British win in Palma

09/04/2023

In a wind oscillating between 7 and 12 knots, the British Emma Wilson and Sam Sills won the Trofeo Princesa Sofia in the Balearic Islands on Saturday at the end of the medal races and resisted the enormous pressure of the last day.

Cornwall bred naval architect and green tech specialist Sills also led in the early stages here last year but more recently led both the iQFOiL events in Lanzarote in January and February but they ran way from him. Saturday he held his nerve, despite the severe pressure heaped on the winner of the Finals series who goes direct to the final. He left Germany’s current world champion Sebastian Koerdel to second.
Sills acknowledged, “I am a lot better prepared this year and am full time sailing which I was not last year, so I am full time with the British Sailing Team which is great because there is so much support and knowledge and that has really helped. We have more data now – all secret of course – but things to work off which are important. I went out on the water first today and that let me see all the other competing and I had a good feel for it. In Lanzarote my starts went wrong but now I think I have solved that. Really this win is a big deal for me, a mark on the career and a step towards the Olympics I hope.”

RS:X bronze medallist Emma Wilson, who turned 24 on Friday, gave Britain the double victory in the women’s iQFOiL. She has been racing here for ten years previously in the RS:X Class.
Wilson grinned, “With the format as it is there is so much mental pressure but I was just saying to myself I know I am fast just get a good start and use my speed. I love these conditions and I love Palma I feel very at home here. It is such a mental game, 95% of it for sure on the last day. I had a big reset in February when I had an operation on my arm. I just said to myself I had to give it 100% and just make sure everything is right. I have a good team around me including my Mum (ed note Penny Wilson 2 x windsurfing Olympian). I worked so hard on my fitness. I have been here in Palma for six weeks. We have had these conditions just about every day.”
The huge event was contested over six days of racing on 8 racing areas and is managed between the three yacht clubs. This week saw winds from 5kts to one day of the pure Embat seabreeze which reached 20kts on Wednesday.