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County Wicklow offshore sailor Pamela Lee from Greystones Harbour is competing in this weekend's newest Italian yachting fixture, the 'Nastro Rosa Veloce', billed as the longest, non-stop race in the Mediterranean.

Scheduled to start yesterday in Venice, the race was delayed 24h hours due to very high waters and the closure of new mobile floodgates at the lagoon port inlets that defend Venice.

Lee is sailing with Italian Skipper Andrea Fornaro, who has done two mini-transats and now racing Class40s.

The Mixed double crew race starts in front of San Marco Square in Venice.

Lee and Fornano, known as 'Team Influence' are racing in a fleet of 10 Figaros from Venice to Genoa, non-stop. (Outside Sicily).

Pamela Lee and Andrea Fornaro at the race launch

There is a Prize Pool of €50,000 to be shared by all 10 competing teams (€20 for 1st place, €10k for 2nd place, €5k for 3rd place, …..€1k for 10th place)

Overall, it's about 1,400 nm, when you count in the required gates of the course, which take the fleet back into the Italian coast again, and inside a number of islands, rather than straight back up the Med.

There are eight pit stops locations along the course.

The Italian-Irish pair hadn't met in person before the race and Fornaro hasn’t sailed the Figaro yacht before though, so invited Lee to team up a few weeks ago.

Live tracking is here

The Nastro Rosa Veloce race course

Lee refers to herself as 'a three times Round Ireland World Record holding Offshore Sailor'.

Her recent sailing projects include racing in the Doublehanded Figaro 3 circuit in France. Her focus is on building her offshore sailing expertise by racing in this competitive fleet and competing in the 2023 Class40 The Race Around.