All change today in the Tasman

Virbac-Paprec 3 closing on Cook Strait 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 0330

At the latest sched Barcelona World Race leader Virbac Paprec 3 has 138 miles to go before she enters Cook Strait. Both she and second placed Mapfre have slowed a little but the situation for all the boats in the Tasman Sea is likely to change significantly over the course of today as the high centred in the mid-Tasman shifts east.

The behaviour of the high in the Tasman has changed since yesterday morning - the latest forecast has it extending across to the south of New Zealand's south island and around the east side of it by tomorrow morning (GMT) and fully shifted to the east of south island by  tomorrow night. The upshot of this is that Mapfre in particular is going to get nailed by the high today and is in for a very slow 24 hours. The boat set to come out of this best (aside from Virbac Paprec 3) is Groupe Bel that is already following the race leader on the direct course towards Cook Strait.

The star performer since yesterday morning has been Pachi Rivero and Antonio Piris on fifth-placed Renault, who have regained 76 miles on the race leader over the last 24 hours. At the latest sched she remains the fastest boat in the fleet having averaged 18.2 knots in the last hour. This is due to her still being in the strong northwesterlies to the southwest of Tasmania.