Into the Tasman

High pressure looks set to nail the chasing trio in the Barcelona World Race

Image above courtesy of Expedition Navigation Systems and PredictWind. If you can't see the whole of the table below (this depends which browser you use), scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Positions at 0830

Barcelona World Race leader Virbac-Paprec 3 now has 400 miles to sail before she reaches Tasman Bay at the entrance to Cook Strait between New Zealand's North and South Islands. Despite an area of high pressure encroaching from the Australian Bight into the Tasman Sea, so the front runners are all making reseasonable progress.

While Virbac-Paprec 3 was able to take a direct course towards Cook Strait, Mapfre and Estrella Damm are having to take a more circuitous route. This is because over the next 48 hours the high is forecast to move across the Tasman Sea and New Zealand - exactly on the direct course. While they may try and staying away from the high by continuing east as long as possible before they turn north, it seems they will have no option but to tackle the high over the course tomorrow and this will certainly allow Virbac Paprec 3 to pack on the miles (assuming she doesn't make a surprise pit stop).

Generally across the fleet the weekend has seen another expansion across the fleet. Virbac Paprec 3 has extended on second placed Mapfre by 38 miles, her lead now up to 493.2. But among the front runners it is Estrella Damm and Renault that have been the biggest losers - with Alex Pella and Pepe Ribes' red boat dropping back to 147 miles astern of Mapfre, while fifth placed Renault Z.E Sailing Team has lost 245 miles relative to the race leader over the last three days.

From fourth placed Groupe Bel, Kito de Pavant has confirmed that they will be making a 48 hour pitstop in Wellington to replace their two tattered downwind sails. They will have the resources of North Sails New Zealand standing for their own team’s sailmaker, who is travelling there with the technical team. De Pavant said it was a difficult decision to take, but with a lead of just over 560 miles on Renault, the French duo have a fighting chance of at least leaving within touch of the Spanish pair.

The only two boats in the fleet to close the gap with Virbac Paprec 3 over the last three days have been Andy Meiklejohn and Wouter Verbraak on Hugo Boss and the GAES girls Dee Caffari and Anna Corbella. Having overtaken GAES last week to move into eighth place, Hugo Boss is now 120 miles ahead and significantly they have succeeded in halving the gap on seventh placed Neutrogena, down from 472 miles to 233 over the last three days. However the closest race is for sixth place with Ryan Braimeyer and Boris Herrmann once again back to 14 miles astern of Dominique Wavre and Michelle Paret on Mirabaud. All these boats are currently enjoying 'typical' Southern Ocean conditions, riding the strong northwesterlies ahead of a front. These boats are all making 15-16 knots at present.