NZL Sailing Team Womens iQFoil sailor wins Day 3 of the Princesa Sofia Regatta

Veerle ten Have (NZL)- Womens iQFoil - Day 3 - Trofeo Princesa Sofia - April 2022 © Sailing Energy

The New Zealand sailors are hanging tough at the Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma after a day highlighted by a first ever race win for Veerle ten Have in her first international windfoiling event.

The iQFoil will make its debut at the 2024 Paris Olympics, replacing the RS:X, and the New Zealand windfoiling squad are dipping their toes in the international waters for the first time after two years restricted to training at home.

Ten Have won one of today's slalom races, a format she doesn't have that much experience in, and remains in 10th overall in the 74-strong women's fleet.

Two other New Zealand boats are in the top 10 - Tom Saunders is ninth in the ILCA 7 (Laser) and Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson are ninth in the Nacra 17 - while a handful of others are still in contention as the regatta reached its halfway mark.

Ten Have said her race win today, on top of her third in yesterday's marathon race, had given her a lot of belief that she can foot it against the best.

"It's definitely a confidence boost," she said. "It shows I'm capable of winning races, that I'm not just fast and I can piece it all together to get the results I want.

"I made a couple of mistakes in the first two slalom races today but in the last race I got off to a good start and worked hard to keep out in front. It was so good [to win], totally rewarding. When I crossed the line it was like a finally moment. I knew I was capable of winning races."

Thomas Crook also won a race in silver fleet and is 54th overall while Josh Armit is 29th in gold fleet.

Saunders will be looking to make a move tomorrow in the ILCA 7 and is still well in contention with two more days of fleet racing before the top-10 medal race. The world champion posted a ninth and 19th in his two races today, the first day of gold fleet racing, which took place after a long delay as the race committee waited for the rain to clear and wind to settle.

"It was pretty shifty conditions and I seem to be making pretty hard work of it all," he said. "I'm still struggling to get off that start line, which is starting to become a little bit of an issue. It's frustrating. Other than that, I seem to be sailing around the race track pretty well.

"I'm getting myself back into some good positions but not quite executing the starts so far. Hopefully I clean that up tomorrow and give myself more opportunities to race up the front."

George Gautrey, who had a near faultless day yesterday, struggled today and fell out of contention.

"It was a rough, old day for me," he said. "I had a few jitters not having done it for a while so hopefully I can turn it around in the next couple of days. This is the first regatta of a long tour so I have plenty of time to pull things back together."

The Princess Sofia Regatta represents the first international event for some time for most of the Kiwi contingent - in some cases their first in more than two years and for others their first at this level. It's also the start of a long European campaign as they work towards their class world championships later in the year.

Alex Maloney has formed a new partnership with Olivia Hobbs in the 49erFX and the pair have enjoyed some good moments over the last couple of days. They made life difficult for themselves in today's first race, being forced to complete a couple of penalty turns after a good start, but have done enough to move through to gold fleet.

"We're really excited to be moving into gold fleet tomorrow and keen to start shaking more of the racing rust off as we progress into the event," Maloney said.

Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie are 14th in the 49er fleet but only six points off third and Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn are another four points behind in 20th.

Results and standings after day 3 of the Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma:

ILCA 7 (165 boats)

1st: Jean-Baptiste Bernaz (FRA) 3 2 2 1 (11) 4 - 12 points 2nd: Phillip Buhl (GER) 1 2 7 2 (21) 1 - 13 pts 3rd: Pavlos Contides (CYP) 1 1 2 4 (20) 9 - 17 pts

9th: Tom Saunders (NZL) 4 10 3 5 9 (19) - 31 pts 50th: George Gautrey (NZL) 17 (56 DNF) 1 2 41 49 - 110 pts 95th: Luke Cashmore (NZL) 29 27 36 33 11 (42) - 136 pts 96th: Luke Deegan (NZL) 33 28 36 26 15 (39) - 138 pts

ILCA 6 (89 boats)

1st: Sarah Douglas (CAN) 2 - 2 1 1 1 (46 UFD) 2 - 7 pts 2nd: Vaeileia Karachaliou (GRE) 7 5 2 4 3 (8) - 21 pts 3rd: Anna Munch (DEN) 4 6 5 2 5 (26) - 22 pts

41st: Olivia Christie (NZL) 10 24 22 23 (33) 24 - 103 pts

Men's iQFoil (111 boards)

1st: Andrew Brown (GBR) 4 2 1 (6) 1 1 3 (7) 1 1 - 14 pts 2nd: Nicolo Renna (ITA) 3 (7) 3 2 3 3 2 (10) 1 1 - 18 pts 3rd: Luuc van Opzeeland (NED) 1 (8) (14) 5 0.5 0.5 3 2 3 7 - 22 pts

29th: Josh Armit (NZL) 13 (27) 17 17 9 9 10 22 9 (35 BFD) - 119 pts 54th: Thomas Crook (NZL) 7 (52 DNF) 29 18 STP 51 NSC 51 NSC 24 8 1 15 - 153 pts 57th: Eli Liefting (NZL) 30 35 (52 DNC) 52 DNC 13.5 13.5 29 24 3 7 - 155 pts 97th: Antonio Cozzolino (NZL) (52 DNC) 52 DNC 22 52 DNC 51 DNC 51 DNC 52 DNC 52 DNC 35 DNC 35 DNC - 352 pts

Women's iQFoil (74 boards)

1st: Helene Noesmoen (FRA) (17) 1 2 1 1 1 (14) 2 1 5 1 - 15 pts 2nd: Islay Watson (GBR) 4 (22) (17) 5 5 5 1 5 1 3 1 - 30 pts 3rd: Shachar Reshef (ISR) 3 3 1 3 10 (10) 3 1 (39 DNC) 7 5 - 36 pts

10th: Veerle ten Have (NZL) (21) 16 10 13 3 3 10 (46) 7 13 1 - 76 pts 56th: Brianna Orams (NZL) (75 DNF) 59 54 55 40 40 (75 DNC) 75 DNC 23 23 25 - 394 pts

49er (76 boats)

1st: Erwan Fischer / Clemen Pequin (FRA) 1 1 1 (15) 2 - 5 pts 2nd: Jakob Meggendorfer / Andreas Spranger (GER) (4) 1 1 2 2 - 6 pts 3rd: Mathias Berthet / Jeppe Nilsen (NOR) 3 2 8 (11) 4 - 17 pts

14th: Isaac McHardie / William McKenzie (NZL) (27 DNC) 4 2 11 6 - 23 pts 20th: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) 10 2 9 (12) 6 - 27 pts 51st: Sam Bacon / Henry Gautrey (NZL) (27) 16 21 14 13 - 64 pts

49erFX (56 boats)

1st: Odile van Aanholt / Anette Duetz (NED) 4 1 2 (19) 2 - 9 pts 2nd: Martine Grael / Kahena Kunze (BRA) 2 1 6 (15) 1 - 10 pts 3rd: Sophie Steinlein / Marie Thusgaard Olsen (GER) 5 2 (8) 1 4 - 12 pts

23rd: Alex Maloney / Olivia Hobbs (NZL) 14 7 8 (21) 8 - 37 pts

Nacra 17 (38 boats)

1st: Ruggero Tita / Caterina Banti (ITA) (2) 1 1 2 1 - 5 pts 2nd: Gianluigi Ugolini / Maria Giubilei (ITA) 1 4 3 (10) 3 - 11 pts 3rd: Sinem Kurtbay / Akseli Keskinen (FIN) 3 2 2 (7) 7 - 14 pts

9th: Micah Wilkinson / Erica Dawson (NZL) 6 (13) 6 13 9 - 34 pts

Full results www.trofeoprincesasofia.org/race-resultsall