The first edition of the Discoveries Race-Regata de los Alisios will take its departure on August 27, 2017 from Lisboa-Cascais, with arrival in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in early September. The Discovery Race is a commemorative race to the first Spanish and Portuguese discoverers, which will have its colophone on September 3 with the award of prizes at the Real Club Náutico de Gran Canaria.

The Real Club Náutico de Gran Canaria hosted this morning, Tuesday, August 1, the presentation of the race with the assistance of the president of the Real Club Náutico de Gran Canaria, Fernando del Castillo; the Presidency and Finance Adviser of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Pedro Justo Brito; the City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, José Eduardo Ramírez, and the delegate to the Canary Islands of the European Vela Brotherhood, Enrique Boissier.

The Discoveries Race- Regata de los Alisios is organized by the European Confraternity of the Sailing, counts the sponsorship of Isla Canela Marina, Golf & Beach Resorts and with the collaboration of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Municipality of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, RCN Gran Canaria, Marina de Cascais, CN Cascais, AN Lisboa, Marinha, Spanish Navy, Harbour Authority of Las Palmas, Murimar Seguridad, El Corte Inglés and WOR-60 Sportwear.

To date, six ships have confirmed their participation in this first edition. The registered are the Spanish Kunga (CN Punta Lagoa- Vigo), Nautilus (Spanish Navy Esengra de Ferrol) and Protein 65 (CN Sada in A Coruña), and the Portuguese Sao Gabriel, NRP Zarco and NRP Polar, the last two of the Portuguese Navy. The organization has confirmed that they are awaiting confirmation of the participation of four more vessels, with many possibilities for them to be on the departure line. It would be two English ships, a Galician ship and a Portuguese ship. The registration deadline will end on 20 August.

The journey will have a 740-mile tour for the ORC and OPEN classes in monocascos and a 1,000-mile tour has also been included for the Multicasco classes (catamaran and trimaran) that have requested their participation in this new high race. The organisation according to the registered ships may create divisions within each class.

The departure of the Discovery Race- Regata de los Alisios will be on August 27 at 12 noon in front of the Monument to the Discovery in Lisbon. For the single-hull vessels ORC and OPEN the time limit for the journey will be 168 hours and for the Multicascos 144. There will be a classification for each class in compensated time and another classification in real time.

The idea of this journey was born at the tables held on the occasion of the investiture of new cofrades in the city of Porto in September 2016. The fellow and veteran grancanarian regatist Enrique Boissier presented the idea of reviving the old Brest-Las Palmas regatta, which led a group of fellow confreres to start maturing the matter, initially focusing on creating a regatta in tribute to the two great discovering countries in the 15th and 16th centuries, Spain and Portugal.

The fifth centenary of the discovery of the Strait of Magallanes was celebrated in 2020. As a tribute to his ancestor, Fernando Magalhanes Vila Boas has donated to the Naval Clube of Cascais a trophy, Taça Magalhaes, which will be exposed at the Naval Club of Cascais. The first race chosen to deliver this trophy has been the Discovery Race - Regata Los Alisios. The Fernao de Magalhaes trophy will be awarded to the boat that invests the least real time to make the 731 nautical miles tour. The trophy will remain in the facilities of the Cascais Naval Club and the winner will receive an accredited plate.