Ireland’s Laser sailors made strong starts to the first major regatta of the Los Angeles Olympics two-year countdown in Mallorca on Monday where fickle winds ruled the waves.
The Princess Sofia Trophy on the Bay of Palma is the opening event of the Sailing Grand Slam series for Olympic classes and over 1,000 athletes are competing in a fleet of over 800 boats.
Competing in the ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 classes, Paris Olympian Eve McMahon was pleased with her opening race where she scored a fifth place.
After seven hours on the water, she was almost as happy to be ashore ahead of the huge fleet to get her boat and sails hosed down. Her event has attracted 142 competitors in one of the largest turnouts ever.
RM Block
“It was a pretty chaotic day but the race I got and the position [means] I’m pretty happy,” said McMahon, who is currently ranked seventh in the world. “I’ve put in a massive shift during the winter time and I’ve been really happy with my training so far.
“I think there’s more to give ... more to gain. I’m definitely not at my peak yet but the tempo for my sailing at the moment is pretty high.”
If seven hours on the water was testing for the ILCA 6 sailors, there was a more gruelling slog for the men’s series that eventually got a second race sailed as the winds freshened closer to forecast.
The late second race saw Ireland’s Finn Lynch, the world number three ranked sailor, deliver a very strong performance as he added a second place to his sixth from the opening contest of the series.
The Carlow sailor is in the same preliminary round fleet as Matt Wearn, the Australian world champion and Paris Olympic Gold medallist who won the second race and holds the overall lead in the 197-boat event.
Meanwhile, there was a disappointing start to the series for double Olympians Rob Dickson and Seán Waddilove in the men’s skiff 49er class as they placed behind Ben O’Shaughnessy and Ethan Spain from Cork, recent newcomers to senior level competition.
However, across the Irish squad in Palma, expectations are that this is not intended to be a peak performance event according to Rory Fitzpatrick, technical director for Irish Sailing.
“In terms of goals for the week, a lot of the senior guys are coming out of their winter training phases and it always makes this first event of the year feel like it’s a peak [event],” he said. “While it’s not a peak it is a big event, everyone will want to be challenging at the pointy end of the fleet for this regatta but they’ll all have work-ons.”
