Barcelona World Race weather

Light winds for the start and very confused situation for crews to negotiate their way through

The Barcelona World Race gets underway tomorrow (Sunday) at 1300 local time (1200GMT) off Barcelona (obviously).

Today down at Barcelona's Moll de la Fusta, teams have been loading stores and making their final preparations for this 24,500 mile long passage that could take 80-90 days for the race leader (according to PRB skipper Vincent Riou).

For the start Barcelona World Race meteorologist Jean François Bonnin says conditions should be light, with a southwesterly wind of 5 to 10 knots. However the met situation is not as drab as it appeared it would be for the start a few days ago. A massive low pressure centred over Slovenia is responsible for kicking up gale force winds in the Golfe du Lyon between Marseilles and Barcelona but central Spain is a virtually isobar-free area with an area of high pressure centred between Ibiza and the north African coast. For tomorrow afternoon the gradient wind is forecast to be almost nothing however with hot days here a sea breeze has been kicking in in the afternoon.

The wind is set to veer around from the southwest to the north (but still only around 5 knots over Sunday night and into the early hours of Monday morning between our old friend Valencia and Ibiza but at this point is still westerly and light to the south of here. The weather tomorrow afternoon to the south of Valencia is confused to say the least with the wind forecast to veer through 180 degrees around to the east... It is possible boats will continue on to the African coast where there appears to be more pressure to take them on past Gibraltar.

See over for high resolution weather maps of the start courtesy of ProGRIB

Follow the race start live

The start of the Barcelona World Race will be broadcast in live, high resolution, IPTV (internet television). The 75-minute programme is available to the public through www.barcelonaworldrace.org beginning at 11:45 GMT (12:45 local time) and features the commentary of yachting broadcaster Richard Simmonds, along with guest commentators.

Television broadcasters in six countries will have programming from the start of the Barcelona World Race:

TV3 Catalunya and TV Galicia are broadcasting the start live and an international feed will be providing news and programming along with highlights content to the following broadcasters:

Canal 9 (Valencia) - SPAIN
I-TELE (Canal + News Channel) - FRANCE
SETANTA SPORTS - IRELAND
SETANTA SPORTS - UK
SKY PLATFORM - ITALY
ITV - UK
SKY NEWS - UK

See the weather for the first 24 hours of racing on page 2....