischer.

In the 49erFX the new Dutch combination of 2021 World champion, Odile Van Aanholt sailing with Tokyo bronze medallist Annette Duetz is off to a powerful start, sharing the overall lead after three races with Brazil’s double gold medallists Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze.

470 Italians fast-track their plans

It was on the plane back home from the Tokyo Games that Italy’s early leaders of the Mixed 470 class Giacomo Ferrari and Bianca Caruso pledged to team up together and campaign the new Olympic class. Childhood sailing friends from Rome who raced Optimists against each other in 2004, they recognised that with the short runway to the 2024 Olympic regatta, as Italy’s men’s and women’s 470 helm and crew in Tokyo, pairing up was a strong proposition. They count two firsts and a second to narrowly lead Spain’s bronze medal winning helm Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman.

“I was fourth in the Men’s fleet here in 2018 so I know the regatta well,” says helm Ferrari who was sixth in Tokyo with Giulio Calabro. “But here we are, with so little time before the next Games. We have to sail together a lot, a lot, a lot. We are super friends and know each other well. We are equal in the boat, it is a democracy. We have been friends so long we talk a lot. And this is a nice way to start our campaign.”

ILCA – Beckett on top, gold medallist back on form

Britain’s Michael Beckett moved to the top of the 180 boat ILCA 7 leaderboard after scoring 1, 2 in the Blue Group of Qualifying. Reigning Olympic Champion Matt Wearn, winner here in 2018, scored the reciprocal results of 2,1 in Blue Group but the Australian has risen only to 32nd overall in the 167 boat fleet after gear breakage caused a DNC on the opening day.

Beckett was pleased with his day but is expecting a much harder fight from tomorrow Wednesday when the top tier is reorganised into Gold Fleet racing. “None of it’s easy but in those conditions today the top five do start to stretch a bit of a gap after a while,” said Beckett. “Tomorrow it’s going to be much harder, the margins will be much smaller and the quality of the fleet will make it a bigger challenge.”

Jonatan Vadnai, from landlocked Lake Balaton, enjoyed the shifty conditions on the race course. “Sunshine, windy and shifty, my favourite!” said the Hungarian.

Canada’s Sarah Douglas revelled in the cold, gusty weather to score two bullets, a perfect follow-on from her second and first places from the opening day in the ILCA 6 class. Douglas holds a four-point lead over Hungary’s Mária Érdi who is two points in front of Maxime Jonker of the Netherlands.

Nacra 17, a steep learning curve

The first day results seem to suggest it is business as usual for Italy’s Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti as the 2020 Olympic champions rolled out a 2,1,1 from their first three races in the Nacra 17. Despite such a strong start, Tita admitted the 2018 world champions are still in the very early stages of developing their new rudder control system.

“It was a bit crazy out there. We are trying to learn this new rudder control system which makes the boat much faster so we did our best. We found a good mode for upwind on the foil but beyond that let us say it is a work in progress, it is still under development. We have sailed only three days in Cagliari with this system. For sure there is a lot of development still to come,” explained Tita who has an increased commitment to Italy’s Luna Rossa America’s Cup team. “It is a bit hard now with the America’s Cup now set to be in 2024 too. But for sure seeing the Cup coming to Barcelona, closer to home, is good news.”