Six RC 44s will compete for the Oeiras Cup, the third stage of the RC 44 Championship Tour which runs from 31 May- 1 June.

This week’s event will be held in Portugal in Oeiras, a little town located half way between Lisbon and Cascais. Six teams will compete for the trophy, as well as for some more points on the RC 44 Championship Tour.

Current joint leaders of the annual contest after two regattas, Chris Bake’s Team Aqua (UAE) and Miroslav Reljanovic’s Cro-A-Sail (CRO) are the logical favourites of the event. However, Team Omega, with Russell Coutts (at the helm for the match races) and Nicholas Verwilghen (steering during the fleet regattas) will do their best to get back to the top. Also competing for victory, Isao Mita’s Beecom (JPN) and the Italian team Magia Alikè will certainly seriously challenge the current leaders of the championship.

One new team joins the fleet for the first time in Oeiras: Team V1 Racing (UAE), sailing onboard the first RC 44 built by V1 in Dubai. Rasmus Kostner is expected on board, possibly with some more America’s Cup sailors. The RC 44 is an owner-driver class, but professional sailors are involved in all the teams, making the RC 44 Championship Tour a high standard sailing event. Indeed, Cameron Appleton, Tomislav Basic, Russell Coutts, Morten Henrikson and many more top professional sailors guarantee the highest possible level of competition.

The competition will start and finish with fleet races, and matchraces will be held on Friday and Saturday.