SSL Snipe Challenge

On November 24 and 25, Guanabara Bay will host the SSL Snipe Challenge, an invitation regatta for Open and Women’s fleets. The event is organised by the Iate Clube do Rio de Janeiro in cooperation with CBVela and the Snipe Class International Racing Association (SCIRA), under the patronage of the Star Sailors League and the Sailing Athletes Foundation (SAF).

The regatta is part of the SSL Gold Cup, which brings national sailing teams together in a format inspired by the football World Cup. A total of 66 nations are involved, 40 of them in the final series, racing the SSL47 yachts. The SSL Gold Cup is recognised by World Sailing as a Special Event. The Snipes will share its venue, the Marina da Glória, and its regatta village, including the main stage and the social programme.

Who is coming

The top five teams from the recent World Championship in Mahón are expected. Ernesto Rodriguez (USA), the winner in Mahón and a multiple US, Western Hemisphere and Pan American Games medallist, sails with Diego Lipszyc (ARG). He is also a member of the US team at the Gold Cup. Julio Alsogaray and Malena Sciarra (ARG), runners-up in Mahón and the 2024 world champions, are also entered. Alsogaray is a Laser Olympian and a Pan American Games gold medallist.

Alfredo González and Cristian Sánchez (ESP), who won the Worlds in 2022 and took the bronze this year, will take part. González is also on the Spanish team at the SSL Gold Cup. Manu Hens (BEL) will sail with Alexandre Tinoco (NED), fourth in Mahón. Tinoco won the Worlds in 2011. Felipe Rondina and João Pedro Herrlein (BRA), fifth in Mahón, will race in separate boats.

Several past world champions are on the list. Mateus Tavares (BRA) won in 2015. Bruno Bethlem (BRA), a multiple Olympian in the 470, won in 2009 and 2013. Henrique Haddad (BRA), Olympian in the 470, was the Snipe Worlds winner in 2019. Nelido Manso (CUB) won in 1999 and captains Cuba at the SSL Gold Cup. Ricky Fabini (URU), world champion in 1989 and a Laser Olympian, captains Uruguay. Augie Diaz (USA) won the Snipe Worlds in 2003 and 2005 and is also a Star world champion. The current Snipe Class Commodore, Martín Bermúdez de la Puente (ESP), will also be on the water.

Other sailors competing in both events (SSL Gold Cup and SSL Snipe Challenge) include Mario Tinoco and Juninho Jesus (BRA), and Esteban Echavarria and Juan Esteban Restrepo (COL). They are joined by Nick Grael, Bernardo Peixoto, Juliana Duque, and others from Brazil, by Gustavo del Castillo from Spain (3x European Champion) and by Nicolás García and Alejandro Triggiano from Argentina. A sizeable women’s fleet is also expected, with crews from Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Japan, Chile and the United States. Many of them will stay on for the Snipe Women’s Hemisphere Cup in Niterói, which starts right after the Challenge.

The format

In keeping with the SSL approach, the Challenge replaces a long points series with a knockout. After the first day of the qualifying series, each fleet will be reduced to ten boats. On Day 2, ranks three to ten races in a quarter-final, and the top five go through to a semi-final. The second-ranked boat from qualifying joins the semi-final directly. The winner of the qualifying series goes straight to the Final, where four boats race a single race for the title. Racing is umpired under Appendix UF, and crews will wear national jerseys.

New boats for South America

Part of the SAF’s mission is to promote racing in small boats across South America. For the Challenge, ten new Lemão Snipes, bought by CBVela with the SAF’s support, will be launched. The organisers will lend a limited number of charter boats free of charge, with priority for international teams.

Brazil and the Snipe

The Challenge is also a recognition of how deep Brazil’s ties to the class are. Brazilian sailors have won the Snipe World Championship 14 times, which puts the country second only to the United States. They have also won the Women’s Worlds twice and the Junior Worlds nine times. The list of Brazilian world champions includes Axel and Erik Schmidt, Nelson Piccolo, Torben Grael, Mauricio Santa Cruz, Alexandre Paradeda, Bruno Bethlem, Alexandre Tinoco, Mateus Tavares and Henrique Haddad. Every member of Brazil’s team at the SSL Gold Gold Cup is a Snipe sailor. The Snipe is also a Pan American Games class, which gives the Rio event a place in the continent’s wider sailing calendar.

Event’s Online Notice Board

The SSL Knockout Format

True to the signature Star Sailors League style, the SSL Snipe Challenge replaces traditional high-point math with a thrilling, spectator-friendly “sudden death” knockout format where prior points are completely discarded in the final stages:

Day 1: Qualifying Series (November 24): Fleet races for both fleets. Maximum consistency is heavily rewarded here to protect top performers. Only the top 10 boats survive the cut to advance to the Knockout Stage.

The “Fast Track” Advantage: * 1st Place: Skips the Quarter-finals and Semi-finals, advancing directly to the Grand Final (guaranteeing a top 4 finish).

2nd Place: Skips the Quarter-finals and advances straight to the Semi-final.
3rd to 10th Place: Must fight their way through every single knockout round.

Day 2: Knockout Series (November 25): A pure test of nerves where only your crossing position in that specific race matters.

Quarter-final (1 Race): Boats ranked 3rd to 10th compete. The top 5 advance; the bottom 3 are eliminated.
Semi-final (1 Race): The top 5 from the Quarters join the 2nd seed from the qualifiers. The top 3 advance.
The Grand Final (Final 4 – 1 Race): A winner-takes-all showdown featuring just 4 boats on the starting line: the top 3 from the Semi-final plus the 1st seed from the qualifiers. No complex math, no discards—the first boat to cross the finish line wins the entire event.

Phase	Participants	Who Advances
Quarter-Finals	Teams ranked 3rd to 10th (8 boats)	Top 5 advance to Semi-Final
Semi-Final	5 qualifiers + 2nd ranked from Day 1 (6-7 boats)	Top 3 advance to Final
Final	3 qualifiers + 1st ranked from Day 1 (4 boats)	Winner-takes-all

About the SSL Gold Cup

SAILING 2026 will be the year that hosts the second edition of the SSL Gold Cup, the Football World Cup… in sailing. This edition will feature the participation of 66nations, with 40 competing in the final series, and an expected audience of 10 million viewers.

Football has its World Cup, sailing now has its own: the SSL GOLD CUP, the ultimate challenge between nations to crown the Nations World Champion. Developed from an initiative by the best sailors on the planet and founders of the Star Sailors League (SSL), the SSL GOLD CUP will be raced in spectacular 14m yachts with a format modelled on the Football World Cup. Like that pinnacle event in football, national teams of 8-10 athletes will compete for the SSL Gold Cup, each wearing the colours of their country (affiliated with World Sailing: totalling 144 member national authorities).

Like the Football World Cup, the SSL GOLD CUP will bring together sailing’s best athletes who, thanks to the support of the event’s organizers, will enjoy the use of the boats and the training centre for regular scheduled training and the competition. In short, this represents a giant first for sailing!

The SSL Gold Cup is recognized by World Sailing as a World Sailing Special Event.

SSL Gold Cup event hub (World of Sailors): sslgoldcup.worldofsailors.com

Instagram: @starsailorsleague @sslgoldcup

Facebook: @StarSailorsLeague @SSLGoldCup

LinkedIn: @star-sailors-league