Men's 470 head big Kiwi contingent at Palma regatta

Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox are rarities in New Zealand Olympic class sailing.

The pair are by far the best mens 470 combination in the country and dont have regular training partners who can push them along. Its in contrast to most other classes where theres intense competition among the New Zealand sailors and some difficult decisions will be necessary when it comes to selection for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

While Snow-Hansen and Willcox are likely to compete in Tokyo, their ambitions are much loftier than merely making up the numbers.

Its why they have entered into an informal arrangement with the Japanese 470 squad. Snow-Hansen and Willcox last year travelled to Japan to train with the countrys best mens 470 teams and earlier this month hosted two top crews at Gulf Harbour.

"It was great to have training partners who were pushing us along every day," Snow-Hansen said. "In the last Olympic cycle we had [two-time Olympic medallists] Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie to tune against and that was really good in light winds but even then it was a weakness not having a mens team who mode the boat in the way the mens fleet do, which is a lot lower and faster.

"We identified that we needed to get people to train against who were not only fast but also pushed us in different conditions. Its hard to get people here because its a long way to come but the relationship with the Japanese is great because of Tokyo 2020 and because they are chucking resources at their sailors and see New Zealand as a really good place to train in their winter."

Snow-Hansen and Willcox and the rest of the NZL Sailing Team got a sense of how cold its been in Europe this winter when they landed in Palma for this weeks Princess Sofia regatta.

Conditions are expected to warm up for the start of the regatta on Monday night (NZ time) but it was a shock after such a good summer of training in New Zealand.

The Palma event is the first big European multi-class event of the year and has attracted nearly 1200 sailors and 840 boats from more than 60 nations across 13 classes.

There will be some massive fleets, including the Laser which has reached its limit of 180 sailors and the Laser Radial (close to 120) and 49er (95 entries).

Close to 80 boats have so far entered the mens 470 and Snow-Hansen and Willcox are keen to see how they stack up after a period of intensive training and some racing highlighted by a fifth at Januarys Miami World Cup.

"Im pretty excited to see how we go," Snow-Hansen said. "I feel like we should be in good shape compared to some of the Europeans who are coming out of their winter.

"We are definitely aiming for the podium because we want to get some good results before this years world championships in Aarhus."

Its an ambition shared by the rest of the NZL Sailing Team and wider New Zealand squad. There will be 26 Kiwi sailors in Palma, including five in the Laser and four in the Finn, and it represents the start of an important European season.

New Zealand sailors competing at the Princess Sofia regatta in Palma (April 2-7):

Mens 470: Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox

Womens 470: Courtney Reynolds-Smith and Brianna Reynolds-Smith

Nacra 17: Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders / Liv Mackay and Micah Wilkinson

49er: Josh Porebski and Trent Rippey / Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn

49erFX: Alex Maloney and Molly Meech

Finn: Josh Junior, Andy Maloney, Brendan McCarty, Raymond Hall

Laser: Sam Meech, Tom Saunders, Andrew McKenzie, George Gautrey, Matthew Kempkers

Laser Radial: Olivia Christie, Susannah Pyatt

- This story has been automatically published using a media release from Yachting New Zealand