The Ocean Race Europe Leg 5 Day 3: Four lead boats will round Ustica together
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 10 Sep 2025 05:03 PDT
11 September 2025
Malizia - Leg 5 of The Ocean Race Europe © Lloyd Images/The Ocean Race Europe
At the halfway point of Leg 5 of The Ocean Race Europe, the four lead boats are covered by a small margin.
Provided the breeze holds, they are all expected to arrive within a few minutes of each other as the round a virtual mark close to the island of Ustica, 40nm to the NW of Palermo on the northern coast of Sicily. They then head south to round the islands of Levanzo and Favignana off the western coast of Sicily, before heading for the finish in Montenegro.
For the past few hours, just 4nm has covered the four lead boats, Paprec Arkea, Malizia, Allagrande Mapei and Biotherm, using the distance to finish method of calculation.
Using the course projection function of the Predictwind race tracker we can see that all four boats will round a virtual mark off the ancient volcanic peak, about 1900hrs UTC on September 10.
They will then sail the final 890nm of the 2,000nm final leg in the five leg race that began in early August in Kiel, Germany.
Winds are projected to be a light 5kts or less for the lead boat, Paprec Arkea as they approach the rounding mark at the northern end of the Mediterranean course.
The first of three back markers, Team Holcim-PRB, the overall race leader is 125nm behind the leader. In sixth is (Paprec Arkea), followed by Be Water Positive (299nm from the leg leader). Team Amaala is covering the rear of the seven boat fleet 300nm behind the leg leader.