The Hemingway International Yacht Club in Havana has invited US yachts from Sarasota Yacht Club (SYC), Florida, to compete in the Regatta Castillo del Morro, a 15-mile race on 6 June.

The SYC team has applied for permission from the US government, which permits its citizens to visit Cuba on a case by case basis. A spokesman for the yacht club said: “Our application explains that all U.S. sailors would be staying on our own boats and bringing our own provisions, so we would not be spending any money in Cuba.”

Plans are also already afoot for an offshore race between the two countries that severed diplomatic ties 50 years ago.

For more info: www.sarasotayachtclub.org.