Gourmet Race Moraira: 32 boats cooking at sea

You are handed a fish, you sail out, and somewhere between the buoys a dish has to appear that convinces fourteen judges. That is the idea behind the Gourmet Race of Club Náutico Moraira, which reaches its thirteenth edition this weekend. Thirty-two boats are entered, the waiting list is full, and the compulsory ingredient for 2026 is lubina, sea bass.

What the Gourmet Race actually is

The format takes one sentence to explain and is far harder in practice than it sounds. Before departure every boat is handed a product. That product is the compulsory main ingredient. While sailing, the crew turns it into a dish. Back in the harbour they present that dish at the club Village, where a jury judges it.

So this is not a sailing race with dinner afterwards, and not a cookery contest with a boat trip attached. The two run through each other. You can cross the line first and still lose because your fish sat on the heat too long, and the other way round.

The motto the club attaches to it is “Navega, cocina, saborea”: sail, cook, taste. In that order, and all on the same morning.

This year 32 boats take part. That is the ceiling: there is a waiting list. For an event that started as an idea in a sailing club in a municipality of 12,912 people, that is not a bad position after thirteen editions.

The programme, hour by hour

The Gourmet Race runs over two days, but most of what you can see as a visitor happens on Saturday.

Friday 2 October. The teams are presented. Then comes the skippers’ meeting, where the race committee goes through the rules and the course. After that the collaborating companies hand the products to the crews, and the day closes with a welcome cocktail.

Saturday 3 October, 09:30. The Dock Out Show and the start. The Dock Out Show is the moment the boats leave the harbour one by one, past the public on the quay. If you want to see one thing without needing a ticket or an invitation, this is it.

12:30. The Gourmet Race Village opens on the club grounds.

12:45. Showcooking by Nazario Cano.

After that. The prize giving and a lunch for the crews and the collaborators, followed by the Tardeo Gourmet Race, the afternoon that simply carries on from it. Visauto raffles gifts in between.

At the presentation, the mayor of Teulada-Moraira, Raúl Llobell, explicitly invited the public to come and watch on 3 October.

Why it is sea bass this year

The compulsory ingredient this edition is lubina, European sea bass. That is not a random choice for a competition where you have to cook on board.

Sea bass has firm white flesh that does not fall apart at the first touch. It takes being cooked whole or in portions, in a pan, in the oven, in salt, raw. That versatility is exactly what you want when you give thirty-two different crews the same raw material and want to see who does something of their own with it.

In Valencian kitchens the classic is lubina a la espalda: the fish is opened out along the back, cooked hard with garlic and oil, and taken apart at the table. Simple, and merciless if the fish is not fresh. The other classic is a la sal, under a crust of coarse sea salt in the oven, where the fish cooks in its own moisture.

A jury made up of chefs sees through that in one bite. Too long on the heat and the flesh turns dry and stringy. Too short and it will not come off the bone. On a moving boat, with a small galley and no way of nipping out for anything, that is a good deal harder than in a restaurant kitchen.

The organisers have not said who supplies the fish. The products come from the companies collaborating with the event and are handed over on Friday.

The jury: fourteen names

This is where the Gourmet Race separates itself from the average harbour event. The jury has fourteen members, and it is not an honorary role for local dignitaries.

The president is Alberto Ferruz of BonAmb in Xàbia. His restaurant holds two stars in the 2026 Michelin guide, and has done for years. BonAmb opened in July 2011 and works with produce from the Marina Alta itself.

The rest of the jury:

• Emmanuelle Baron, Casa Pepa in Ondara
• María Morales, Esencia
• José Manuel Miguel, Beat in Calp
• José Vicente Pérez, El Bressol
• Pepa Navarro, El Cranc
• César Marquiegui, L’Olleta
• Vicky Sevilla, Arrels in Sagunt
• Cuchita Lluch, Real Academia de Gastronomía
• Sergio Terol, president of the Academia de Gastronomía de la Comunitat Valenciana
• Juan Echanove, actor and gastronome
• Óscar Carrión, GastroUni
• Santos Ruiz, food journalist
• José Ignacio Cuenca Losada, journalist and sommelier

Echanove and Lluch are back this year; both have sat on the Gourmet Race jury before. For an event that is not a television format and hands out no prize money, judges returning is probably the most honest verdict on quality there is.

A jury with real stars in it

Two names on that list deserve some context, because they show the company the crews are putting a plate down in front of on Saturday.

Vicky Sevilla opened Arrels in Sagunt in 2017, in the old stables of a medieval palace. In December 2021 she was given a Michelin star for it, at twenty-nine, making her the youngest woman in Spain to hold one. Arrels has kept that star since, including in the 2026 selection.

Alberto Ferruz holds two stars with BonAmb in a town that has three in total: the other starred restaurant in Xàbia is Tula, with one. For a municipality of this size that is unusual, and it is precisely why the Marina Alta appears on the Spanish gastronomic map and not only on the tourist one.

That names like these sit down at a table in a marina on a Saturday afternoon to taste what amateurs cooked on a moving boat says something about how seriously the trade takes this event.

The Village, the showcooking and the tardeo

While the fleet is out, the club builds the Gourmet Race Village ashore. It opens at 12:30.

A quarter of an hour later the showcooking by Nazario Cano begins. Showcooking is exactly what the word says: a chef working in front of an audience and explaining what he is doing as he goes, without the fourth wall of a restaurant kitchen in between.

Then the boats come in, the dishes are presented and judged, and the prize giving follows with a lunch for the crews and the collaborating companies. The afternoon carries on into the Tardeo Gourmet Race. Tardeo is a Spanish word that does not translate: it is the afternoon you spend on a terrace and that turns into the evening without anyone deciding.

One of the prizes handed out is the Festive Spirit Award. The club publishes a separate set of rules for it, alongside the notice of race and the programme. What the other prize categories are is not stated in the announcements we were able to read.

Who runs it and who pays for it

The organisation sits with Club Náutico Moraira. At the presentation of this edition the table held Juan Vicente Oller, club president, Andrés Rivero, director, Tomás Solano, technical director, and Juan Moll, race director. From the council came Verónica Martínez, councillor for tourism, and mayor Raúl Llobell.

The council taking part is not a formality. In October Teulada-Moraira sits in exactly the phase the whole coast sits in: the beach season is over, the temperature is still fine, and the question is whether there is enough going on to keep people here. An event that fills thirty-two boats with crews who stay the night and eat out is a different kind of weekend for local hospitality than an ordinary October weekend.

On the sponsor side are Mercedes-Benz Visauto, L’Exquisit Mediterrani and Engel & Völkers, among others. Visauto raffles gifts among those present on Saturday.

Entries for the race itself go through the club sports office, by email at deportes@cnmoraira.com. For this edition that is of little use: the fleet is full and there is a waiting list.

Practical: getting there, and what we do not know

What you can see for free and without arranging anything: the Dock Out Show and the start at 09:30 from the harbour quays, and the fleet coming back later in the morning. That is public space.

Come early. Moraira marina sits right against the town and the parking around it is already full on an ordinary Saturday. With thirty-two crews plus spectators it will not be better on 3 October. Leave the car in the town and walk.

Book if you want to eat. The restaurants around the harbour will run at an occupancy that does not belong to October that Saturday. That goes for lunch and for the tardeo afterwards.

And now what we honestly do not know. Whether the Village is open to members of the public who are not attached to a crew or a sponsor is in none of the announcements. The same goes for any entry fee and for the full list of prizes. The mayor invited the public to come and watch, but that is not the same as an officially confirmed free entry to the grounds. Ask the club if the Village is what you are after rather than the start.

Moraira is twenty minutes from Jávea, half an hour from Calp and about forty minutes from Dénia. For anyone living here this is a morning out, not a trip.

Why this event sits in October

A sailing race with chefs attached in the first weekend of October is not a coincidence. It is an answer to a problem this whole coast has.

August is full here. That is not a figure of speech: the provincial hotel association APHA measured occupancy of 98.9 per cent in Teulada-Moraira for August 2026, the highest in the entire province, above Benidorm and above Alicante. In September the coast barely came off that.

And then October arrives. The weather is still good, the sea is still warm enough to swim in, and yet occupancy drops. Not because it is less beautiful here, but because the school holidays are over and there are fewer reasons to come.

That is the council arithmetic. Thirty-two crews means a few hundred people staying a night or two, eating out and filling up the car. A showcooking and a tardeo also pull people from Jávea, Calp and Dénia who would otherwise have stayed in their own town. For a restaurant on the harbour, the difference between an ordinary October Saturday and this one is the difference between half the tables and all of them.

It is also why you see the same pattern along the whole Costa Blanca this autumn. Councils are sticking events onto the months in which the beach no longer carries the season on its own.

What else to make of your weekend

If you come to Moraira for the start, you are done by about eleven and have a whole day ahead of you. A few things within walking distance or ten minutes’ drive.

The Castell de Moraira stands on l’Ampolla beach, right next to the harbour. It is an octagonal coastal fort from 1742, built against Barbary landings, and one of the few on this coast still standing. It is a five minute walk from the quay.

The Torre del Cap d’Or is the tower you can see above the harbour in the photographs. The path starts at El Portet and climbs to the cliff edge in a little under half an hour. The view from up there runs from the Peñón de Ifach to the Cap de Sant Antoni.

El Portet itself is the round bay on the other side of the headland, with calmer water than the main beach.

And if you are in the mood for eating and drinking in this municipality anyway: Teulada-Moraira also holds the Alere Dolia wine festival in September, which goes back to the moscatel the inland part lives on. The season here turns on two things, and they are not beach and sun.

Why a jury like this is possible here

That fourteen chefs and gastronomes turn up at a marina in Moraira on a Saturday says something about where this event sits.

In ten years the Marina Alta has gone from a stretch of coast with good restaurants to a region the guide travels to. Dénia was named a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy in December 2015, the first Spanish city to get it, in a cohort of forty-seven cities from thirty-three countries. That is not a tourist title but recognition of a kitchen with a history of its own: the red prawn, the rice dishes, the salted fish from the harbour.

Twenty kilometres away, Xàbia holds three Michelin stars across two houses, BonAmb with two and Tula with one. Ondara has Casa Pepa, Calp has Beat, and at the start of September we reported that Ca SeKo in Dénia had entered the Michelin guide. Together that is a few square kilometres of coast.

Putting a jury together in this region is therefore a different job from elsewhere. Nobody has to be flown in. Most of Saturday’s judges work within half an hour’s drive of the quay where they will be tasting.

Frequently asked questions

When is the Gourmet Race 2026? Friday 2 and Saturday 3 October. The public part is on Saturday.

Where is it? At Club Náutico Moraira, in Moraira harbour, municipality of Teulada-Moraira.

What time is the start? 09:30, with the Dock Out Show.

When does the Village open? At 12:30. The showcooking starts at 12:45.

What is the compulsory ingredient this year? Lubina, European sea bass.

How many boats take part? Thirty-two, and there is a waiting list.

Who chairs the jury? Alberto Ferruz of BonAmb in Xàbia, a restaurant with two Michelin stars.

Who does the showcooking? Nazario Cano, at 12:45 in the Village.

Can I still enter a boat? Not for this edition: the fleet is full and so is the waiting list. Entries go through deportes@cnmoraira.com.

Does it cost anything to watch? Watching the start from the quay is free. Whether the Village is freely accessible has not been announced by the organisers.

Which edition is this? The thirteenth.

About the authorMilo Schuijt

Milo Schuijt is an entrepreneur and DJ on the Costa Blanca. He writes about the places where he lives, works and plays: from beach bars to the housing market.