Everything is ready for the opening of the 72nd Trofeo Ciutat de Palma

The 72nd Trofeo Ciutat de Palma, the most important children's sailing regatta in the Balearic Islands, opens this Thursday with the presence of 347 Optimist class boats and the forecast of good wind.

The different weather models coincide in announcing southerly gusts of up to 20 knots in the central hours of today's race. The Race Committee will try to take advantage of these conditions to give as many starts as possible to the three or four groups into which the fleet will be divided, depending on the final confirmations.

"We will have a good start to the regatta, but on Friday rain has been announced and there will be quite a lot of instability," explained Pedro Marí, technical director of the Real Club Náutico de Palma (RCNP), the organizer of the event since 1950.

Marí highlighted the high level of the fleet and the consolidation of the regatta as one of the most important in Europe: "The dates of the Ciutat de Palma are ideal because they coincide with the bank holiday of the Constitution and allow many sailors and their families to travel to Palma, but we always keep an eye on the weather, which tends to be unstable. It is also a good time to attract teams from Northern Europe, such as Germany and Poland, who are each taking part this year with 19 boats each".

Almost all of the teams have taken advantage of the good weather on Wednesday to go out for training. The competition will start this Thursday at 10.30 a.m., with the first race, and will continue until next Sunday.

The participants represent 17 countries: Latvia, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, Holland, England, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Germany, Finland, USA, Denmark, France and Spain. The national fleet is made up of athletes from the autonomous communities of Galicia, Cantabria, Basque Country, Andalusia, Valencia, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.