Irish Sailing Team head to Mallorca for the first major test of 2022
The Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca is the first major test of the 2022 season for the Irish Sailing teams aspiring to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Competing for Ireland in the week-long regatta (Monday 4 to Saturday 9 April) are Finn Lynch and Ewan McMahon in the ILCA 7 (Laser). Finn finished in 4th place in the 2019 regatta. Racing for the Lasers starts on Monday 4 April.
Starting a day later are the 49er Olympians Robert Dickson and Seán Waddilove, and teammates Séafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan in their first major competition together. The Team have been training for much of the winter out of the Performance HQ in Dun Laoghaire.
This event is the first time that the 49er class can use new regulation equipment for Paris 2024 which includes the use of 3Di technology sails with their characteristic black colour.
Irish Sailing Performance Director James O’Callaghan commented “while Palma itself is not important in terms of results, it’s important in that it punctuates the end of the winter training period and we’re now officially in the racing season. The sailors will be focusing on getting rid of any race rustiness in preparation for their peak events later on in the year”.
The Princesa Sofia will be the inaugural event in the 2022 Hempel World Cup Series and is the first key event in the preparation for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. This guarantees a large international presence in Palma Bay, Mallorca, with an expected 900 sailors representing 55 countries over the 10 Olympic classes.
The long week of racing starts for the ILCA 7 on Monday 4 April, followed by the 49ers on Tuesday 5 April. Both classes finish on Saturday 9 April. The Lasers have a maximum of 10 races in total, or two per day over five days, ending in a medal race on Saturday 9 April. Each race lasts approximately one hour. The 49ers have a maximum of 12 races, 3 on each day (4 days of racing), each lasting about 45 minutes, and ending with a medal race on Saturday.
Weather conditions in Palma at this time of year are in the mid-20 degree Celsius, with typically southerly winds.