30th anniversary and record-breaking Sailing Point Easter Regatta

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Sailing Point Easter Regatta 2024

Jadralni Klub Pirat, Portoroz, Slovenia

From 27 to 31 March 2024, the Sailing Club Pirat Portorož (JK Pirat) will host more than 600 optimists in the 30th Sailing Point Easter Regatta, which is considered to be the largest in this part of Europe. 

The Sailing Point Easter Regatta has grown into one of the largest gatherings of young sailors in this part of Europe and represents an exceptional opportunity to promote Slovenia, Slovenian Istria and Portorož & Piran as sailing-friendly destinations. Every year, Portorož attracts some of the best young sailors in Europe. This year will be the same. More than 600 children from 20 countries will take part in the jubilee event.

Mitja Margon, President of JK Pirat Portorož: "It is both a privilege and a great responsibility to organise such a large and renowned regatta. We are extremely grateful that so many children, coaches and families return to the regatta every year and that many of them keep fond memories of Easter holidays in Portorož. Our goal is to keep the regatta growing and at such a high level, so we will continue to strive for improvements and development. I would like to thank the organising team, all the club members, volunteers and supporters who believe in our work and help us to achieve our goals."

Christian Poletti, Vice-Mayor of the Municipality of Piran, and Elena Šverko from the Portorož Tourist Board agreed on the great importance of sports tourism for the destination of Portorož & Piran, congratulating the organisers for their outstanding success and highlighting the efforts of the Municipality and the Board in supporting the club.

 First Easter Regatta with 90 participants, this year's with more than 600 participants

"The first regatta in 1993 was a spontaneous initiative of the then President of the Austrian Optimist Federation, Werner Delle Karth, who sent a request to the club to host 30 Optimist sailors during the Easter holidays. The club's management at the time decided to organise a special two-day regatta and called it the Easter Regatta. Around 90 sailors from coastal clubs, individuals from abroad and Austrian sailors took part," Vera Maraspin Čarman, an honorary member of the club and until recently the head of the organising committee and the driving force behind the regatta, recalls the beginnings.

For the first four years, the regatta was a two-day event. The number of sailors gradually grew. In the following years, Slovenians, Austrians and Italians were joined by Germans, Croats and Hungarians - about 130 sailors in total. In 1997, the club organised the first three-day Easter Regatta, which attracted even more sailors to Portorož during the holidays, a week before the official start of the event. In 2005, the regatta attracted almost 400 sailors from eight countries, the first time the club donated an Optimist class sailing boat as the main prize in the draw, which has become a tradition. Over the years, the number of participants and countries has gradually increased, and the Easter Regatta has become one of the most important Optimist Class regattas in Europe. With the support of the local community, it has continued to gain momentum. The organisation of the regatta in 2020 and 2021 was prevented by a pandemic, which made it all the more anticipated by the sailors a year later. Since 2022, the regatta has become a four-day event, which has added to the vibrancy of the seaside and the spring tourist pulse of Portorož and Piran.

Linking up with cross-border clubs

In recent years, the Pirat Sailing Club has gone one step further in linking clubs and promoting sailing among young people. It has linked four established Optimist class regattas with its friends Club Nautico Triestino Sirena and Società Velica di Barcola e Grignano in the Adriatic Golden Series powered by Sailing Point. The aim of the series is to achieve an even greater participation in common regattas and to be an example of mutual cooperation and support.

Green and colourful 30th edition of the regatta

This year, the Pirates will make sure that the regatta is sustainable, which is why they have teamed up with, among others, Rižanski vodovod Koper and the public company Okolje Piran to spread the message about the importance of drinking water and caring for the environment. To this end, they will also organise a coastal clean-up along the club's shoreline with Carletta the turtle. This year, the regatta will not only be green. The colourful image of the jubilee event was created by sailor, Olympian and long-time member of JK Pirat Veronika Macarol Tadič, who captured the optimists at sea, the silhouette of Piran and the Julian Alps in the background in a graphic.