Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team

A strong and experienced team racing a boat with a proven track record of success, Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team are an all-Portuguese crew. They are campaigning to raise awareness of climate change as they compete in The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint Cup.

Team Background

An environmental campaign group, the Mipuri Foundation has been involved in The Ocean Race since the 2017-18 edition of the race when they sponsored the VO65 team Turn The Tide On Plastic. After winning The Ocean Race Europe in 2021, they were one of the pre-race favourites for this year’s Ocean Race Sprint Cup. Their boat, Racing For The Planet, won the last edition of The Ocean Race. The team, whose home port is Cascais, is skippered by Ocean Race veteran António Fontes and includes several world champions, multiple Olympic sailors, match racing champions and elite offshore sailors – including Mariana Lobato, who is also the skipper’s wife.

The Ocean Race VO65 Sprint Cup

For the first stage of the Sprint Cup the VO65s joined the IMOCA 60s, racing off a single start line in Alicante, Spain through the Gibraltar Strait and then 2,000 ocean miles along the Trade Wind route to Cape Verde. The second stage, which starts in Aarhus, Denmark, is an intensely tactical race in busy coastal waters: through the Baltic Sea to Kiel, Germany where they turn around without stopping, exit the Baltic via the Skagerrak and head down the North Sea against the prevailing winds to The Hague. The final stage is likely to be a tacking duel along the English Channel, then across the Bay of Biscay and back through the Med to the finish at Genoa, Italy.