It was a long day in Palma with the late coming sea breeze delaying racing. Patience paid off and the second day in the Trofeo Sofia IBEROSTAR provided great racing and allowed to the qualification stage to be completed. A seventh race was completed for the kites who will go into Medal Race mode on Wednesday.
The French and New Zealanders made the most of the day's races and now lead in six classes.
"This is an excellent start in the regatta for the French team especially in RS:X, Nacra, 470 Men and Finn," French Olympic team manager, Guillaume Chiellino said, who can be proud of his team who have had a rocket start into the 46th Trofeo Sofia IBEROSTAR.
Two French teams are leading the Nacra with World and European champions Billy Besson and Marie Riou in first position followed by Moana Vaireaux and Manon Audinet in second. Guillaume Pirouelle and Valentin Sipan share the top spot in the Men's 470 with the Swedish team of Dahlberg / Bergstrom. RS:X World Champion Julien Bontemps scored his second victory to conserve a very tight lead in the Men's RS:X but he is on equal points with Joao Rodrigues (POR) and Makoto Tomizawa from Japan.
"We are only at the start of the competition but the French like this event where they usually perform well like last year when they scored some good performances," said Chiellino.
The talented New Zealand team will probably be one of the main threats for the titles, like in the Finn where French and New-Zealander are head to head. Young Kiwi Josh Junior has taken the edge and leads Jonathan Lobert (FRA).
"It was a great day sailing. We had two completely different races," explains Junior.
"The first was very light and dominated by the left hand side. It was good the race committee persevered as a steady 18 knots breeze came in! I am really happy to have won that race too,"
New Zealanders are conserving their lead in the Women's 470 where the top two teams remain unchanged. Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie sailed consistent with a pair of seconds and conserve a small lead over France's Camille Lecointre and Helene Defrance.
49er World Champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (NZL) remain at the top of the 49er fleet in front of Germany's Heil / Ploessel and Brazil's Bianchi / Lowbeer.
Tamara Echegoyen and Berta Betanzos consolidate their lead in the women skiff with the Foght Schutt sisters climbing to second. Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech (NZL) are third overall.
There is a change of leader in the Laser Radial with Emma Plasschaert (BEL) narrowly leading Paige Railey (USA), early leader Tatiana Drozdovskaya (BLR) and Alicia Cebrian (ESP) all on equal points. In the Laser, Jesper Stalheim (SWE) conserves his lead in front of Norwegian Mathias Molatt and German Philipp Buhl. The day's best performer is Argentinian Julio Alsogaray who placed second in both races. He climbs to sixth overall.
In the RS:X women, Chinese Manjia Zheng takes the lead from Charline Picon with top three scores.
The final stage is now on with fleets now split in Gold, Silver and a Bronze group for the Lasers.
The kites managed to complete one more race and the leaders remain unchanged with Florian Trittel (ESP) and Elena Kalinina (RUS), who have been unbeatable at the top of the pile.
The wind direction and strength was far from ideal for launching and securing good racing conditions for the kites who have struggled to race for the last three days. Three short Medal Races on Wednesday will decide the winners in both the men's and women's divisions.