With 500 kilometres of Mediterranean coast, and around 1500 kilometres of Atlantic coastline, Morocco is naturally suited to sailing, and has become a premier destination for cruising yachts and major regattas.
Team Morocco, the Atlas Lion Sailors, made their debut at the SSL Gold Cup 2026 African & Oceanian Qualifiers, so I talked to crewmember Zineb Hariss to find out more about the team, their challenges, and sailing opportunities in Morocco.
The great news is that sailing is a growing sport in the country, as Zineb describes, “Sailing in Morocco is quite developed nowadays; it's a sport that wasn't very well known before, but now people are doing more and more sailing, and the Federation (Fédération Royale Marocaine de Voile) is supporting this and bringing new boats into the country.”
The Mediterranean coast is the most popular for sailing, with easy access to the many events taking place in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and the islands of Mallorca, Sardinia and Sicily. The climate is also ideal, varying between 17°C in winter up to 29°C in August, with a range of wind strengths, highest at Tangier near the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Levante regularly pipes up to 20 knots, and more gentle in the Gulf of Hoceima.
Zineb first found sailing through her family and the support of the Navy, “It was due to my dad, because he is in the Navy, and he brought me to the sailing club. I did some Optimist sailing, but not a lot and not too seriously. It was after my baccalaureate I took up ILCA 6 sailing, competing at events like the 2023 Under 21 World Championship in Tangier and more recently the 2026 Arab Sailing Championship at Soma Bay, and I have won the Moroccan National Championship three times.”
Much of the experience of the Atlas Lion Sailors team is in smaller boats, so coming together as a team in the SSL47 yachts for the SSL Gold Cup Qualifiers has been an entirely new experience, but as Zineb describes, the team has bonded well, “We did the training camp, but at this event the team has been much better. The first day was really good, because it was the first time for us all to train in this boat; there is a chemistry between us, and we just want to train more and more.”
The SSL47 is a high performance yacht and can be complex to sail to its full potential. The team has shown remarkable calmness when things don’t go perfectly, such as stalling at the leeward mark during a race, “We all have trust in each other, but also in our captain Hakim Hasni. He maintains the team well and keeps talking with us and with our tactician, to be calm and not to stress in moments where we have issues.”
The SSL Gold Cup is playing an increasing role in expanding the world of competitive sailing to more and more countries, for which Zineb and the entire Moroccan team is grateful, and they have fully embraced the SSL spirit and family, “For me, as an international student of Law and Diplomatic Relations, I see that the SSL Gold Cup is playing a really good role in the development of countries and the contact between sailors of different countries, helping countries to compete against each other. It's a really good initiative for diplomacy in sport.”
Morocco is hosting more and more prestigious sailing events, and the Atlas Lion Sailors mainsheet trimmer Marouane Hasni is rightly proud of a huge upcoming event: “Moroccan sailing is represented by our federation, the Fédération Royale Marocaine de Voile, and we have a new committee who are working hard for the upcoming Optimist World Championship. We will host 300 children and their parents in Tangier - it's a very big event for us. We have a very good sailor in the ILCA 7 class and another in the iQFOiL, taking part in all the major Sailing Grand Slam competitions and especially events in Africa and the Arab world. We are trying to establish more clubs in Morocco. There are now ten, but we are trying to create some in cities where there are no clubs, building new clubs to help find more sailors.”
Marouane speaks with such enthusiasm on how the sport is growing at home, and the potential for it to grow so much more, “We have the Mediterranean coast and the Atlantic coast, and the human resources. The problem sometimes is material costs and management, but we now have very good management, so we can do a lot.”
There is a strong tradition of sailing in the Navy, and they are highly supportive of sailing events, “The Navy is located in Casablanca, and at every competition organised by the Federation the Navy are present, giving us a lot of help with RIBs and people. We have seven sailors in our team from the Navy, and they are doing a fantastic job.”
The SSL family grew this week, with three new teams joining the fold and competing at the SSL Gold Cup 2026 African & Oceanian Qualifiers for the first time. Sailing is growing in many of the emerging nations, and the SSL Gold Cup is bringing the world of sailors together.
