© Jean-Louis Carli / The Ocean Race
News
20 AUG 2025: Fly-by Matoshinhos
After starting in Portsmouth, the seven teams headed to Matoshinhos, north of Porto. Following a fly-by with a three-hour stopover for each team, the second part of Leg 2 will then lead to the stage destination in Cartagena. However, there was a close finish on the way to Matoshinhos!
A close race on the way to the fly-by in Matosinhos
© Jean-Louis Carli / The Ocean Race
The teams are racing to a finish line off Matoshinhos where they will collect points equal to a normal full leg (7 points for first, 6 for second, etc). The time they cross the line will be noted and in exactly three hours after they finish, each team is eligible to restart and continue Leg 2 to Cartagena. During their time at the Fly By in Matosinhos, the teams will dock, come ashore for an arrival ceremony, a chance for food and drink and some media interviews.
0700 GMT / 0800 local time / 0900 CEST
Biotherm is racing towards the finishing line at high speed, over 20 knots, with Paprec Arkéa and Holcim PRB chasing hard. There may still be tense times ahead as the wind will ease near the coast and the finishing line.
0830 GMT / 0930 local time / 1030 CEST
Paul Meilhat's Biotherm win the race to the Fly-By in Matosinshos! This leaves them perfect so far on the leaderboard, winning every point available!!!
Paul Meilhat, skipper of Biotherm, on the dock:
"It was a fantastic start in the Solent. We took the two points and afterwards there was a lot of change in the ranking. It showed that some boats are faster in the downwind.
"Actually, we didn't get much wind and it was really short, so after, in the Bay of Biscay, we were reaching in light. So that was good for us and we took the advantage just before Finisterre. We kept to the west of the fleet and it was the perfect strategy. So we are really happy on the boat. It's working together really, really well. It's perfect!
It's different from the first leg. In the first leg we were in front and after it was a different race, but here it was hard to the end. Even tonight, the wind wasn’t as expected, so we did some gybes and the wind was really shifty. But we found the solution to go really fast and we’re really happy with the boat.”
On the Fly-By: It's a very unique format, this sort of fly-by three hours here and a rolling start. Have you ever done anything like this before or what do you think?
“It's really strange because you cross the line, but it's not finished because in three hours it starts again. Normally you cross the line and you're just enjoying the people and now you have the music really loud. When we arrived it was really strange, but we’re trying to stay focused and get the boat ready for the start. That’s our first objective.”
© Jean-Louis Carli / The Ocean Race
0910 GMT / 1010 local time / 1110 CEST
And now it is Paprec Arkéa taking second place into Matosinhos and collecting six points.
Finish time: 20/08/2025 09:07:28
Elapsed time: 2 days 17 hours 7 minutes 28 seconds
Scoring: 6 points
0945 GMT / 1045 local time / 1145 CEST
Holcim PRB arrive in third place!!
Finish time: 20/08/2025 09:39:29
Elapsed time: 2 days, 17 hours, 39 minutes, 29 seconds
Scoring: 5 points
Yoann Richomme on a second place finish for Paprec Arkéa:
“We won second this time because we lost a lot of miles at the tip of Brittany with the tidal gate. And that hurt us quite a bit because we were in the lead.
We’ve been fighting ever since to come back. And we had a wonderful night catching up to Malizia and then the whole team, and pulling away some miles. So it’s great news for us.”
Rosalin Kuiper on arriving in Matosinhos with Team Holcim PRB:
“It’s super nice. It’s great to see all the people here cheering for us coming in. It’s very different because normally when we dock in we’re finished and we can really relax. Now the clock is ticking and we know within an hour we will go again. That’s way different than we’re used to, but it’s very cool and challenging as well.”
© Jean-Louis Carli / The Ocean Race
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