Italians winning game of inches in Hyères before the pressure rise
More Italian profits - “But French conditions are coming!”
Preliminary phase over, Elimination phase starts today
If Monday was Champagne sailing in Hyères, Tuesday was a Mediterranean Millésimé - the vintage. If you created an exceptional blend capturing one side of sailing in Hyères - and you did not want to try and bottle the Mistral - it might look something like this. Bright bobbing sails stretching across the Bay of Hyères as far as the eye could see between the Giens peninsula and the Îles d’Or with the ESE wind of 8-12 knots gradually shifting right under the influence of the thermal currents as the land heated up faster than the sea.
But the thing about Champagne sailing is that someone else is usually doing the sailing and you are not usually racing for your professional future. A battle of inches is not the same as a battle of survival, but it’s still a battle, and even seeing the wind shifts can be tricky with an unending sun shining on your course and hiding the shifting pressure lanes. Those that managed climbed the ladder.
“Such a tricky day out there, it was definitely a game of inches for sure,” Ireland’s Eve McMahon, Ilca 6 champion in Palma and in the lead groups again here. “It was hard to know which side would pay, and with the sun right on our racecourse it was so hard to see which side. The pressure was on.”
And the Italians love this style of bubbly - they call it something else - and they do not do inches and preferred to win by metres. An already powerful Italian sailing team have enjoyed the first two days particularly. “Because it was in Italian conditions! (Laughing),” Giacomo Ferrari & Alessandra Dubbini (ITA), who lead the 470 after another fine day. “We will see in the next days because probably the weather will change - the French conditions will come.”
Wednesday will provide quite a different postcard from Hyères with the pressure rising in more ways than one, with easterly winds building past 20 knots and the event moving from the preliminary to the elimination phase (Wednesday to Friday) before two medal races on Saturday.
470 (mixed double-handed dinghy)
On a day of Mediterranean dominance, with the two Italian teams exchanging the overall lead and Spain’s Palma champions, Jordi Xammar Hernández & Marta Cardona Alcántara, rising to third, it was testament to the skill of the British team that they held their own and stayed second. New leaders, Italy’s Giacomo Ferrari & Alessandra Dubbini (7, 1, 3) have been the most consistent boat, but they know the elimination phase will be a re-start in more ways than one.
Giacomo Ferrari & Alessandra Dubbini (ITA), 470
“The regatta is going well! Quite difficult these first two days, especially about strategy. The wind wasn't 100% clear. Sometimes it was better the right, sometimes it was better on the left. So we did a good shift with the wind. We were focused just to keep things simple.
With this format, we cannot do some calculating because from tomorrow it all restarts, you know? We carry forward just one score (their position after two days) and that can be discarded. The championship is very long and we want to keep going.
We felt good before the regatta, we talked about step by step. So it's like the first few days is like one regatta, then there is final stage, then the medal race. So step by step, and keep the performance up because the result counts, for sure, but it will start again tomorrow.
We've been racing in Hyères for a long time, maybe six times. For sure, this is the best conditions in Hyères. It's not so windy, so we’ve enjoyed these few days.
It was good today, it went a little bit to the right. And was not the same shift left, right - the first race left, and then right, and we managed to take the good one.
One Italian coach says Hyères is the Wimbledon of sailing and it's always a pleasure to sail here and I think it's one of the best regattas of the year.
[On Italy dominating on day 1]
Because it was in Italian conditions! (Laughing), light wind. Yesterday was the classic Mediterranean Italian conditions, no? Usually in Italy, we have this kind of light breeze and choppy conditions. So we manage that good! We will see in the next days because probably the weather will change - the French conditions will come.”
France 470 coach:
“The wind gradually increased to 8-9 knots for the first race, and 9-12 knots for the second, with a slight shift to the southeast. Managing the fleet density and rounding the marks is crucial with 47 boats. Getting away from the fleet at the start is essential to maintaining speed and developing your own tactics!”
iQFoil (men’s & women’s windsurfing)
Women
Two victories from their four races saw China’s Zheng Yan jump into the lead in the women’s iQFoil, but she has two large discards already and is in much more need of them than three sailors behind her, including Israel’s Palma champion and SOF 2025 champion, Tamar Steinberg and Italy’s Olympic champion, Marta Maggetti.
Men
Italy’s Nicolo Renna jumped into the overall lead of the men’s iQFoil, ahead of by far the most consistent sailor so far, China’s 2025 SOF champion, Kun Bi, who has not been out of the top 7 in the 7 races. Italy’s Federico Alan Pilloni has won four, including two of four yesterday, but fell in his third, to finish last and drop him to sixth overall.
Federico Alan Pilloni (ITA), Men’s IQFoil
“I had a pretty good day. (In the four races) I got two first places and a third, but in third race I was leading and fell, unfortunately.
Overall, quite a good standing for now. Unfortunately, only one discard in the preliminary series. And because I fell in race two yesterday it means I'll be counting a heavy race. But it's fine. I had a really good event in Palma and a good pre-season in Lanzarote.
We've got Europeans in May and Worlds in Weymouth. I'm happy about the progression and it's nice to be racing here
The fact that I live in Sardinia means I get really similar conditions, thermal conditions. warm, so I'm quite used to all of this. I enjoy it. It's really like home, Cagliari conditions. The Italian team is probably in one of the best shapes in sailing right now, not only Olympic sailing, but looking at offshore sailing, and America's Cup, SailGP coming up, I feel like the young teams are coming through too. It's good for the sport and good for the nation.
I'm half Brit. My mum's British. I've got a British passport. So I'm half-half, but competing for Italy now because I live in Italy. I grew up in Sardinia, but I've lived in the UK. I’ve got family in Sardinia and family in Kent - maybe one day I'll be competing for Team GB (laughs). I think you've got to do it before the (Olympic) campaign starts. But I'm proud to be sailing for Italy!”
Yun Pouliquen (FRA):
“We had 10-12 knots of really nice easterly wind. Truly a perfect day, balancing physical effort, tactics, and strategy, where you can really express yourself.” For me, it was a "so-so" day, but I'm still definitely in the mix for the Gold Group and then the Medal Race. The French are really pushing hard this year, it's fantastic! The level of competition is really high. This is my third SOF, an event like this in France is amazing. The sailing area is always full of surprises, the islands disrupt the wind, there's always a lot to play for."
ILCA 6 and 7 - (women’s & men’s solo dinghy)
Ilca 6
A game of Ilca inches for the solo dinghies yesterday saw Netherlands’ Maxime van de Werken-Jonker take the overall lead from Ireland’s Palma champion, Eve McMahon, who dropped to fourth behind Italy’s 2025 SOF champion, Chiara Benini Floriani in second.
Ilca 7
Britain lie first and second overall after Michael Beckett kept his lead after winning his third race in a row and Elliot Hanson moved into second. But there will be no relaxing for anyone with Australia’s double Olympic champion, Matt Wearn, in fourth.#
Eve McMahon (IRL)
“Such a tricky day out there. It was definitely a game of inches for sure. It was hard to know which side would pay, and with the sun right on our racecourse it was so hard to see which side. The pressure was on.
A couple of mistakes out there for me, but just looking forward to taking it into tomorrow and learning from them. [On the new format] I don't necessarily think it changes my week. I'm a pretty consistent sailor, and sometimes it rewards it, and sometimes it doesn't.
We have a slight change from the format from Palma, whereas this time we can discard our ranking position that we take into tomorrow. I'm still trying to trying to get used to it, not yet changing how I sail.
[On Hyères conditions today] it was not really familiar. I always come here just for the event, so I don't really get that much pre-training in and usually it's absolutely nuking Mistral and freezing cold, so this is like glamour conditions compared to that. And when we were training in Palma as well, it was freezing, so this is really nice to race in. I started racing here when I was super young, but I was just getting demolished. I think this is like my fourth or fifth year?
It definitely is champagne sailing. It'd be nice to have some bigger waves, but I mean, I can't complain at all. We're lucky to have the conditions. We're efficient out on the water, three races today.
The level of the fleet is insane. I mean, all the girls have gotten really consistent over all the conditions. So, to be the best, you really want to be good in all conditions, and I think every event, somebody's raising the bar, and we all have to catch that person. There's some girls who are, like, crazy experienced with 10 plus years on me, but I am just looking forward to giving them a good battle.”
Formula Kite (men’s and women’s kite)
Four kitefoil races for both men and women yesterday as they launched from the beach in Salins, north of the Hyères sailing area.
Women
Lauriane Nolot, the Toulon-born local favourite, Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallist, winner in Palma 2026, produced a vintage dominant display winning three of her four races and finishing second in the other to go top of the leaderboard by some margin. The Chinese and British behind her will have to do something special over the coming days.
Men
No change at the top and identical podium to the finish of SOF 2025 with Italy’s Riccardo Pianosi, the SOF 2025 champion, ahead of Singapore’s Max Maeder and Switzerland’s Gian Stragiotti.
Nacra 17 (mixed double-handed catamaran)
Despite heading back to the Base Nautique early and not contesting the third race of the day, Italy’s double Olympic champions, Ruggero Tita & Caterina Banti stayed top after winning the first race and finishing third. As the competition resets for the elimination phase their non appearance will not count. “We stopped but there was no problem,” a poker-faced Banti said.
Their compatriots, Gianluigi Ugolini & Maria Giubilei, second at SOF 2025, took advantage to win the third race and move up to fifth. There are three Italian boats in the top eight.
Tim Mourniac (FRA), in fourth place with Aloïse Retornaz
“We had two great first races today, we learned a lot from yesterday. So, we're really happy. The Mediterranean is never a given, there's always something going on, but today the conditions were more settled than yesterday. We sailed well. You have to be very clear on the starts, execute them well, communicate, and not get burned. Today, we achieved our goal, but tomorrow we'll be bringing our spiked helmets!" It's important to have very different weather conditions to continue progressing.”
49er (men’s and women’s double-handed skiff)
Women’s FX
China’s Yingqian Wang & Xiaoya Su won the third and final race of the day to take the lead from Italy’s Sofia Giunchiglia & Giulia Schio, who could only finish eleventh but stay second overall.
Men’s 49er
USA’s Andrew Mollerus & Trevor Bornarth kept their lead over Ireland’s Robert Dickson & Sean Waddilove, fourth at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Two victories in the first two races in yellow fleet saw Italy’s Lorenzo Pezzilli & Circolo Velico Ravennate Tobia Torroni jump into contention in a compressed leaderboard.
Text Credit: FFVoile - SOF
Photo Credit: FFVoile - SOF / SailingEnergy