“It’s going to be full on from start to finish, but we knew that was the case—that’s what we signed up for.”
Leg 3 of The Ocean Race Europe is a short sprint from Cartagena, Spain, to Nice, France and includes two turning marks, one off the coast of St Tropez and the other off Il de la Giraglia. (The latter was moved from the rock itself to a point 20nm off the coast earlier today in order to divert the fleet away from potentially dangerous waters during a night predicted to see thunderstorms and gale force winds.)
At press time, however, the fleet is scraping for every knot of breeze they can get, converging as they approach that first turning mark from the south and skirting a light zone to the northwest. The previous night was also plagued with light air and extreme heat, as is typical of the Med in August.
“I don’t know how many times we changed headsail—maybe five or six times—so it is a lot of work for the crew,” said Paul Mielhat of Biotherm. They currently lead the fleet, having spent the night in a gybing duel with Holcim-PRB. When the breeze picked up in the morning, the French team was able to successfully navigate the transition into an 11nm lead over Rosalin Kuiper’s Holcim-PRB. The continued lack of breeze, however, has caused the fleet to condense once again, and we could see another scoreboard shuffle overnight.
“It’s going to be full on from start to finish, but we knew that was the case—that’s what we signed up for,” Carolijn Brouwer (Holcim-PRB) says. The light air doesn’t mean rest for the crews. Instead, the heat and constant sail changes are taxing. “It’s hard to keep hydrated, and you lose a lot of calories, so we are really trying to eat a lot to get the energy back into the body.”
But, it hasn’t all been exhaustion and nit picking. “Going along the northern side of Mallorca was really, really beautiful,” Brouwer says. “We came very close in to the shore – there was enough depth there—and at the same time we were battling it out with Biotherm to see who could push further inshore,” she continues.
Both teams involved with the Leg 1 collision are back on the course and putting up a strong showing in Leg 3, with Holcim-PRB in second and Allagrane Mapei in third at press time.
The first finishers are expected to arrive in Nice around 6:00am local time on Friday morning, but continuing light air, especially on the approach to shore, could delay the fleet.
Now in its second edition, The Ocean Race Europe is a little sister to The Ocean Race, added when the global circumnavigation made the switch from VO 65s to IMOCA 60s. The pre-existing IMOCA 60 race calendar works in a four year cycle, and the race organization decided to add The Ocean Race Europe and The Ocean Race Atlantic (new in 2026) to create more crewed opportunities for the fleet to face off. This makes for a smaller scale on-ramp for some programs to get into crewed racing, as well as an opportunity for a lot more sailors to get IMOCA 60 experience since historically they’ve been primarily raced solo or doublehanded. All teams in this event race with four sailors and one onboard reporter.
For more on The Ocean Race Europe and to check out how the teams are faring, click here.
