Trofeo Princess Sofia regatta day 1 for US Sailing Team + Videos

by Dana Paxton on 3 Apr 2012 US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics began the Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta today, with Zach Railey sitting in sixth overall in the Finn class and all three of the USA’s Women’s Match Racing teams sitting at the top of their round robin groups.

There was a brief delay waiting for the wind to fill in over the bay in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

Fresh off a silver-medal performance at US Sailing’s 2012 Rolex Miami OCR, in January, 49er team of Erik Stock (Huntington, N.Y.) and Trevor Moore (N. Pomfret, Vt./Naples, Fla.) began the series with three races -- 11th, third and ninth – to put them into eighth overall in the 76-boat high-performance class.

Zach Railey scored a fourth and 14th to sit in fourth overall in the Finn class. The heavyweight dinghy class has a total of 57 entries. 'It was a solid first day,' said Railey. 'We feel the boat is going really fast. I had a big comeback in the second race; with an unfortunate decision I made in the first beat.'



In Group A of Women’s Match Racing, the round robin kicked off with Anna Tunnicliffe’s 'Team Maclaren' of Molly Vandemoer and Debbie Capozzi and Sally Barkow’s 'Team 7 Match Race' of Alana O’Reilly and Elizabeth Kratzig Burnham tied at the top with three wins and one loss. Barkow’s team is the defending champion. In Group B, Genny Tulloch, Jenn Chamberlin and Alice Manard Leonard had a disappointing day, losing both matches to Spain and GBR. Round robin racing continues on April 3 with Group B starting first.

Kenneth Andreasen (Tampa, Fla.), US Sailing’s High Performance Director/Head Coach, on the importance of this event to the Team’s preparation for the 2012 Games. 'This is crunch time before the Olympic and Paralympic Games. We are making sure we are putting the final touches on our mental and physical shape, and this is the first test of that plan.'



Rob Crane on his coach Leandro Spina (Miami, Fla.), US Sailing Olympic Coach, and Palma: 'So far we’ve been on the water here together for seven days. We are still feeling out the relationship, but it’s going well so far. Palma is a great place to bike. I’ve done about 300 miles since I’ve been here.: For a full interview with Crane along with Laser Radial sailor Paige Railey: http://youtu.be/A-ogCYiMvFk Provisional results in the remaining classes: Rob Crane is in 77th overall in the Laser; Mark LeBlanc ninth in the 2.4mR; Stu McNay and Graham Biehl are 17th in Men’s 470; Amanda Clark and Sarah Lihan 16th in Women’s 470; Paige Railey 56th in Laser Radial.



Full results online: http://www.trofeoprincesasofia.org/en/default/laregata/vertodoslosresultados

US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics website