(Reuters) -Ambrogio Beccaria turned his home Genoese waters into a stage for triumph on Wednesday, steering his Italian-flagged Allagrande Mapei Racing team to victory in Leg 4 of The Ocean Race Europe 2025 after a nail-biting finish in the early hours.
The Italian skipper and his all-French crew – Thomas Ruyant, Morgan Lagraviere and Manon Peyre – crossed the line at 01:42:14 local time, completing the 600-nautical mile leg from Nice in two days, eight hours, 41 minutes, and 14 seconds.
"I always want to win every leg," Beccaria said after coming ashore.
"But this one was special because the finish was in Italy. We were improving so well as a team – in the last leg we were third, but we knew we could do better. So why not dream big and try to win this leg?"
The victory was far from assured, however, after a power outage wiped out the boat's instrumentation for an hour, leaving the crew sailing blind.
The drama intensified in the final miles when Yoann Richomme's Team Paprec Arkea, finishing second at 02:32:05, closed to within eight miles before Beccaria's team found fresh breeze to pull away.
"We had a huge turning point on the big downwind from Bonifacio to La Spezia, where at one point we tried to charge our battery and the engine didn't start," Beccaria explained.
"So we had to shut down the whole boat, steer the boat with nothing – at night. Morgan succeeded in repairing the alternator and we were able to go on with the race. But that moment could have been the end for us."
The triumph was particularly sweet for Beccaria, who crashed out of the opening leg after a collision with Team Holcim-PRB.
"Everybody thought we would be out of the race, but now we have even won the leg in Genoa. It's huge, it's wonderful," he said.
Richomme graciously accepted defeat by his rival.
"I think nobody can be happier to win at home than Ambrogio so we are happy for him and happy to be second as well," the Frenchman said.
Overall race leader Paul Melihat's Biotherm team rounded out the podium in third place.
The Ocean Race Europe is a multi-leg offshore sailing competition that brings together some of the world’s top professional crews for a test of speed, endurance and teamwork across the continent’s waters.
Launched in 2021 as a sister event to the round-the-world Ocean Race, it features a mix of offshore stages linking major European ports and shorter inshore races designed to showcase the sport to coastal crowds. Points are awarded on each leg, with bonus marks available at designated scoring gates, and the overall winner is the team with the highest tally at the finish.
The final leg later this month will see the seven boats -- representing countries including Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Canada and France -- race from Genoa to Montenegro's Boka Bay.
(Reporting by Ossian Shine; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
