Holcim-PRB crew aiming for podium
by Holcim-PRB 7 Sep 08:22 AEST
6 September 2025
Team Holcim-PRB © Adrien Nivet / polaRYSE / Holcim-PRB
The final leg of The Ocean Race Europe will set off tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. local time. From Genoa, the fleet will set sail to Boka Bay, Montenegro. This finish promises to be intense and carries many stakes for the Holcim-PRB crew, who are aiming for a podium finish.
Currently third in the overall ranking, the Swiss team will fight over these 2,000 miles of racing to collect as many points as possible and close the gap with Paprec Arkéa, who are currently in second place with only a 1.7-point lead over the Swiss IMOCA. Biotherm, the current leader, has a solid advantage and, barring major events, should secure the win. To take on this final challenge, Rosalin Kuiper will be joined by Nicolas Lunven, Alan Roberts, Carolijn Brouwer, and Anne Beaugé (OBR).
The route around the Italian boot, a mandatory passage to Montenegro, will be full of pitfalls. Light winds are currently forecasted for much of the course and will not make things easy for the sailors. "It won't be an easy leg because there won't be much wind from the start. To leave Genoa we'll have to sail west-southwest almost as far as Mallorca before we can head down. Tactically it will be a difficult leg, especially challenging our navigator Nico," explained sailor Carolijn Brouwer.
The Dutch sailor was on board for the leg between Nice and Genoa. While Holcim-PRB missed out on the top three just before arriving in Italy, Carolijn wants to retain only the team's strength and cohesion, convinced that a strong result in Boka Bay is within reach. "If we look at the last leg, there are many things we did really well. And I think we shouldn't change our way of working. We were unlucky because we got stuck in a windless zone and watched our competitors sail away without being able to do anything. That changed the whole leg for us, because before that, we were in the lead. We had made the right decisions, executed the maneuvers perfectly. We must keep up this pace," Carolijn added.
There is one trap the team wants to avoid at all costs: going into sprint mode when this leg is more like a marathon. "We have all the potential on board, but we'll need to sustain it over time. This leg will be on average twice as long as the ones we've done so far. We must not put all our effort into the first half of the leg. Those who manage to stay fresh until the very end will win. We'll be careful to spread our energy throughout the whole race.
"I'm very confident. I know we can achieve a very good result," concluded the sailor, eager to set off again to chase that second place. It would be a remarkable reward for the whole team, which proved its ability to stay among the frontrunners since Portsmouth. The fleet is expected to arrive on September 14 in the spectacular setting of Boka Bay.