Ocean Race Europe: Boka Bay, SailGP, Globe40 and more - the weekend guide

This weekend, the sport of sailing will serve its fans great and varied sailing cinema throughout Europe - and beyond. The Ocean Race Europe 2025 celebrates its finale in Boka Bay. With a whole leg's worth of points still up for grabs, the battle will go down to the wire in Montenegro. While the early winners Paul Meilhat and his team on the "Biotherm", which has long been uncatchable with 48 points, can use the last race as a gala, four teams will be sailing in the spotlight.

Ocean Race Europe: focus on two final duels

The duel between "Paprec Arkéa" (34 points) and "Holcim-PRB" (33.5 points) is for silver in the Ocean Race Europe. The French and Swiss Imoca are separated by half a point after five legs around Europe - whoever is ahead in the final will be crowned runner-up in the European race. The second exciting match is between "Allagrande Mapei" (24 points) with skipper Ambrogio Beccaria and Boris Herrmann's "Malizia - Seaexplorer" (23 points) for fourth place. Here, the Italian Imoca is one point ahead. But here too, whoever is in front at the finish line will finish the Ocean Race Europe in fourth place. Click here for the interim results before the showdown.

Boris Herrmann told NDR before the last official race as skipper of his "Malizia - Seaexplorer": "The situation is unusual, I've never been in it before. That we really only have one competitor on Saturday. Namely Team Mapei. We just have to be ahead of them. Then we'll move up one place in the overall standings." This concludes Boris Herrmann's chapter with "Malizia - Seaexplorer", also known as "Malizia 3", even if it is not the first of its kind. will continue to be looked after by Team Malizia after being handed over to the next skipper Francesca Clapcich.

Herrmann described the upcoming Saturday duel in the Ocean Race Europe fleet's fleet race as a match race and is optimistic about the duel: "We are quite good in the discipline. I think we're also a bit better than 'Mapei'. We also win starts. We can start well. So it will be exciting again on Saturday." NDR will be broadcasting the final live on Saturday. The programme with presenter Sven Kaulbars and expert Tim Kröger starts at 12 noon here. The starting signal for the Ocean Race Europe showdown will be given at 2 pm.

SailGP: Secret of Team 13 in Geneva revealed

The final of the Ocean Race Europe could still be underway in Boka Bay when the first starting gun for the Swiss SailGP premiere is fired on Lake Geneva. Off Geneva, the twelve teams in the World League are challenged on the two weekend race days from 3.30 pm. ZDF will be broadcasting live with commentator Nils Kaben in the studio and Kristin Recke as reporter on site.

After finishing fifth in the home race in Sassnitz and fourth in Saint-Tropez, the Germany SailGP Team wants to show that it is continuing to improve in the potential light wind battle on the largest lake in Switzerland and France. Against a magnificent Alpine backdrop, test races and free practice will run in parallel in Switzerland on Friday afternoon. The German racing team with helmsman Erik Kosegarten-Heil will be in a group with Team Emirates GBR, Los Gallos, NorthStar Canada and local hero Sébastien Schneiter and his crew from Scheizer.

There is also news on the SailGP news front. The secret of team number 13 for the coming season has been revealed. SailGP boss Russell Coutts, team CEO Iain Percy and comeback driver and 49er Olympic champion Nathan Outteridge have announced that the Swedish Artemis SailGP team will be joining the team for the upcoming sixth season in 2026. Torbjörn Törnquist is backing the racing team.

Globe40: Burke/Fink defend second place

When the Ocean Race Europe comes to an end this weekend in Boka Bay, the fleet of double-handed teams in the Globe40 circumnavigation will only just be sailing towards the end of its first leg. After the top favourites Ian Lipinski and Antoine Carpentier broke away, Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink are expected to fight for second place with the Belgian team led by Jonas Gerckens.

The French Globe40 leaders Lipinski/Carpentier had gained a comfortable lead of almost 70 nautical miles over Burke/Fink five days after the start last Sunday in Cádiz on course Mindelo. They in turn defended a seven-mile lead over the Belgians without their A4 spinnaker, which had gone overboard. There were still around 238 nautical miles to go for the front runners to the stage harbour of Mindelo on the Cape Verde Islands. Click here for Globe40 tracking.

In addition to the Imoca best in Boka Bay, the racing F50 foilers on Lake Geneva and the Class 40 two-handed teams on course for Cape Verde, there are further sailing highlights in Europe this weekend, which is packed full of sport. The Silverrudder began this Friday in Svendborg, Denmark. Click here for tracking.

Silverrudder and Bundesliga running

The sailing festival for single-handed enthusiasts takes its challengers once around Funen. The bucket list event attracted 450 boats in seven groups. Everything you need to know the current YACHT preview of the Silverrudder here. There is also more exciting sailing in Germany, where the Bundesliga is organising its fifth and penultimate event of the season.

The course in the title fight will be set on the Wannsee before the final from 30 October to 1 November. After four long league weekends, the record champions from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein (NRV) lead the first division table. Just four points behind them are the defending champions from Mühlenberger Segel-Club. Joersfelder Segel-Club and Münchner Yacht-Club are also lurking behind the two top teams from Hamburg.

The league question: Will the battle for the championship once again come down to a duel between the two Hamburg clubs NRV and MSC? Or can the clubs from Wannsee and the southern German lakes score points with their inland sailing experience in the forecast light to medium winds and almost midsummer-like 29 degrees? Click here for the event overview.

Who will be the German club champion?

The Managing Director of the German Sailing League is looking forward to an exciting weekend, saying: "A look at the team line-ups shows that the clubs are taking the match day very seriously and leaving nothing to chance. The JSC and the MYC have also switched to full attack and are relying on very experienced crews." At the same time, the 2nd Bundesliga is fighting for promotion. A total of 36 crews are competing in the waters of the host Potsdamer Yacht-Club.

Behind the scenes, the personnel carousel in the Bundesliga has also turned: the second chairman Jacob Rohner from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee association and treasurer Wolfgang Stückl from the German Touring Yacht Club have resigned from their positions before the end of the legislative period. Tobias König, Chairman of the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein, and Oliver Kosanke, Chairman of the Hamburg Sailing Association, have stepped in on a temporary basis.

League initiator Oliver Schwall explained: "With these two experienced representatives, who are excellently networked throughout Germany and have great expertise in the organisation of organised sailing, the DSL e.V. is very well positioned for the future. In addition, a league advisory board and an active representative will be established so that all league clubs and active sailors will have the opportunity to voice their concerns in future."

Mini-Transat launch on 21 September

The XL regatta sports weekend is rounded off by the start of the La Boulangère Mini-Transat. The first leg from Les Sables-d'Olonne via Biscay to Santa Cruz de La Palma on the Canary Islands begins there on Sunday at 3.30 pm. 90 soloists will take on the elements in the prototype or series classification. "Monoka" skipper Hendrik Lenz believes in "a fast first leg, maybe eight days plus". The tracker for the Mini-Transat can be found here after the start.

To get you in the mood for the XXXL sailing weekend, let's take a look at the highlights of the fifth leg of the Ocean Race Europe: