More than 560 crews from 54 countries have already pre-registered for the 52 Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca. In the history of Mallorca’s classic Olympic class regatta this is already an unprecedented level of interest in the showcase regatta which runs from 29th March to 8th April.
The first counting regatta for the Sailing World Cup 2023 looks set to break all participation records. With exactly two months to go until the start of the 52 Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca, the number of pre-registrations is already more than 500, an unprecedented level across the long and storied history of the world’s leading Olympic class regatta.
Since the publication of the Notice of Race officially opened registration of entries back on December 15th, the steady stream of pre-registrations has never stopped. And so in the offices of the Organising Committee there is a growing belief that the previous high point will be exceeded.
“We have never had such a big number of pre-registrations just a month and a half after publishing the Notice of Race and still with two months to go until the start of the event,” says Ferran Muniesa, Technical Director of the Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca. “This is excellent news for the event and encourages us to continue working for and with the sailors.”
At the time of publishing this information, 568 teams of 54 nationalities have formalised their pre-registration, a figure which is considerably higher than the 382 teams pre-registered at two months before the start of the 2022 edition.
Among the ten classes that will compete in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, ILCA 7 (130 pre-registered) and ILCA 6 (89) are the ones with the highest number of teams as of 31 January, followed by Formula Kite Men (75), 49er (45), Nacra 17 (44), iQFOiL Women (42), iQFOiL Men (40), 49er FX (39), Formula Kite Women and 470 Mixed (both with 32).
In Muniesa’s opinion, there are several factors contributing to the high level of participation expected for this edition: “On the one hand, the exceptional nature of this unusually short Olympic cycle due to the pandemic puts extra pressure on the sailors and the federations of the countries in the allocation of places, we are in a pre-Olympic year and the Sofia is the first multi-class event qualifying for the Sailing World Cup 2023. And remember that the Asian countries that could not come in 2022 because their borders remained closed and they are coming back. Last year we had almost 800 boats and more than a thousand sailors from 64 nationalities, and although it is too early to really talk about records, the indications are that 2023’s regatta will be an exceptional edition.”
The complete entry list is available here.
The 2023 Sailing World Cup 52 Trofeo S.A.R. Princesa Sofía Mallorca is jointly organised by the Club Nàutic S’Arenal, the Club Marítimo San Antonio de la Playa, the Real Club Náutico de Palma, the Real Federación Española de Vela and the Federación Balear de Vela, with the backing of World Sailing and the main Balearic public institutions.
