On Tuesday 7th April, the Portimão Global Ocean Race fleet was the centrepiece for a visit by 90 students handpicked from ten schools around the island of Ilhabela. Throwing the boats open to students is an accepted part of round-the-world-race etiquette and every circumnavigation race will – as a matter of course – arrange a series of school visits in each stop over port as a method of communicating the reality of yacht racing and as a public relations exercise between the race organisation and the host city or port.

The Portimão Global Ocean Race has already proved to be a unique event in format and style, but the school visit earlier this week once again underscored the individuality of the race. While school children in some of the more frequently visited round-the-world-race stop over ports may be slightly blasé about the arrival of an offshore racing fleet whether the prefix is Velux, Volvo or the now extinct Challenge Business pay-as-you-go race, the experience was entirely fresh for the group of seven to nine-year-olds from Ilhabela.

Firstly, most of the children weren’t even alive when the 1997-98 Whitbread Round the World Race called into the port São Sebastião across the channel separating Ilhabela from mainland Brazil: indeed the adult population – with the exception of the team at North Sails and the local Yanmar agent – have hazy recollections of the visit. Secondly, the local sailing event of the year – Rolex Ilhabela Sailing Week – is based in the exclusive Yacht Club de Ilhabela (YCI) and a close-up view of the yachts competing is not easy to achieve. However, due to the generosity of the YCI, the students were allowed into the club’s hallowed grounds and given access to the private marina that doubles as the race base for the Portimão fleet during their stay on Ilhabela.

Hosted by the Race Director, Josh Hall, with translation into Portuguese provided by Ilhabela-based round-the-world sailor and local race liaison officer, André Homem de Mello, the exceptionally well-behaved, polite and courteous students filed onto the club’s immaculate pontoons. Having explained the background to the race, Hall highlighted the bravery of the double-handed skippers, pointing out that solo sailor Michel Kleinjans was bravest of all for sailing Roaring Forty all the way around the world alone. Once briefed, the students were shown around the Leg 3 winner, Class 40 Desafio Cabo de Hornos of the Chilean double-handed team Felipe Cubillos and co-skipper José Muñoz.

At question time after the tour, it was the girls in the group who proved most inquisitive, bombarding Hall with questions and quickly grasped the level of hardship experienced by the skippers. Questions about sleep, food and water supply were common and the sighting of sharks, whales, dolphins and turtles was a popular theme. Towards the end of the visit, one of the older girls asked why the race had chosen to come to Ilhabela. When Hall replied that the island was world famous for polite children and that the reception from locals has overwhelmed the skippers, the students were quick to demand that the race should return to Ilhabela again later in the year. While scheduling the next race so quickly is obviously impossible, all the teams and the Portimão Global Ocean Race and the Race Organisation have been stunned by the welcome that Ilhabela and the YCI have provided.