The three-day regatta on Portugal’s Riviera is organised by the Mirpuri Foundation in conjunction with Clube Naval de Cascais. Set up in 2020 to raise awareness and important funding for ocean health initiatives, the event received recognition by UNESCO as an Ocean Decade Event for its work as a custodian of the oceans.

Six hundred sailors of all ages took part on Saturday, competing in six popular classes, including the Snipe dingy class competing on the second day of the Snipe South European Championship.

Joining the dingy classes were the SB20 and former Olympic class Finn dinghies, as well as the popular junior Optimist class.

Saturday also saw the cruising classes ORC and NHC compete for the first time and included in the field the spectacular superyacht “Green Eyes” and the Cascais-based professional outfit, the Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team competing onboard their VO65 “Racing for the Planet”.

Joining the maritime spectacular on the water was the Marinha Portuguesa vessel NMP, which fired the ceremonial start cannon at 12:30 to get racing underway in almost perfect conditions.

In the cruising class the VO65 “Racing for the Planet” and the 106ft superyacht “Green Eyes” took the early lead in the line honours race, swopping places at the front on several occasions. In the end, the VO65 of the Mirpuri Foundation Sailing Team crossed the line just ahead of the superyacht and hold the overnight lead in the line honours race.

On corrected time the ORC class is led by Syone Panther, with Lusitania Seguros in second and Xekmatt in third. 

In the NHC class, Guronsan/Pedemar is out front followed by Metralha in second and Cristina A holds the third step of the podium, whilst in the NHC Mini class Barba Rija leads, Mast III lies second and Anequim is in third place overnight.

On the second day of racing for the Snipe South European Championship, it was the Belgium-registered team who repeated their winning performance of day one and head into Sunday with a clean sweep of six wins from six races. Mario Junior and Matheus Gonçalves lie in second place and Miguel Graça and João Lopes hold third.

In the Finns, Filipe Silva won all three races and sits on top of the overnight leaderboard, followed by Jorge Pinheiro de Melo and Nuno ES Silva. 

The SB20 class is led by Inetum skippered by John Tavares, closely followed by HelloNext – Nuno Cabral and Bravo in third skippered by Diogo Pereira.

In the junior Optimist fleet, Diogo Reis finished the day in the lead, with Dinis Gomes second and Carl Birgersson in third.

Racing will continue on Sunday, the third and final day of the regatta, with all six classes competing again. 

On Sunday evening the class winners will receive their trophies at the popular prize-giving ceremony and will also see the awarding of the spectacular Mirpuri Foundation Sailing Trophy for line honours.

In addition to the racing accolades, the Mirpuri Foundation in partnership with the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), will present the Ocean Award for innovation in ocean health initiatives.