Mariana Lobato will be the only Portuguese sailor to take part in the Ocean Race, but before going around the world in the IMOCA class, she will take part in her first ‘leg’ aboard the Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team’s VO65.
The Olympic athlete is in an unusual situation these days. Last summer he signed with the Biotherme Racing Team, achieving the goal of making his debut in the toughest ocean race in the world, but later on the opportunity arose for the 100% Portuguese team, the first in history, to participate to complete the Ocean Race. Race Sprint Cup, composed of three ‘legs’.
The love for the fatherland spoke louder and Lobato did not hesitate to ask the permission of the French ‘skipper’, Paul Meilhat, to be exceptionally part of the Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team in the opening stage, between Alicante and Cape Verde, with starts on January 15.
“I couldn’t refuse, the Portuguese flag spoke louder. After having completed the first race in the Race for the Planet of the Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team, I am going back to IMOCA, with whom I trained for the Ocean Race Cup. I will start in Itajaí,” he told the Lusa agency in Alicante.
Mariana Lobato is not only the only Portuguese to be part of the IMOCA class for the time being, but is also the only sailor to allow her husband António Fontes to participate in the 14th edition of the Ocean Race on the same ship and, in this case, as ‘ skipper’ of the VO65 Race for the Planet.
“I am completely comfortable with the situation because there is no husband and wife on board,” the Olympic athlete defended, before adding Fontes that “as professionals, they understand each other very well.” The rest of the crew joked about the “easy rapport, if you keep going [Mariana na proa] and the other goes after it [Fontes no leme]”.
More difficult, Lobato supposes, was the decision to start the same VO65 and the same race with the ‘skipper’ and partner, since two small children have been left ashore, Bartolomeu, who arrived at the marina in the shadow of his mother and accompanied him the parents on the eve of the start, and Carolina, three years old.
“It’s not easy. All family logistics are more complicated, but we have family support that allows us to do this. Of course accidents can happen, but we need to know how to respect the sea, be careful and in our lives try to avoid situations with a maximum risk,” he added.
The couple had wanted to do the Ocean Race for a long time. The Portuguese sailor succeeded aboard the Scallywag in 2017/18, but Mariana Lobato didn’t get the chance until August 2022.
“At the time I stayed at home with Bartolomeu and we agreed that I would go next time. Meanwhile we had Carolina and last summer we decided that I would sign with Biotherme and that António would support the children. This was the plan, but the Ocean Race Sprint Cup appeared in three ‘rides’ for the VO65 and I understood how difficult it was for him to turn down this opportunity, just as it was for me not to join the 100% Portuguese team,” recalled the Match World Racing Champion in 2013.
As part of the Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team to represent the national colors in the first race in the VO65 class, Lobato says she is “very proud to be part of the first Portuguese team”, before returning to her original plan and commits herself to the command of the ‘skipper’ Paul Meilhat, who finds her “a person with an interesting profile”.
“She has a different experience than all of us and that will add something extra to the group. She is also a daredevil person with a lot of energy. I hope she can inject some innovative ideas into the boat, as I want there to be a constant exchange of knowledge between everyone. At the same time, it also has a strong team culture and that is a very positive factor,” emphasized the French skipper.
The Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team is proud to make Ocean Race history
In the Mediterranean waters bathing the port city of Alicante, in Spain, lies a 100% Portuguese VO65, with 10 sailors proud of their historic participation in the Ocean Race Sprint Cup, departing for Cape Verde on Sunday.
On the occasion of its 50th anniversary and the celebration of its 14th edition, the mythical Ocean Race has changed its configuration and this year it will put two classes at sea in parallel competitions from January 15 to early July.
The circumnavigation of the world will be contested by five IMOCA vessels over seven legs and 32,000 nautical miles, and the Ocean Race Sprint Cup will test six uniquely designed VO65s over three legs, including the Race for the Planet by the Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team.
This format change, according to the organization, came about as a result of the lack of registrations by the VO65 for the emblematic round the world and opened an opportunity for the creation of the Ocean Race Sprint Cup.
“This created a unique opportunity for the Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team. If it were around the world we probably wouldn’t go with a 100% Portuguese team, but as this race is of three intense but short ‘stages’ we managed to bring the two worlds together,” said António Fontes, “skipper” of the Race for the Planet, moored in the marina of Alicante.
In addition to António Fontes, who was part of the Scallywag Team in the last edition of the Volvo Ocean Race (2017/2018), Olympians Bernardo Freitas, Frederico Melo and Mariana Lobato, members of the Ocean Race Europe winning team, will be present. are. Hugo Rocha and Diogo Cayolla and the young Matilde Pinheiro de Melo, Francisco Cai-Água, Francisco Maia and Francisca Pinho. Hélder Basílio and Nuno Dias complete the team on land.
“When we put this team together, the idea was to have an experienced sailor in every key position on the boat. We have Bernardo [Freitas]who is very good in the mainsail and in the system that manages the boat over there, from the mast, Frederico [Melo] on the piano and all the maneuvering and Mariana, who is very good at the bow and bow maneuver. Once these three positions are secured, the rest are helpers,” explains Fontes (39), while the rest of the crew carries out maintenance work on the boat.
With the language of Camões as a background, the ‘skipper’ recalled the rule of the Ocean Race – six sailors over 30 and four under -30 – to explain the formation of the ‘quinas’ team, in a mix of experience and youth, evident in the face and demeanor of every crew member. The veterans exchange opinions, propose strategies, and the youth observe attentively and promptly implement them, as evident in the training regatta Lusa embarked on.
“Among the experienced sailors we have the [Diogo] Cayolla, who has no experience with VO65, is probably the most experienced in ‘offshore’ in Portugal, and Hugo Rocha, who is not so active in ‘offshore’ sailing, is probably the best Portuguese sailor”, emphasized the ‘skipper’, even before welcoming Hugo Rocha, from Chile, and Bernardo Freitas, from the United States, to the team.
If the most experienced is “proud” to be part of a full national team, as Mariana Lobato shares, who will only make it to the first ‘stage’ of the Ocean Race Sprint Cup, for having a previously signed agreement with Biotherme for the round the world in the IMOCA class, the youngest do not hide their joy at the chance to take part in the Race for the Planet.
“I didn’t expect anything but it was a pleasant surprise. It’s a dream I never expected to come true and I’m very happy for the opportunity and because I believed in myself to be part of this team” , known Francisca Pinho. , 24 years old, graduated in Industrial Management and with experience in light sailing, after receiving the invitation while on vacation in Lapland.
As well as the sailor born in Porto, who lives “an incredible experience” and was “very well received by all the other members, with a lot of experience and available to help and give training”, the enthusiasm and amazement among the other younger colleagues, eager to learn and gain experience with Fontes, Cayolla, Melo & Ca.
On board the VO65 or around the table, while the experienced ‘chef’ Rafael Pombeiro prepares the highly acclaimed dinner and advances the next day’s meals, which go to the boat in bamboo lunch boxes and jute thermo bags, every moment is used to discuss techniques, strategies and plans for the next day.
After a long day at work, there is room for video calls home, exchange of messages and the possibility for Matilde Pinho de Melo to miss her smiling five-month-old baby, but duty and responsibility quickly take over the spirit of the team.
“This is a huge challenge, but it fills me with pride above all to know that since the last Volvo Ocean Race five years ago, in which I was alone, Bernardo and Frederico, today we have a 100% Portuguese team. It means that the work that the Mirpuri Foundation has done and all the investments are already paying off. I think only almost 50 years ago there was a team with all the same nationality, this is not common”, Fontes emphasized.
Taking into account “the unique opportunity” and the support of the Mirpuri Foundation, the ‘skipper’ does not hide his ambitions, although he considers the Polish WindWhisper Racing Team as the favourite.
“We have a great boat and ‘budget’ to cover everything we need to perform well. We’ve been in other situations where the Portuguese team has been the ‘underdog’, because they didn’t have any money, and here we are not the ‘underdog’ We have experience, a good boat, material and conditions to try to win the Ocean Race Sprint Cup, it will not be easy, the competition is very strong, but we have opportunities”, defended António Fontes.
The Ocean Race frenzy is already latent in Alicante, where the Portuguese crew arrived after a “transport in which they took the opportunity to test the youngsters, putting them at the helm and in different positions to dispel doubts” , as Fontes said, and the teams fine-tune the final details for what is one of the most emblematic ocean regattas in the world.
One of the forecasts points to a five-day race between the Spanish city and Cape Verde, “which means it will be very windy and it will be tough,” the ‘skipper’ clarifies, but optimism, togetherness and Portuguese pride reign in the force from the Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team, who will return to action later to compete in the penultimate and final ‘stage’, completing the historic inaugural edition of the Ocean Race Sprint Cup.
Source: DN
