Links Event website Skandia Team GBR Princess Sofia Trophy web pages RYA press release About The Princess Sofia Trophy is the first event of the European racing season, Held in the bay of Palma Majorica it has become one the most popular events on the circuit. Despite the numbers of boats and it's competitive nature it remains a grade 2 regatta. However ISAF are planning a new world cup circuit and this event will form the first European leg of that circuit which also takes in Melbourne, Miami, Heyeres, Holland and keil.

About The Racing Event Format and the course There are up to 16 races in a 49er competition each race is approximately 5 miles long with a ‘target time’ of 30 minutes the length of the course is adjusted to suit the wind strength. The course is shaped like a sausage, inflatable marks are used to define the course, the rules state that boats are not allowed to hit these marks. There are three marks. After the start boats travel ‘upwind’ to the first mark. After rounding this mark they hoist spinnakers to go ‘downwind’ towards a choice of two marks. These two marks are set about 30 – 50 meters apart, boats must pass between these two marks, they form what is known as a ‘gate’. This creates a big tactical choice and many places can be won or lost at this point. The manouveres that boats must perform at this point are at there most difficult,in every sense it is a very challenging part of the course. Then it is back ‘upwind’ to the first mark and then a quick sprint to the finish. Three or four races will typically be run each day with the regatta being spread over 5 – 6 days. The exception to this is the Olympics were the event runs over an extended period up to 12 days. The Olympics are slightly different as there is just one entry per nation and a restriction of 20 nations. There are often 60 - 100 entrys and these are split into smaller fleets of 25 boats. The competition consists of what are known as ‘series’ The first half of the regatta is known as the qualification series where the the comeptitors are seeded into seperate fleets. Initially competitors are split in to fleets on the basis of their world rankings. After each subsequent day of racing the fleets are re split to try and get an even spread of competitors racing against each other. After 12 races or 3 days the overall standings are used to split the competitors into the final fleets. The top 25 will go into the Gold fleet, the second 25 into the Silver fleet and the remainder into the Bronze fleet. The second half is then known as the ‘final series’ which consist of a further 11 races. After the 11th race the fleet is again split. This time the top ten go forward to the ‘Grand Final’. The Grand Final is the last race where the top ten boats fight it out for the overall places. There is greater emphasis on this race as it is scored with double points ( see scoring ) This final is used in the Olympics as well. Scoring Each race result is scored and the overall places are decided on the accumulated points from these races. Low point scoring is used were 1st place is scored one point, 2nd two points, 3rd three points and so on. However the worst two results can be excluded from the accumulated points score. This is called the discard one can be excluded from the qualification series and one from the final series. This continues until the Grand final. The score in the Grand Final must be included in the points score. It also counts for double points so that 1st place gets 2 points, 2nd four points, 3rd six points and so on. This means that the grand final can quite significanly effect the overall results.