Grand expansion

Fast week ahead for the leaders in the Barcelona World Race

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Positions at 0330 GMT

The front two thirds of the Barcelona World Race are now basking in 'proper' Southern Ocean conditions, powering along in strong westerlies, but over the weekend this has resulted in a major expansion of the fleet with on Friday morning 2734 miles separating race leaders Jean-Pierre Dick and Loick Peyron on Virbac Paprec 3 from backmarker Central Lechera Asturiana, sailed by Juan Merediz and Fran Palacio increasing to 3453 at the latest sched.

The real winner has been Virbac Paprec 3 which over the last three days has pulled out 300 miles over second placed Mapfre, her lead now up to a comfortable 715 miles. In fact the boat that has lost least on the race leader has been Andy Meiklejohn and Wouter Verbraak on Hugo Boss, who have regularly been making the highest average speeds over the weekend. As a result they have more than halved their deficit on Dee Caffari and Anna Corbella on GAES Centros Auditivos, now 102 miles adrift of them, as they powered towards the east end of the Crozet gate.

At the moment Virbac Paprec 3 are just approaching the first of two gates designed to keep the fleet within range of the Australian authorities. They are in great shape with the weather, running before a front in 25 knot northwesterlies with some 500 miles still to go until they reach the longitude of Australia's Cape Leeuwin. Dick and Peyron will be looking ahead at the best route to get them to Cook Strait and according to race rules this can include passing through Bass Strait between Tasmania and the Australian mainland. Bass Strait looks like an unnecessary extra hassle so we suspect they will stay south of Tasmania. For the leaders the northwesterlies look set to stay with them however the present forecast is indicating that they will be in for a big blow next Saturday in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand as a second depression is spawned from the main Southern Ocean depression to their south.

Among the next trio Iker Martinez and Fabi Fernandez on Mapfre continue to hold second but are strongly under attack from Alex Pella and Pepe Ribes on Estrella Damm. Over the weekend the red boat has closed from 143 miles astern to just 47 according to the official figures, or 33 on our routing. Kito de Pavant and Sebastien Audiagne on Groupe Bel are also in the mix but have only made a 12 mile gain on second place over the last three days. These three boats all passed through the Amsterdam gate in the early hours of yesterday morning before turning hard right to get back into the strong westerlies. They took look set to have fast conditions to get them to the next gate even through an area of high pressure is due to be hovering perilously close to the north of both gates towards the end of the week.

Dominique Wavre and Michelle Paret on Mirabaud are locked in their own private match race with the American-German youngsters Ryan Braymaier and Boris Herrmann on Neutrogena. They dive south immediately after passing the Crozet gate and are currently 180 miles north of the Kerguelen Islands, having gone back on to port gybe yesterday afternoon. The forecast indicates that they won't be so lucky with the weather as the boats ahead, as an area of high pressure enroaches on them tomorrow and Wednesday.

As mentioned the Hugo Boss crew has the GAES girls firmly in their sights. The two boats have taken different options with GAES to the north, already having complied with the requirements of the Crozet Gate while Hugo Boss is some 120 miles to their south, eating up the miles in strong northwesterlies, but have still to make it north to make the eastern end of the gate. They look to be in better shape weather-wise as should not get caught in the hgh like Mirabaud and Neutrogena.