Ocean Race Europe: Doldrums trap on course for the Bay of Biscay - Malizia in top three

The second leg of the Ocean Race Europe has been underway since the evening of 17 August. It takes its challengers from Portsmouth over 1400 nautical miles via a lightning visit to Matosinhos-Porto to Cartagena in Spain. The first bonus points have already been scored by the same boats as on leg one! At the scoring gate at the Needles, two points went to "Biotherm" and one point to the second-placed "Paprec Arkéa".

Paul Meilhat's Imoca thus extended its overall lead in the Round Europe Sailing Marathon to eleven points. They are followed by their compatriots on "Paprec Arkéa" (7 points) and Team Malizia (6 points). Click here for the live tracker.

The doldrums trap near Ouessant

After the first night, the fleet was still close together. This was also due to a very flat field near Ouessant, which caused massive compression in the fleet. The almost 40 nautical miles between the first and last boat during the night had melted to just four nautical miles between the top boat "Biotherm" and the last boat "Paprec Arkéa" by Monday morning.

"Biotherm" formed the top three on Monday morning with "Canada Ocean Racing - Be Water Positive" and Boris Herrmann's Team Malizia. The positions changed frequently. As planned, Malizia skipper Boris Herrmann is not on board for this second leg. Brit Will Harris is leading the crew from his home country to Cartagena. Team Malizia is rotating, testing the best constellations for the 2027 Ocean Race around the world with new crew members.

Boris Herrmann used his time off at the weekend to visit the SailGP Germany premiere in Sassnitz and Thomas Riedel and Sebastian Vettel's Team Germany. Things got hot and heavy there, while the first night of the second leg of the Ocean Race Europe was rather chilly.

Different strategies, different successes

The boats accelerated towards the tip of Brittany in an easterly wind of more than 20 knots. "It was pretty fierce with a strong easterly wind and some waves, we were even faster than the route planning had predicted. We sailed out of the Solent at a good angle, which saved us a manoeuvre later on," explained "Biotherm" sailor Sam Goodchild.

The wind trap at Ouessant offered two tactical options: to pass to the north-west of Ouessant or to try to pass to the south-east of the island. The northern route paid off somewhat better, with Canada Ocean Racing - Be Water Positive with the Brit Pip Hare even taking the lead in the meantime.

Allagrande Mapei Racing, Team Holcim PRB and Paprec Arkéa, who had opted for the southern passage, fell back a little. "It's a little disappointing for us," admitted Morgan Lagravière on the Italian Imoca. Nevertheless, his team is determined, said Lagravière: "We will work hard all morning to cross this transition zone, build up pressure and find new wind. We know that this is one of the big hurdles of this stage."

We thought we could sneak through, but unfortunately that wasn't the case." Morgan Lagravière

"Biotherm" promoter Sam Goodchild agrees with him: "The aim really is to overcome this lull in the wind, especially as we don't know how far it will extend. The conditions are only stabilising slowly, it's not particularly pleasant, but we're doing everything we can to optimise our speed." The second of the five stages is considered the most complex.

Good nerves required in the Ocean Race Europe

Good nerves and patience are key in the doldrums. The immediate challenge for the fleet is to fight their way through the windless zone and maintain contact before heading into the Bay of Biscay at full speed.

Insights into life on board the "Malizia - Seaexplorer" after the start of stage two:

Impressive start scenes of "Paprec Arkéa" in stage two:

A look back at the first stage with highlights from NDR: