The leaders have rounded the downwind turning mark and are now beating back upwind towards the finish line.

In the VO65 fleet, Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team held off a charge by AkzoNobel Ocean Racing and is leading towards home.

In the IMOCA fleet, it will be 11th Hour Racing Team leading into the mark, with Offshore Team Germany and LinkedOut pushing from behind.

14:25 CEST – Head over to www.twitter.com/theoceanrace for live tweet updates from Niall Myant-Best and Matthew Sheahan.

Both IMOCA and VO65 fleets are gybing downwind now, approaching the halfway point of the coastal race.

Sailing Poland and the Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team are very close in the VO65 fleet with 11th Hour Racing Team and Bureau Vallée leading the charge in the IMOCAs.

13:30 CEST – Head over to www.twitter.com/theoceanrace for live tweet updates from Niall Myant-Best and Matthew Sheahan.

Both fleets are now underway in the first scoring coastal race of The Ocean Race Europe, the Mirpuri Foundation Sailing Trophy.

Both IMOCA and VO65 fleets are competing for bonus scoring points on the overall leaderboard (3 points for a win, 2 points for second place, 1 point for third, with the remaining teams not collecting points). There is also prize money on offer from the Mirpuri Foundation Sailing Trophy.

13:22 CEST – Head over to www.twitter.com/theoceanrace for live tweet updates from Niall Myant-Best and Matthew Sheahan.

Second start attempt is all clear and the VO65 fleet is racing – IMOCA to follow at 13:30.

13:15 CEST – Head over to www.twitter.com/theoceanrace for live tweet updates from Niall Myant-Best and Matthew Sheahan.

A general recall for the VO65 fleet on the first start attempt. The Race Committee is re-orienting the starting line and the fleet will restart at 12:20 local time.

The IMOCA fleet will follow 10 minutes later.

13:00 CEST – Head over to www.twitter.com/theoceanrace for live tweet updates from Niall Myant-Best and Matthew Sheahan.

The first fleet off the line will be the seven VO65s. They are racing for bonus points in The Ocean Race Europe (1st place, three points; 2nd place, two points; 3rd place, 1 point) as well as prize money offered up as part of the Mirpuri Foundation Sailing Trophy.

Chris Nicholson, AkzoNobel Ocean Racing: “It’s a 4 hour race so it’s not long, but it’s certainly not quite a sprint either……. semi new territory. Normally on an in-port race, you wouldn’t be stacking but on this one it’ll be full stacking….so harder than normal.”

12:10 CEST – The fleet is making its way from the docks to the starting area just off Yacht Club. Conditions are fresh, even in the protected bay, with about 12-15 knots, expected to build.

1130 CEST – Nice weather conditions here in Cascais this morning for the first scoring coastal race of The Ocean Race Europe. We’re expecting 15-20 knots of Northerly wind once the boats get clear of the starting area.

Start time VO65 is 12:05 local time / 13:05 CEST
Start time IMOCA is 12:15 local time / 13:15 CEST
The full race is expected to take over three hours.

With the long race course, we will be sharing live images and shooting video for post-production. There will also be live tracker updates and sailing journalists Matthew Sheahan and Niall Myant-Best will be live tweeting the racing over at www.twitter.com/theoceanrace

Dockside this morning, the AkzoNobel Ocean Racing skipper Chris Nicholson said he was expecting ‘an intense day, great racing’.