The Ocean Race Europe: Biotherm keep perfect score as Paprec Arkéa charge back into contention

This was no easy cruise. The Bay of Biscay may have delivered smooth conditions, but that only tightened the pack. For much of the leg the entire fleet has been compressed within a handful of miles, every gybe and sail change magnified. It was a night of gains and losses measured in metres, the kind of racing where you dare not look away from the sails.

Meilhat and his crew took the decisive move at Cape Finisterre, rotating into the new breeze first on the western side of the fleet. From there they pushed hard and never let go.

“In the Bay of Biscay we were reaching in light, so that was good for us and we took the advantage just before Finisterre,” said Meilhat on the dock. “We kept to the west of the fleet and it was the perfect strategy.”

For all the celebrations, the French skipper was clear this was not a dominant procession like the leg into Portsmouth. “It’s true that it was different from the first leg. Here it was hard to the end. Even tonight, the wind wasn’t as expected, so we did some gybes and the wind was really shifty. But we found the solution to go really fast and we’ve been really happy with the boat.”

Behind them, Paprec Arkéa pulled off the comeback of the leg. Yoann Richomme’s team had dropped to the back after losing ground at the tidal gate off Brittany, but fought their way through the pack to take second, 42 minutes behind Biotherm.

“We lost a lot of miles at the tip of Brittany, which hurt us quite a bit because we were in the lead,” Richomme explained. “We’ve been fighting ever since to come back. And we had a wonderful night catching up to Malizia and then the whole team, and pulling away some miles. So overall it’s great news for us.”

The final push came in the last 12 hours. “We were neck and neck with Malizia for a while last night. Then there was a really big speed run all the way to the waypoint to the west. We were really fast in those conditions and had a nice manoeuvre, a gybe set around the mark. I think we selected the right sail as well and maybe they had a smaller sail. We reacted a lot faster and gybed south. Everything went right for us and we got the right angle coming into Porto.”

After making the boldest gains of the fleet, six points in Matosinhos keep Paprec Arkéa firmly in the hunt. For Richomme, his hopes of winning The Ocean Race Europe for a second time are still alive. “Now I think the wind’s dying a bit on the north of the course. It’s going to be hard for the others to get in, so it’s a good result for us.”

Third place went to Holcim-PRB, 32 minutes behind Paprec. For skipper Rosalin Kuiper, it marked the team’s first points of the event after the heartbreak of leg one.

From Matosinhos the remainder of Leg 2 stretches south, past Lisbon and into the notorious bottleneck of the Strait of Gibraltar before the Mediterranean sprint to Cartagena. Almost every boat has led at some point this leg – Canada, Holcim-PRB, Paprec Arkéa, Malizia, Biotherm. Biotherm are the clear ones to beat, but when the racing is this tight, no one is safe.

Leaderboard (provisional):

Biotherm – 18 points
Paprec Arkéa – 13 points
Team Malizia – 10 points
Canada Ocean Racing – Be Water Positive – 6 points (no Fly By points yet)
Team Holcim PRB – 5 points
Allagrande MAPEI Racing – 3 points (no Fly By points yet)
Team AMAALA – 4 points (no Fly By points yet)

Text and images courtesy of The Ocean Race. Read more here.