Location: Palma, Mallorca
Dates: March 13-15 & March 30 - April 4
After a week training back at home, I flew over to Palma at the beginning of March for two regattas: the Mallorca Sailing Centre (MSC) Regatta as a tune-up, followed by the Princesa Sofia Regatta, the opener of this year's Grand Slam Series.
The MSC Regatta - A Step Forward
The MSC Regatta is a good warmup before Sofia, and this year was no exception. This was my first year heading out to Palma early for this event. The entry list included a number of Olympic and world champions, so the 68-boat fleet punched well above its size. We only managed to get four races in before strong winds shut the final day down, but it was enough to put together a consistent event. I finished 8th overall, which was an encouraging result coming off the winter and a good sign that the work has been translating.
Princesa Sofia Regatta - Sailing Season Kicks Off
After a couple of rest days on the island, Vaughn flew in and we got another week of training in before Palma. Over 200 ILCA 7s signed up this year, and the regatta organisers had also tweaked the format for 2026. The "opening series" has been rebranded as the Preliminary Series: 4–5 races, one drop, but instead of points carrying into the qualification series, only your rank carries over as an undroppable race. They also cut the Gold fleet down to 50 boats instead of the usual ~65. The Qualification Series stays roughly the same, Gold/Silver/Bronze splits with a target of 7 races and a drop. The medal race has been replaced with a Final Series: still just the top 10, but now two races instead of a single double-points medal race, with the points compressed before the final stage so everyone in the top 10 has a shot at a medal.
A 200 strong ILCA 7 fleet for the 55th Trofeo Princesa Sofia Regatta.
Racing kicked off Monday, March 29th. The first two days of preliminaries were a grind, north of 16 hours on the water between general recalls, huge shifts in the cold offshore breeze, and abandoned races. We ended up with our 5 preliminary races and then some; two additional races on day one got binned in the second half after the wind collapsed in one and shifted far to the left in the other. I was in strong positions in those abandoned races and put together a 12th in Race 3, but it wasn’t near enough to squeeze into the 50-boat Gold fleet. That dropped me into a 75-boat Silver fleet for the qualification series, which was its own experience, racing that many boats when the rules and start line is more lax is certainly interesting.
Long days and tough conditions but coming away with good learning.
The first day of the finals series had similar cold offshore conditions and I had a solid day. The last two days were a different story: a strong seabreeze-boosted gradient from the right side of the bay that I just couldn't find a rhythm in. I finished the regatta in 93rd overall, which is not where I wanted to be at the first major event of the season.
Not the start I was hoping for, but there's a lot to take away from the week. My speed felt genuinely good through the regatta, that's a big one, especially as I'm still carrying a bit of a weight deficit from the sickness I picked up in Vilamoura. Vaughn and I came off the water with a clear list of things to work on, particularly around starting position decisions and leverage management. It's a long road to the Worlds in August, and this block gave us the information we needed to point the rest of the season in the right direction.
RESULTS
Road to LA 2028: Next Up, High Wind Training Block
