The 52nd Princess Sofia Trophy 2023 begins

After six days of thrilling competition, the winners of the Trofeo Princesa Sofia, the first race of the Sailing World Cup, were announced.

The star of the trophy, not least because of his young age, was Max Maeder. The 16 year old from Singapore rounded off his pleasing participation with the overall winner's trophy.

Another winner of the week was undoubtedly United Kingdom. With four golds and two silvers, they were the most victorious country in the competition. They beat France and New Zealand, who both won 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals.

On the other hand, Spain did not have a good result overall. Since we could only get one medal out of ten possible and it was a bronze medal in 470 mixed in which Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman climbed the podium for third place.

Here are the winners of the 10 Olympic categories of the 52 Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca by Iberostar:

On Friday March 31 began in the Real Club Nautico de Palma in the bay of Palma de Mallorca the renowned Princess Sofia Trophy.  

Right now this trophy has special importance due to the proximity of the Olympic Games, the best athletes of Olympic sailing will compete against each other, a preview of what can happen in Paris in 2024.

International regatta

This trophy is very important because it is an international regatta that brings together participants from all over the world. In this edition, there are more than 1000 boats and more than 1000 athletes who travel to Palma de Mallorca from many cities in Spain and countries such as Belgium, France, Sweden, Poland, Finland and Portugal, among others. 104 sailors are Spanish, of which 40 are women and 64 men.

This year will be the largest edition with more than 1,300 sailors from 67 countries.

In this 52nd edition there is a great novelty, the incorporation of J/70 and 6 Meters monotypes. These join the already existing J/80 and Dragon. These monotypes were the first to compete on Friday.

6m and Dragon 

The idea was to carry out a total of 9 races during the whole weekend, 3 each day (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). However, due to the weather conditions, the 6m and dragon monotypes could not make it. The wind gusts were so strong that they could not go out to sail, so the winners were chosen on the basis of the tests completed on the previous day.

In Dragon, the victory went to MR. Nova of Jorge Foteza and in 6 meters it was for Violeta Alvarez's Stella.

In J/70 and J/80 

In J/70 there was a tremendous duel between Luis Albert's Patakin and Jorge Martinez's Hang Ten. They were very evenly matched until the last race in which Patakin finally won.  

While in the J/80 the victory was clearer since from the first day they were in the lead, so El Sal took the victory in its corresponding category.

ORC 

On Saturday and Sunday the ORC cruisers competed in a coastal race with two windward/upwind legs, the total course was almost 20 miles. This category brings together the longest boats of the Princess Sofia Trophy. In this edition, this race is a qualifying regatta for the ORC Spanish Championship and scoring for the RCNP Regatta League.

In the ORC 1-3 class there was a surprise, the leaders were Immac Fram but due to the conditions they withdrew from the race, they did not want to go out sailing. So Santina took the win of the category.  

In the ORC 4-5 class the best classified and therefore the one that conquered the first place was Mark Sadler's Abracadabra.

In the ORC A2 category the champion was the same as on the previous day, Ana Majada's Kyo V remained in first place.

The 52 Trofeo Princesa Sofia is the first qualifying race for the Sailing World Cup 2023, the illustrious Olympic sailing circuit.

Olympic Regattas 

Today, Monday April 3rd is the first day of the Olympic regattas, and these will last until the last day, Saturday April 8th. The 10 Olympic classes that will also compete at the Olympic Games in Paris are now competing. For this purpose, 8 regatta courses have been set up in Mallorca.

We will enjoy again the iQFOiL and Formula Kite, which debuted last year and bring a plus of spectacle and show to the Olympic regattas.  

The Olympic categories competing in this regatta are ILCA 7, Formula Kite Men, ILCA 6, iQFOiL Men, 49er, iQFOiL Women, 470 Mixed, 49er FX, Nacra 17 and Formula Kite Women.