PORTLAND-BASED Stuart Bithell will be looking to continue his winning streak alongside Dylan Fletcher as they join the contingent of more than 50 British Sailing Team athletes aiming for glory at the Princess Sofia Trophy in Palma, Spain.

The iconic regatta, beginning today, will see 1,200 sailors from 60 nations, including 17 Rio 2016 medallists and eight 2017 world champions, go head to head over a week of intense action in the Bay of Palma.

Christchurch’s Emma Wilson will also be competing in Palma, with the medal races scheduled for Saturday.

It will provide an important performance benchmark as the British Sailing Team gears up for the season highlight, the Sailing World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, in August.

Britain’s sailors will undoubtedly be looking to replicate their success at 2018’s first major regatta, January’s World Cup Series Miami, which saw the team come away with four golds and a bronze across the ten Olympic classes.

Bournemouth’s Ed Wright will also be competing as he aims to continue a fantastic start to the season, which was added to when he secured his second European title in the Finn last month, while rising star Henry Wetherell bagged the runner-up spot in the under-23 division.

Wright will be up against 75 other sailors in the Finn class including current world champion Max Salminen and Team New Zealand’s winning America’s Cup ‘cyclors’ Josh Junior and Andy Maloney.

Fellow British Sailing Team member and Rio 2016 gold medallist Giles Scott will also be on the start line, looking to replicate his victorious return to the Finn class in Miami.

“It was great to win the European championships and it’s exciting for the season to come,” said Wright, 40, from Bournemouth.

“It’s always good to see how everyone’s training has been going over the winter and I was impressed how so many people have moved forward. This year is going to be tough with the Sailing World Championships not far away. Let’s hope we have some good wind and racing for the Princess Sofia, and see what we can learn.”

A last-minute knee injury blow for Fynn Sterritt means he and team mate James Peters will miss out on defending their 2017 Princess Sofia Trophy title in the 49er.

“We are devastated we will be unable to try to retain our Princess Sofia title,” said Tunbridge Wells’ Peters, “but we will be back, and we will be ready to show what we can do at this summer’s big events.”

The regatta will see the official pairing up of former 470 pairing Sophie Weguelin and Sophie Ainsworth as they come together for a Tokyo 2020 campaign in the 49er FX.

Ashford sailor Ainsworth had been campaigning with British Sailing Team member Kate Macgregor but a long-running injury has kept Macgregor off the water for the past few months.

Weguelin, from Lymington, stepped in for Macgregor at the World Cup Series Miami, where the duo finished an impressive fourth.

“We are really excited,” Ainsworth said. “It’s such a unique opportunity for us – we have a lot of history together as rivals and teammates.”

Weguelin added: “We fully understand the mountain we’ve got to climb with such limited time, but we are aligned on the task in hand and ready to embrace the journey. Winning at Tokyo 2020 is the goal.”

Cardiff’s double Olympic medallist Hannah Mills and crew Eilidh McIntyre from Hayling Island will be among the 48-strong women’s 470 fleet, while in the women’s RS:X class Beijing bronze medallist and new mum Bryony Shaw will be in action.

Racing begins for all ten classes today at 9am.