470 Class at 55th Trofeo Princesa Sofia - Day 5
by International 470 Class Association 4 Apr 00:17 PDT
30 March - 4 April 2026
The final day of the elimination series concluded in excellent conditions in the Bay of Palma. Despite a short delay in the morning, two races were completed smoothly, setting the stage for the Medal Series.
Jordi Xammar and Marta Cardona (ESP) continue to deliver a strong and consistent performance. The Spanish duo maintained their lead and preserved a solid points advantage at the top of the standings.
The day began with another race win for Martin Wrigley and Bettine Harris. After winning the opening race of the day, they secured second place in the next race, reinforcing their position in the overall ranking. They currently sit in second place, five points behind the leaders.
We've had possibly some of the worst moments we've had in the last three years in this regatta, and also some of the better moments. Coming back on day two to get to first after the worst starts of the week you could possibly imagine was pretty nice. And then it's just been such a challenging week of conditions, conditions we've probably not really seen that much in Palma over recent years. So yeah, it's been wild, been a wild ride, said Martin Wrigley.
The French team of Manon Pennaneac'h and Pierre Williot delivered an outstanding performance. They showed clear improvement in the final series compared to the qualification rounds, moving up to third place overall. The sailors highlighted that the conditions suited them well and emphasized their strong physical effort and solid race execution.
It was very nice. I think it was our conditions. We pumped a lot and we gave all we had physically, and it was great. It looked like we were having a very great time on the water. The first race was very good because we had great speed, and we did a great start, said Pennaneac'h.
In fourth place, just one point behind, are fellow French sailors Matisse Pacaud and Lucie de Gennes, who finished the day on a high note with a victory in the final race.
The top 10 teams have now been confirmed and will compete in the Medal Series. The start is planned for 1:30 (April 4th).
In the Silver Fleet, Theres Dahnke and Paco Melzer from Germany dominated the racing. After a challenging start to the regatta and missing out on the Gold Fleet, they used the remaining races effectively to refine their performance. With consistent results and a focused approach, they turned the Silver Fleet into a valuable competitive and training opportunity.
Yeah, it was quite hard for us in the first two days and the qualification to get into the rhythm. So we had okay-ish races, but that's not enough to get into the gold fleet. If there were just 25 boats were quite unlucky, and then we were 27th after the second day, said Theres Dahne.
We accepted it as we had to. But we used the silver fleet fairly well, I think, for training. The competition was good, and also the winds, and therefore it was still a pretty good regatta for training. We are really pushing forward, but of course this will now be a regatta to make the next step in the right direction. We couldn't do that, so we just tried to do what we were aiming for, and now in the silver fleet, we are taking a little bit more risk and really going for the race wins. So yeah, just race focus, race mind, said Melzer.
Full results here.