Sofía racers head into final chance to make Saturday’s medal finale

Rights: Trofeo Princesa Sofia

Price is right….

55th Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca. March 30th till April 4th 2026.
© Sailing Energy / Princesa Sofía Mallorca

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In the 49er Skiff class the lead has alternated between top duos from the USA and Australia who spent time training together within a big group working out of Torbay, north of Auckland. After today’s three Elimination Series races it is Sydney’s Harry Price and Max Paul who are into their second season together who lead by three points. The pair joined up as friends and champions from the same 18ft Skiff, Price confirming they have come a long way since last year’s Sofía where they finished 31^st.

They won the day’s first heat and finished second in the next to overhaul their American counterparts Nevin Snow and Ian MacDiarmid who held the overnight lead.

Sixth last year at only their first regatta together Snow and MacDiarmid are intent on matching or improving on the 2024 Paris bronze medal of friends Ian Barrows and Hans Henken who in Marseilles delivered the USA’s first sailing medal since 2016.

Snow highlights, “One of the reasons I have stuck with this is that my friends won a medal at the last Games and I want what they now have. I was not that far behind them, I know that. And to see them finish with a medal means we keep going. And for me the Olympics in Los Angeles is all but a home games, I grew up in San Diego and it is not that far away.”

He adds, “We had our first tough race of the regatta today. We got on the wrong side of a shift and struggled to get our way out of it. But we are generally happy. You have to have a short memory after a day like today. So we put it behind us and go and have a good coffee in Palma and get ready for tomorrow. We were all in New Zealand training together at Torbay Beach north of Auckland. We had 15 or 20 boats it was a great training group and we had amazing conditions.”

Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca by Fergus Hotels
02 April, 2026
© Sailing Energy

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Price, who has taken to the Olympic trail after a successes in the 18 footer as well as Match Racing, remains objective about leading the regatta into the penultimate day, indeed he admits he did not even know the Medal Race finale has changed until he was told a couple of days ago.

He grinned, “I did not even know there was a new format until yesterday, someone told me! This is my first time up here near the front of the fleet so I am happy either way. If you had a big lead you’d be against it (the two race, single points medal final). But we have to keep the racing tight and exciting and keep the fans happy. We take it day by day. We are happy to be going how we are going at the moment but there is still plenty to be working on. We need to be more comfortable in the boat. It is nice to pick the shifts but holding a tight lane and grinding it out is what this fleet is all about. With it being so shifty it is actually hard to determine how this fleet is and where we are, you can get ahead but you can get behind just as easily.”

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Spain lead in the 49erFX

In the Women’s Skiff, local Arenal helm Paula Barceló and Canarian Maria Cantero have earned a slender, one point lead after a consistent 7-5-7 day achieved in the shifty conditions, narrowly ahead of Canada’s Georgia and Antonia Lewin-Lafrance.
Barceló, who lives minutes from the Arenal club but lives this week at the team hotel, said: “ We had super unstable conditions with a different wind in every race. We managed to stay consistent all day by not taking too many risks—not going off looking for big gains in so doing avoiding losses. In the end, I think that strategy really paid off.”

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Nacra 17: Up-and-down day keeps leaderboard tight

In the Nacra 17 fleet at the Trofeo Princesa Sofía, Day 4 delivered a real mix of results for all the top teams, with the shifty conditions in Palma making consistency hard to find.

Sweden’s Emil Järudd and Hanna Jonsson remain in the overall lead on 7 points, but like the rest of the fleet they had a varied day, combining two strong finishes with a deeper score.

Argentina’s Mateo Majdalani and Eugenia Bosco also had a mix of results, showing their speed with two top 5 results but retired from the first race. They sit second overall and still well within reach of the lead.

France’s Tim Mourniac and Aloïse Retornaz are third, improving as the day went on after starting with an eighth place in the first race before posting stronger results in the next two races, including the final race win, as they found better rhythm in the shifting breeze.

The same story runs through the rest of the top group. Sweden’s Ida Svensson and Marcus Dackhammar, Türkiye’s Sinem Kurtbay and Alican Kaynar, and Britain’s John Gimson with Anna Burnet all posted a combination of high and low scores, underlining just how unpredictable the racing was.

With no team able to fully control the day, the standings remain close and open heading into the final stages, where putting together a clean series of races will be key tomorrow.