The Ocean Race Europe: Day 4 - A home win for Italy - Four teams finish
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 3 Sep 08:47 BST
Team Holcim-PRB - The Ocean Race Europe 2025 Leg 4 - September 3, 2025 © Jean-Louis Carli / The Ocean Race Europe
Four teams have finished Leg 4 of The Ocean Race Europe. Earlier today, Allagrande Mapei scored a popular win crossing the finish line at Genova at 2342hrs UTC on Tuesday, breaking the winning streak of race leader Biotherm.
In fact two boats beat the overall race leader across the finish, on Tuesday night local time.
The Italian flagged and skippered team took 2 days 8 hours 41 minutes 14 seconds for the 600nm course, which started further up the coast in Nice, France, on Sunday.
Allagrande Mapei, Italian skippered with a French crew, experienced light winds on the downwind leg to the finish, and were followed home by French Team Paprec Arkea, skippered by Yoann Richomme, who crossed 51 minutes later.
The podium has been rounded out by a second French team Biotherm (Paul Meilhat) finished in Genova at 0254hrs UTC or 2hrs 21mins behind Team Paprec Arkea and 3hrs 12mins behind the Leg 4 winner.
Team Holcom-PRB (SUI/KSA) crossed the finish line as dawn broke on Day 4 of the five leg race, which is in its inangrual edition.
The remainder of the race would appear to have a long tail with Be Water Positive in 5th 30.4nm from Genova at 0700hrs UTC; followed by Malizia 58.4nm to sail; and Amaala 88.1nm to sail.
This is the first of the four legs that Biotherm hasn't won/scored maximum points. They are expected to still lead the points table at the end of Leg 4, and have probably done enough to take the overall race, with Leg 5 still to sail.
While provisional points for the Leg are not available, by our calculations Biotherm enjoys a 10pt lead (excluding scoring gate points), and may be in an unbeatable position to for the overall winner's title at the end of Leg 5.
Holcim-PRB (SUI/KSA) which had led the leg for a time on Days 1 and 2, yesterday led the seven boat fleet through Bonnifacio Strait as they headed into the Tyrrhenian Sea between Italy and Corsica and Sardinia, and turned to head for the finish in Genova. They remained in a very competitive lead group of four yachts which had broken away from the other three boats, after the backmarkers got caught by light winds.
For a time the lead group rocketed away at speeds of up to 30kts, clocking up a margin of over 100nm.
Allagrande Mapei looked to be in trouble for a while early on Tuesday morning when they hit light winds, just under 200nm for the finish, with their speed dropping to 6kts in a breeze of a similar strength while the backmarkers were well into double figures, chopping 60nm out of the front runners.
The winds remained funky as the fleet closed towards the finish, with the boats sailing at speeds varying from a slow crawl of 4kts to foiling fast at 25kts.
To be updated as the rest of the fleet finishes.
As of 0114hrs UTC on September 3, with two boats finished off Genoa, the placings were:
1. Allegrande Mapei - Finished - Sept 2 2342hrs UTC
2. Paprec Arkea - Finished - Sept 3 0033hrs UTC
3. Biotherm (23nm to Finish)
4. Holcim-PRB (70.4nm to Finish)
5. Be Water Positive (101.2nm to Finish)
6. Malizia (103.7nm to Finish)
7. Amaala (136.2nm to Finish)
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