RACING FROM THE BOATPARK
06 Apr 2022Changeable weather on the Bay of Palma might have finally brought some sunshine and warmer temperatures to the racing waters of the 51 Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca Olympic classes, but staying on top of the sizeable shifts in wind direction and pressure offered a whole new set of challenges to the huge fleet of racers after the first couple of days of cold offshore NE’ly winds.
A late arrival at the boat park forced Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman (ESP) to start racing even before the Spanish 470 crew had launched from the shore. It seemed to do them no harm whatsoever. “We were in race mode before the racing started,” laughed Brugman who with her Olympic bronze medallist helmsman went on to win both of the day’s Mixed 470 races.
The Spanish team have kept all their scores from the first six races in the top three, putting them in a comfortable lead ahead of the second-placed Italians, Giacomo Ferrari and Bianca Caruso. “We’re enjoying sailing with each other a lot,” said crew Caruso. “It’s hard work for me working the boat on the upwind and hard work for him pumping the boat on the downwind. The teamwork is going really well.”
Like the Italians, the third placed French team of Kevin Peponnet and Aloise Retornaz are a combination of two Tokyo 2020 Olympians who have come together for Paris 2024. A second and third place has the French sitting in third overall after what Peponnet described as a tiring day. “Those conditions demand the hardest effort in the 470 - hike hard, pump hard. I told Aloise at the end of the first race that I was completely out of energy, but we managed to have a really good day. But I think I'm getting a bit old for this,” he laughed.
“No you’re not,” retorted Retornaz, “you just need to go to the gym more!”