Barcelona World Race / Memories are Made of This

Ghosting across the windless finish line in the bright morning sunshine, making the final metres to complete their third placed by sheer willpower and motivation, Pachi Rivero and Toño Piris the childhood friends who met nearly 40 years ago as grommet surfers on the beaches of their native Santander, finalised the podium for this second edition of the Barcelona World Race.

 © María Muiña

As Rivero and Piris broke the finish line at 06h 47m 36s UTC this morning (08h 47m 36s Barcelona) the duo completed their non-stop circumnavigation in an elapsed time of 97d 18h 47m 36s for the 35,200 miles route. They had their Barcelona rivals Estrella Damm 150 miles behind. The Santander duo finished 2 days 21 hours 30 min 36 sec after second placed MAPFRE and 3 days 20h 27 min 36 sec after race winner Virbac Paprec 3.

Barcelona World Race / Venomous Doorstep Challenge is the toughest yet for Estrella Damm.

In training, training races and deliveries to and from races on Estrella Damm, Alex Pella and Pepe Ribes sailed more than 30,000 miles and must have passed through the Straits of Gibraltar a dozen times.

 © Estrella Damm

Even across those accumulated preparatory miles, plus all of the 28,500 or so racing miles that they will have sailed on this Barcelona World Race course itself over the last three months, it has been some of the final miles, passing through the notorious Straits of Gibraltar in into the Alboran Sea, 520 miles from the finish that have been their biggest test.

Barcelona World Race / Stealth mode and survival mode

‘Let’s play!’ commented Loick Peyron and Jean-Pierre Dick (FRA) from Virbac-Paprec 3 this morning as they entered ‘stealth’ mode at 1000hrs (UTC). Their position or rankings will not be visible for 36 hours, ensuring that their movements will remain hidden from view by the fleet and nearest rivals MAPFRE.

 © Virbac-Paprec 3

Tactically the forthcoming upwind section of Atlantic raises an interesting dilemma for the front-runners, and particularly for MAPFRE, 244 miles behind in this morning’s 0500hrs position report. The Azores High is expanding east-west across the north Atlantic, creating a large obstacle on the way to the Mediterranean. Whilst taking a westerly route looks like an unworkable tactic given the considerable extra mileage involved, the issue of when to tack east to avoid the centre of the anticyclone remains uncertain.

Barcelona World Race / Cape Horn Match Race

Theirs was a Cape Horn rounding rich with emotion and satisfaction but peppered with non stop action. The timing could not have been better.

For the GAES girls there was the bonus of being able to see Cape Horn fading through a grey, windswept dusk ahead of the next rain squall being ushered along by the buffeting breeze, and then even getting the full dark-of-night effect with the Cape light blinking adieu through the blackness, saluting their safe passage through the Big South.

© GAES Centros Auditivos

Barcelona World Race / The Big Stretch North

Logically it was expected by both the co-skippers of Virbac-Paprec 3 and by MAPFRE. The long time leaders Loick-Peyron and Jean-Pierre Dick had some confidence that they would escape first from the south Atlantic high pressure system which had snared them for more than 48 hours.

With their more westerly course, closer to the centre of the anticyclone and so in lighter winds, Spanish Olympic medallists Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez were hopeful that they could still get sufficiently close to their rivals to reach the exit of the high pressure in close touch.

Even though the odds were very much in favour of the French duo getting out first, Jean-Pierre Dick still described life in the anticyclone like being in a ‘game of roulette’, but since Wednesday night it has been Virbac-Paprec 3 which, for the moment, have collected.

Barcelona World Race / Blowing into the Atlantic with the Horn section

The battle continues in the light airs of the high pressure in the South Atlantic as Jean-Pierre Dick and Loïck Peyron on Virbac-Paprec 3 try to escape into the oxygen of the south easterly trade winds, but still through the early part of Wednesday the gains of Spain’s MAPFRE have carried on.

 © Neutrogena

The gnawing tension on board both boats was barely hidden during this morning’s Audio and Visio-Conference, linking skippers live with Race HQ in Barcelona. Both skippers spoke of the logic and modelling predictions, but both Iker Martinez and Jean-Pierre Dick confirmed that they were struggling to track the movement of the centre of the high, and to know when they would be getting out of the honey-pot of light winds.

Barcelona World Race / Does the Pacific Highway Takes an Exit Toll?

It is hard to judge whether the Pacific is extracting a particular toll from the peloton of the Barcelona World Race fleet, a tax at the gateway to deliverance into Atlantic, whether it is simply the accumulation of hard miles since the start, or recent problems among them are all purely circumstantial.

© Renault ZE

But with the news Monday night that Kito de Pavant and Seb Audigane’s Groupe Bel have a problem with their keel which will need proper assessment, none of the fifth to seventh placed boats will climb the Atlantic for home at truly maximum capacity.

Fifth placed Groupe Bel’s De Pavant was remaining resolutely upbeat while he could on today’s Visio-Conference, admitting that he and Audigane do not really know exactly what the problem is, but that the head of their keel has been showing some movement. The duo planned to pass Cape Horn before seeking shelter to assess their problem. Groupe Bel was 30 miles from De Pavant’s first passage of the lonely rock at 1700hrs this afternoon, sailing in strict conservation mode making nine knots. They will doubtless mark the occasion, having uttered their determination to make it past the three Capes in the past, at least, but Kito seemed sure they would probably make for Ushuaia as soon as they were round the Horn.

Barcelona World Race / Highs and Lows, Peaks and Troughs.

Not for the first time in this Barcelona World Race, and almost certainly not for the last, the contrast in fortunes between the pacemakers and the backmarkers of the fleet is vast. The only thing that Loïck Peyron and Jean-Pierre Dick seem to be struggling with on their ascent of the south Atlantic on Virbac-Paprec 3 this Sunday afternoon is deciding if their nearest rivals MAPFRE are indeed following in their wake, or whether Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez will break to the west of the high pressure system.

Credit : Groupe Bel

Barcelona World Race / All that Glitters

The first strategic test of the Atlantic could be the big one for Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez. The binary choice – west or east – as Martinez described it this morning, could either prove a ladder to climb back to Jean Pierre-Dick and Loïck Peyron on Virbac-Paprec 3, or it could be the best opportunity yet for the French duo to, as Martinez said, ‘finish the job’.

Almost on cue this afternoon the leading Virbac-Paprec 3 duo, with 204 miles of margin in their pocket, gybed south and east to stay with the extra wind pressure of the low pressure system they have been riding as it tracks east. This gives the race leaders the chance to score more fast, easy miles to the east, but the gybe telegraphs their choice, loud and clear, to the Spanish Olympic medallists. Since their halyard stop, they have already regained 70 miles to Virbac-Paprec 3.

Barcelona World Race / Serious Pursuit

After their detour and four hours halt to try and sort out a halyards issue MAPFRE have clearly channelled their frustration and disappointment into simply pressing the accelerator pedal back to the floor as they immediately try to make up the 200 miles that they lost to Barcelona World Race leaders Virbac-Paprec 3 yesterday night and this morning.

© Chris Cameron / DPPI / Barcelona World Race

Since getting back on course and up to race speed Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez have already clawed back nearly 20 miles on the race leaders Jean-Pierre Dick and Loïck Peyron.

Barcelona World Race / Cape Horn Thursday for Virbac-Paprec 3 and MAPFRE

Cape Horn is the round the world racer’s ultimate milestone. It is the time that the bow is finally directed in a northerly direction, what feels like homewards. In theory the wind ravaged Cape puts behind them the wild challenges of the southern oceans and starts the final long 10000 miles ascent of the Atlantic.

Credit : Virbac Paprec

In fact for the leading Barcelona World Race pair, Virbac-Paprec 3 and MAPFRE, there is likely to be little change in the intensity of their individual attack. The wind conditions may progressively ease, but both teams know that every mile gained and lost is a valuable one.

Barcelona World Race / From Front to Back Robust Conditions Take a Toll

From the leading duo counting down their final 750 or 800 miles to Cape Horn to those nearly 5000 miles behind fighting to make it across the Tasman to the Cook Strait, the vast majority of the Barcelona World Race fleet today are either racing in strong winds, or expecting them imminently.

Virbac-Paprec 3 and MAPFRE, some 78 miles apart this afternoon, are trying to outrun the approach of a fast moving low pressure system, the regenerated, reinvigorated Atu (Atu v2.0?) and escape around Cape Horn into the Atlantic. But it is the fleet’s tailgunners on We Are Water which has struggled the most today after being temporarily knocked flat by a big wave, taking water inside the boat.

Barcelona World Race / Et Tu Atu?

After the stress and challenge of a troublesome low pressure, previous alias Cyclone Atu, for the four IMOCA Open 60 duos which had to deal with it, today was time to put Atu behind them and get back into the racing groove. All four, Groupe Bel, Estrella Damm, Hugo Boss andGAES Centros Auditivos appear to have emerged in decent shape, a bit battered and bruised but with their boats and equipment in good shape.

 © Renault Z.E.

Barcelona World Race / Tight

They have become increasingly close over the past 24 hours but it was only today that Virbac-Paprec 3’s French co-skipper Loïck Peyron acknowledged that the speed race between the long time race leaders and their Spanish Olympic medal winning adversaries Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez would be an even one over coming days.

MAPFRE have closed down nearly 150 miles on Virbac-Paprec 3 since the French duo restarted out of Wellington last Friday, but Peyron has pointed to an inherent advantage granted to the MAPFRE speedsters who, as the chasing boat, have had stronger wind pressure.

Barcelona World Race / Difficult choices and times?

It is certainly not the 50th birthday present that Groupe Bel skipper Kito De Pavant was looking for, especially not ‘second time around'.  Such is the ironic timing of the Laughing Cow’s crossing of the international date-line later today and tomorrow that De Pavant was passing his first 50th Birthday concerned about the weather situation but tomorrow he will facing up to the formidable tropical cyclone Atu when the ‘second edition’ of his 50th birthday comes around.

© Chris Cameron / DPPI / Barcelona World Race

Barcelona World Race / Renault Z.E Sailing Team take third

Eight days ago they were fifth a distant 844 miles from third place in the Barcelona World Race fleet, but this afternoon Pachi Rivero and Toño Piris passed by Wellington, New Zealand and elevated themselves to a podium place as they accelerated towards the Pacific to pursue leaders Virbac-Paprec 3 and MAPFRE.

© Chris Cameron / DPPI

While Estrella Damm and Groupe Bel are sidelined in the New Zealand capital working on their respective repairs and counting down through their mandatory 48 hours which they are required to be tied to the dock, the Spanish duo Rivero and Piris passed the longitude of Wellington at a little after midday UTC, ready to take the full benefit of the very favourable northerly winds which are likely to be with the Renault Z.E Sailing Team for at least 48 hours, and perhaps longer.