The Atlantic turns into a casino

[Source: Barcelona World Race] The first weekend of the Barcelona World Race was a tense one for the sailors as the Atlantic throws unusual conditions at them. Light, inconsistent winds, and an upwind beat to the Canaries wouldn’t have been in the recruiting brochure for the race, but that’s what they face.

“It’s the usual story that you get with sailing – ‘it’s never like this here’,” said Hugo Boss co-skipper Andrew Cape from a sunny cockpit via video call Saturday afternoon. “And it looks upwind all the way to the gate at the Canary Islands,” added skipper Alex Thomson.

Hugo Boss spent the day sailing in lockstep with Veolia Environnement and Delta Dore, the teams alternating places fifth through eighth with Mutua Madrileña which was over 120 miles to the east. The Spanish crew has taken a bit of a flyer, sailing down the coast of Africa. The forecasts say they’ll likely drop back over the coming days, but if the meteorological situation changes in their favour, they are positioned to make big gains.

At the front of the fleet, Paprec Virbac 2 regained the lead overnight and extended over the course of the day, sailing slightly quicker than PRB. Both boats lost miles overnight to Estrella Damm and Temenos II, but regained them once the sun came up. Over the past 24 hours, the distance between the first pair and the boats in third and fourth is virtually unchanged.

At the back of the fleet, Educación sin Fronteras had a fantastic night, sailing much faster than the rest of the boats. But come daylight, their progress slowed – still, they’ve taken 30 miles out of the leaders over the past 24 hours.

Day 7 – November 17, 16:00 GMT – Position report with distance to leader

1. PAPREC-VIRBAC 2 - Jean Pierre DICK / Damian FOXALL - 0.0
2. PRB - Vincent Riou / Sebastien JOSSE - 21.7
3. ESTRELLA DAMM - Guillermo ALTADILL / Jonathan MCKEE - 75.7
4. TEMENOS 2 - Dominique Wavre / Michele PARET - 76.7
5. VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT - Roland JOURDAIN / Jean Luc NELIAS - 87.1
6. MUTUA MADRILENA - Javier SANSO / Pachi RIVERO - 87.8
7. DELTA DORE - Jérémie BEYOU / Sidney GAVIGNET - 88.7
8. HUGO BOSS - Alex THOMSON / Andrew CAPE - 91.2
9. EDUCACION SIN FRONTERAS - Servane ESCOFFIER / Albert BARGUES - 211.9