The regatta will be sailed on L30 class boats, provided by organisers, with this year's race starting today and scheduled to finish in the Italian city on September 5.

The event is contested within the L30 class format of the mixed two-person offshore keelboat discipline.

World Sailing has applied for the discipline to be included as part of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and an announcement is expected later this year on whether the application has been successful.

Nine teams entered the event although Monaco did not start.

Teams representing Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Britain, Germany and Ireland entered the event and took the start today.

As L30 One Design OU provided nine boats for regatta, no qualification series was required.

Following a training day and a practice coastal race, the offshore race got underway at 3.45pm GMT.

As of 10pm GMT, as the race hit the six-hour mark, Italian pairing of Claudia Rossi and Matteo Mason were leading on home waters.

Spanish pair Iker Martinez and Natalia Via-Dufresne were in second place with Annemieke Bes and Douwe Broekens of the Netherlands in third.