Sleepless Hours Ahead as Porto’s Scoring Gate Looms Large

The reset off Ushant turned the race into a drag strip. The tide and a soft breeze bunched the pack within touching distance, leaving no place to hide. Since then, it’s been pure boat-on-boat warfare — endless tweaks, constant trimming, and helms glued to the wheel while rivals hover in sight just a few boat lengths away.

“It’s pretty much a straight line now,” said Team Malizia’s Francesca Clapcich. “This part could have been brutal, but it’s turned into a speed test. We’ll take that!”

At the sharp end, Holcim PRB and Biotherm have been trading punches since yesterday afternoon, swapping the lead like boxers in the ring. Malizia, Canada Ocean Racing – Be Water Positive, and Paprec Arkéa are glued on their transoms, ready to pounce. “We stayed in the fight at Ushant, and that kept us alive,” said Canada’s Sébastien Marsset. “Now we’re racing, we’re in contact, and the vibe on board is electric.”

Biotherm skipper Paul Meilhat admitted the duel is draining: “Every minute counts here – there’s no room for mistakes.” His opposite number on Holcim PRB, Rosalin Kuiper, agreed: “Biotherm are quick, and the boats are almost identical. It’s a knife fight.” Her teammate Alan Roberts called it a battle of fine margins: “Flat seas, steady breeze – it’s all detail. Some moments you’re fastest, some moments you’re not. That’s the game.”

There’s also a subplot of family rivalry — Biotherm’s Amélie Grassi grinning as she reeled in her husband Alan Roberts on Holcim PRB. “He passed me in the morning, I passed him back in the evening. Great day’s work!” she laughed.

Further back, Allagrande Mapei broke ranks with a bold early tack, hoping to ride fresh breeze into Finisterre. “There’s wind everywhere except right at the Cape,” said co-skipper Thomas Ruyant. Their gamble may only pay if the leaders park up in a wind hole.

The finish line for this chapter comes at Porto-Matosinhos tomorrow morning, where a scoring gate offers equal points to Leg 1 — seven for first, down to three for fifth. After a three-hour pitstop ashore, the restart gun will fire, sending the fleet south toward Cartagena.

The snag? Before Porto, they must thread the maze of tricky breeze and shipping zones off Finisterre. As Meilhat put it: “There may be a lot of change in the next hours.” Translation: no one is sleeping, and nobody dares ease off the sheets.

The race to Porto is just the halfway marker, but in this kind of knife-edge fleet, it already feels like the leg could be won or lost tonight.