Paul Meilhat’s french-flagged IMOCA 60 has won Leg 5 of The Ocean Race Europe. They completed the 1,600 mile stretch from Genoa, Italy, to Boka Bay, Montenegro, in seven days, eight hours, and 33 minutes. The leg’s victorious crew consisted of Mielhat, his co-skipper Amélie Grassi (France), Benjamin Ferré (France), and Carlos Manera (Spain).
“I’m just happy to share [the victory] first with the crew,” Meilhat said. “The finish line is two hours from [the dock] so we had time to celebrate together. Now here we celebrate with the shore team. That’s really important, because there are two parts of this victory. The organization on shore was crazy, the boat preparation was crazy.”
“I can’t believe we won the last one,” Grassi said. “That’s a great achievement and I am really proud of the whole team. We wanted to win the race but the plan wasn’t to win that many legs. I am really, really happy for the team. I am proud of us and proud of the shore team as well.”
The core of the Biotherm team was assembled for The 2023 Ocean Race, in which the boat finished fourth of five and was very consistent but struggled to stay competitive. When asked what had changed to make their team so dominant, Meilhat said it was a confluence of different factors including the boat design, shore support, and technical aspects.
“It shows that Biotherm is more designed for this sort of race because it is really fast in transitions—light winds and flat water,” he said. “We did a lot of improvements on the boat this winter. Also the crew, the motivation—I think we are all focused, we all concentrated, and we all wanted to win the race. That was the case from [the start in] Kiel.”
After a dominant performance throughout, Biotherm now has the points to secure the overall title in the 2025 race. They have been standouts in this competition from the beginning, winning four of the five legs and earning extra points for leading the way through the course’s scoring gates.
Leg 5 was a challenging one for the fleet of seven IMOCA 60s, with light air plaguing the start followed by squalls and rain. Getting away from the Italian coast, the fleet cruised downwind, often exceeding 30 knots of boat speed. Ultimately Holcim-PRB, skippered by Rosalin Kuiper, finished second after a massive comeback of over 100 miles. Boris Herman’s Malizia rounded out the podium for the leg.
Though the offshore portion of the event is over, a final coastal showdown is scheduled for September 20th and will award the fleet a few last points. For four of the six teams, this is not the time to let off the gas. The leaderboard has Holcim-PRB and Paprec Arkéa separated by just a half point, meaning that the results of this final race will decide the overall podium. Similarly, Allagrande Mapei and Malizia will be in contention for the fourth place spot, currently separated by a single point on the scoreboard.
“We are now within half a point of Paprec Arkéa,” said Kuiper after arriving in Montenegro. “That means that whoever is ahead between the two boats will be second on the overall scoreboard. So a very important day for us on Saturday, but now we celebrate our second position here and tomorrow we start to focus on Saturday.”
For more about The Ocean Race Europe and to follow the final standoff of the 2025 race, click here.
September 2025
