Holcim-PRB starts The Ocean Race Europe Leg 3

Team Holcim - PRB, skippered by Rosalin Kuiper, during The Ocean Race Europe © Vincent Curutchet / The Ocean Race Europe

The fleet of The Ocean Race Europe left Cartagena this afternoon for Nice. Holcim-PRB will first head towards the Balearic Islands, then to the southeast of Porquerolles, and finally around the Giraglia Rock before reaching the port of the "city of angels".

This third leg is the shortest of the course (three days of racing are scheduled) but probably also one of the toughest. Holcim-PRB and its competitors will have to deal with the effects of a low-pressure system moving northward through the Mediterranean from Africa, making the forecasts very uncertain at the time the sailors set off (3:00 p.m. local time).

Onboard the Swiss monohull, Rosalin Kuiper, Nicolas Lunven, Franck Cammas, Carolijn Brouwer, and Adrien Nivet (OBR) approach this leg with ambition. The team's second place in Cartagena fully brought them back into the race after the accident during the first leg. Following the decision of the international jury, upon arrival in Nice, Holcim-PRB will be reclassified for the first leg based on the average of the points obtained in Cartagena and the result of this third leg. This is, of course, an extra motivation for the team members, who hope to be among the first boats to show their bow off the Promenade des Anglais. The winner is expected in Nice on Friday.

Nicolas Lunven, navigator on this third leg, explains the weather challenges:

"The course will take us towards the Balearic Islands, which we must leave to starboard before heading for a waypoint southeast of Porquerolles. Then we'll leave the Giraglia Rock to port, north of Corsica, before finishing in Nice on Friday. The weather is tricky because there's a low-pressure moving up from Africa and crossing the Mediterranean from south to north. When it reaches the southern French coast, it will be reactivated by the ex-cyclone hitting the French Atlantic coast, bringing cold air. We'll be sailing upwind quite a bit at the start, in medium conditions, to get away from Cartagena this afternoon and tonight. That should be nice. But after the Balearic Islands, tomorrow around midday, we don't know what we'll get because the position and strength of the low-pressure center are not well defined. Some models show 30-35 knots of wind, while others suggest no more than 5 knots in the gusts. On the stretch between the Balearics and Porquerolles, we don't know if we'll be ahead of this system or behind it. It will depend on the wind strength and our ability to make progress. Conditions could therefore be very variable. For sail choices on this leg, we've tried to be as versatile as possible."