2026 470 European Championships Day 3: Xammar and Cardona take the lead
by International 470 Class Association 11 Mar 12:31 PDT
6-14 March 2026
2026 470 European Championships day 3 © International 470 Class Association
Today, the final racing began. Teams are competing in the gold and silver fleets under the new scoring system. After two races, the lead position is held by the Spanish duo of Jordi Xammar and Marta Cardona.
After two days of qualifiers, the real competition has now begun. Sailors are racing with the new scoring system. After five qualifying races, the results are discarded, and each team retains only the position it held after qualifying as a non-discardable point.
"We're definitely not very used to it. I think for us we're much more used to the last and final races being six, with the same points as the fourth and fifth races, but now there are two additional points involved. So in that sense it's a bit unlucky, but we'll have to see how it works out and how everyone likes the format," said Theresa Loffler from Germany.
"I think it's something new, so we have to try it, and we will give our opinion after the championship, but I think it's a good challenge," said Elena Berta from Italy.
Jordi Xammar and Marta Cardona advanced to first position. The Spanish duo crossed the line in the first race in fifth place and finished the day in the overall lead. They already have a six-point gap over the second-placed Italians, Elena Berta and Giulio Calabrò. The Italians had the same results as the leaders today, but the Spanish brought three points from the qualifiers, while the Italians brought nine.
In third place are the British team Martin Wrigley and Bettine Harris, who had the worst first race (13th place) but finished second in the second race. Giacomo Ferrari and Alessandra Dubbini are in fourth place in the overall standings. The points are still very close, and the level of competition is high.
"It was a very tight racing day. It was hard to make big gains in the fleet, and the start was quite important. Actually, we had two not-so-great starts, if I'm being honest, so there was a lot of fighting afterwards to come back," said Christopher Hoerr, who is currently fifth.
Vilamoura brings different sailing conditions every day. Today the wind dropped, and the race committee decided to end racing after two starts. Sailors had to deal with light, shifty, and gusty wind conditions.
"Today we had light wind, only one upwind leg with pumping, and it was not too difficult yet, but we managed it very well," added Giulio Calabrò.
"It was like the heating and the nice weather caused thermal development, which destroyed the wind that was there before, and in the end it simply wasn't enough anymore, unfortunately. I think tomorrow might be a good day for three races," said Christopher from Germany.
New scoring system in 470 Europeans
Qualifying
After five qualifying races, the results are discarded, and each team retains only the position it held after the qualifying series as non-discardable points.
For example, if a team finishes the qualifiers in 10th place, it enters the finals with 10 points and starts the finals ranked 10th overall. These points cannot be discarded. Teams, therefore, carry forward their qualifying series position as points.
Final Series
There will be seven races in the gold and silver fleets. After the third race, the worst result from the finals will be discarded. The top 10 teams after the finals qualify for the Medal Series.
Medal Series
The Medal Series will consist of two races, both non-discard-able (maximum 30 minutes per race). The top three teams keep their points if the gap between them is less than nine points. If the gap exceeds 9 points, it will be reduced to 9 points. From third to tenth place, a special points system will apply so that all teams still have a chance to win a medal. The gap between 3rd and 10th place will be reduced to a maximum of 18 points.
Full results can be found here.
More information at 470.org