Beckett celebrates as nine classes prepare for Saturday’s grand finale

“Winning for a fourth time here is actually much, much more important to me than I was saying at the start of the week” grinned a visibly relieved Beckett.

Incredibly the 30-year-old Welsh sailor has won with a day to spare three out of four times and today triumphs in a fleet which includes both the Paris 2024 silver and bronze medal winners Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus and Stefano Peschiera of Peru.

The standard in both the Men’s ILCA 7 and Women’s ILCA 6 is high and there is no post-Olympics slump in numbers, especially with the World Championships in Qingdao, China in just six weeks. The two one-design singlehander classes account for 288 entries in total, 174 men and 114 women representing over 40 nations.

Ireland’s Finn Lynch had a strong final day to move up to second ahead of Italy’s Lorenzo Chiavarini who is third.

The Women’s ILCA 6 is wide open going into the Medal Race Australia’s Zoe Thomson, runner up in 2023, leads by three points ahead of Brit Daisy Collingwood. Maria Erdí, Hungary’s past world champion and class winner here last year, withdrew whilst leading overall. Coming back from debilitating back injury which compromised her Olympic medal challenge, Erdí is clearly on the mend and will be a threat at the ILCA 6 worlds.

France’s 49er Men’s Skiff World Champions Erwan Fischer and Clément Péquin go into their 10-boat double points Medal showdown with a 21 points cushion, only needing to start and finish cleanly to be assured of collecting the Men’s Skiff title. German duo Richard Schultheis and Fabian Riegler are also well set for a medal.

Leaders in the FX Freya Black and Saskia Tidey carry a ten-point lead into the medal race, whilst in the Nacra 17 the Sofía title is wide open, the Italian pair Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei have led the class most of the week but are now only three points ahead.

In the Mixed 470 class Britons Martin Wrigley and Bettine Harris are 18 points clear at the top of the standings, on the cusp of their biggest win as a duo.

Martin Wrigley and Bettine Harris are in the box seats to win the Mixed 470 division after a solid last day saw them consolidate their lead ahead.

“We are so happy. We are not there yet but we have to just go out tomorrow and make sure we don’t snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.” Wrigley enthused, “We had such a short season last year. It ended early because we lost the trials and so to come here and start the cycle strong is great. All we could ask for is to lead going into the Medal Race. I was ill last year and missed this regatta and Bea has been ill recently, so we have not had much sailing at all, so we are happy. We seem to have got to the top mark in good shape many times and that has helped.”

In iQFOils Grae Morris of Australia and Britain’s outstanding Emma Wilson carry the leaders’ advantage into the Final as do Max Maeder of Singapore and China’s Wan Li in the Kites.

The first starts are at 1100hrs Saturday.

The 54 Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca by FERGUS Hotels 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 support of World Sailing, and is co-financed by the Govern de les Illes Balears’ Sustainable Tourism Tax fund.

More information at www.trofeoprincesasofia.org

The event is part of the Sailing Grand Slam 2025, along with the Semaine Olympique Française, the Dutch Water Week, the Kieler Woche and the Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta.

More information at www.sailinggrandslam.com