The Ocean Race Europe: The taster race for the round-the-world race begins

The Ocean Race Europe, the continental race, sets sail on Sunday, August 10th from Kiel, Germany, to Boka Bay, Montenegro, after touching down in Portsmouth, Great Britain, Matosinhos-Porto, Portugal (a very brief stop, known as a flyby), Cartagena, Spain (plus a scoring gate on the Cabo de Palos meridian), Nice, France (plus a buoy-scoring gate in Monaco, starting August 31st), Genoa, and Boka Bay, Montenegro (starting from Genoa, September 7th), where this 4,500-mile race will finish on September 21st and enter the Adriatic for the first time. Each leg will feature a Race Village, and throughout the race, a commitment to marine conservation will be demonstrated through sampling, summits, and outreach.

The regatta

The Ocean Race Europe was born in 2021, when the organizers of The Ocean Race, the crewed round-the-world race in stages, decided to fill the gap between the years when the "mother" race (which inherited the glories of the Whitbread, the former Volvo Ocean Race) was inactive. To maintain its momentum, owner Richard Brisius launched this round-the-world race—the first with the VO65s and IMoca60s, three legs finishing in Genoa— and in 2026 will launch The Ocean Race Atlantic, the New York-Barcelona Atlantic crossing, again with IMoca60s, as well as the second edition of The Ocean Race Europe. The shift toward IMoca60s was made through an alliance with the class and a joint calendar. Then, in January 2027, the round-the-world race will begin from Alicante, Spain.

Beccaria and “France-mania”

Seven boats are starting from Kiel, two more than in the first edition. As Italians, we must closely monitor Ambrogio Beccaria, who is skippering Allagrande Mapei, Thomas Ruyant's former boat (Vulnerable), which will be on board to accompany Beccaria on his Imoca60 debut. Ruyant will bring his crew aboard: Morgan Lagravière, Manon Peyre, and On Board Reporter Pierre Bouras.

It's a good debut, but we hope that the Milanese navigator will later focus on a crew with Italian grafts and not get carried away by "France-mania" , which is convenient but less representative for a boat supported by a sponsor with strong roots in Italy, despite being multinational.

Previous Italian skippers who have attempted to reach out to the French in the world of ocean racing have had little success: French sponsors choose French sailors, the French public follows their French idols, and if you lose that Italian edge, you're left with a hybrid with little identity.

Clapcich takes the measurements.

The second boat to watch is Malizia-Seaexplorer (Germany), skippered by German Boris Herrmann. There are two reasons for this. First, Boris is a top-class sailor, having trained on the boats of Giovanni Soldini, who launched the project together with Pierre Casiraghi and the Yacht Club de Monaco, which subsequently attracted prominent German sponsors. Second, because Francesca Clapcich, the leading Italian ocean racer, is sailing on board. She has already purchased this boat to advance her IMOCA project, which is aiming for the 2028 Vendée Globe.

Also on board are co-skipper Will Harris, Justine Mettraux, Loïs Berrehar, and Cole Brauer, the latter the young American called to the test of truth after making her mark on social media in the Globe Ocean Race, who was taken under his wing by Herrmann. Also on board are OBRs Antoine Auriol and Flore Hartout.

The other boats

The fleet is completed by Holcim-Prb (Switzerland), led by Dutchman Rosalin Kuiper. On board are French champion Franck Cammas, Nicolas Lunven, Carolijn Brouwer, and Alan Roberts. OBR is led by Anne Beaugé and Adrien Nivet.

And again, Team Paprec-Arkea (France), skippered by Frenchman Yoann Richomme, winner on the VO65 in the first The Ocean Race Europe 2021. With him are Corentin Horeau, Mariana Lobato (Portuguese, match racing world champion), veteran Pascal Bidégorry, Gautier Levisee and Louis Dubois. OBR Julien Champolion.

And then there's Biotherm, another French boat, skippered by Paul Meilhat, Benjamin Ferré, Amélie Grassi, Jack Bouttell, and Sam Goodchild. The OBR is Gauthier Lebec.

There's also a Canadian team making its debut: Scott Shawyer's Canada Ocean Racing, with Pip Hare, Christopher Pratt, Sébastien Marsset, and Brian Thomson. The OBR is Georgia Schofield.

Finally, another team under special observation is Team Amaala, a Swiss-Saudi team that could be Riyadh's gateway to ocean sailing. Skippered by veteran Alan Roura, he will be joined by Conrad Colman (winner of the Global Ocean Race), Jessica Berthoud, Lucie De Gennes, Guillaume Roi, Félix Oberle, Mathis Bourgnon, Rebecca Gmuer, and Yann Burkhalter. The OBRs are Coline Beal and Adrien Cordier.

The scores

The winner is the one with the highest overall score, obviously. The maximum score in a stage is 7, matching the number of boats. Second place gets six, and so on. Anyone who falls behind or doesn't cross the finish line gets zero points.

There are five scoring gates (in addition to those mentioned earlier in the article, the Kiel Lighthouse, the entrance to the Needles Channel, and Santo Stefano latitude). These are intermediate finish lines and award a bonus of 2 points to the first to pass them, and 1 to the second. The second leg awards double points: 50% of the positions at the Porto finish line, and 50% of the positions at the Cartagena finish line. Finally, a coastal race is planned in Boka Bay, which awards the equivalent of one leg's points.