There has been no let-up in the intensity of the racing at the front of the fleet of The Ocean Race Europe 2025 during the fourth day of Leg 5 — from Genoa, Italy to Boka Bay in Montenegro — on Thursday 11 September.
The top five IMOCA boats rounded the Italian island of Ustica overnight in the midst of a powerful thunderstorm that delivered brilliant flashes of sheet lightning and heavy rain, but little in the way of breeze.
However, the threat of a sudden squall was ever present, making for nervous times on board the boats, with the sailors on high alert as they ghosted downwind along the island’s shoreline.
Just 11 nautical miles separated the top four teams with Yoann Richomme’s Paprec Arkéa (FRA) continuing to hold the lead by around three miles over Paul Meilhat’s Biotherm (FRA) in second. Boris Herrmann’s Team Malizia (GER), rounded in third with Ambrogio Beccaria’s Italian entry Allagrande Mapei close behind in fourth.
“There were two waypoints — one north and one south — on the northern side of the island of Ustica,” explained Team Malizia’s Italian sailor Francesca Clapcich. “We are in fourth position and we are still in the fight. It was definitely extremely tricky: we had thunderstorms and lightning, a lot of wind shifts. Most of the time we were on the wrong side of the shift [which was] quite frustrating but it’s part of the game.
“Now we are making our way south and going around Sicily. We are making our way slowly but surely. There is still some lightning outside, lots of clouds, there are so many squalls. The Med is not a joke — especially this time of year. I’m looking forward to getting a bit further south and into the Adriatic where hopefully it will be a little bit more stable. We will see.”
After rounding Ustica, the leading group faced upwind conditions in around 10 knots of westerly breeze, but this soon transitioned into faster downwind sailing as the breeze turned northerly, sending the leading group tearing past the small island of Favignana off the western side of Sicily at foiling speeds over 20 knots.
The top four split into two pairs, with overall race leader Biotherm chasing down Paprec Arkéa for the leg lead, and Allagrande Mapei similarly locked in a match race with Team Malizia.
But as the afternoon wore on, it became a five-boat spread — with Paprec Arkéa, Mapei, Biotherm and Team Holcim-PRB almost in a north-to-south formation from second to fifth, while Team Malizia edged into the lead further south.
The pressure is high aboard all the leading yachts as the sleep-deprived crews try to pick their way through the many potential pitfalls presented by the predominantly cloudy and unstable conditions. There is little time for sleep as the sailors split their attention between optimising their own boats for speed in the changing conditions and monitoring their rivals’ sail set up and performance.
Further back, on sixth-placed Canada Ocean Racing – Be Water Positive, the mood is positive, with French sailor Sébastien Marsset saying he was having fun sailing in a solid breeze and flat water.
“We haven’t had so much of these conditions since we started so it’s good to enjoy it,” he said. “It’s good to see that we are doing a better job [of helming] than the pilot. The sea state is not so good and I think the pilot struggles to get us in between those small sideways waves. So I think we are doing better while we can see. Night time will be different, that will be difficult.”
Find out how to catch all the action live via The Ocean Race website.
