“Biotherm” and Paul Meilhat win the 2nd leg of The Ocean Race Europe

Biotherm and its skipper Paul Meilhat won the second leg of The Ocean Race Europe on Saturday, contested between Portsmouth (England) and Cartagena (Spain), thus securing a second consecutive success in this crewed race scheduled to consist of five legs.

Biotherm crossed the finish line after 5 days, 10 hours, 53 minutes and 49 seconds of racing, ahead of Holcim-PRB of the Dutch Rosalin Kuiper, who had to abandon the first stage after a collision with another competitor at the start in Kiel (Germany). Paprec-Arkéa , of Yoann Richomme, was very close in Cartagena and seemed assured of third place.

This second leg counted double, and Biotherm had already been in first place at Wednesday's intermediate stopover in Portugal, where half the points were awarded. Paul Meilhat's crew will therefore take a solid lead in the general classification.

"It was a close call."

" It's a huge joy ," said the Frenchman at the finish. "We have good momentum, things are going really well on board. The leg was very long, the longest of The Ocean Race Europe, with two-thirds of the race downwind in strong winds, around 20 knots. "

Distanced by Paprec-Arkéa in the south of Portugal, Biotherm managed to come back by taking advantage of a transition: " Luckily, we had an incredible westerly wind leaving Gibraltar ," explained Meilhat. "We were sailing at 30 knots on flat seas and then, suddenly, we all stopped and we had to try to figure out where we were going to go again. It worked out for us but it was a close call. "

The second edition of The Ocean Race Europe, a crewed leg race featuring several of the Vendée Globe monohulls (IMOCA class), set sail from Kiel on August 10. Three legs remain to be contested, with the finishes scheduled for Nice, Genoa (Italy) and Kotor (Montenegro) in September.