Vastly experienced offshore racers, Switzerland's Bernard Stamm and France's Jean le Cam on board Cheminées Poujoulat have won the Barcelona World Race 2014-15 and set the reference

Overnight there has been a lead change in the Volvo Ocean Race.

With less than 220 miles left, and at times today making just two to three knots towards the Barcelona World Race finish line, Bernard Stamm and Jean Le Cam were taking nothing at all for granted.

Less than 400 miles from the finish line now, Cheminées Poujoulat has passed Cabo de Gata, east of Almeria, and is starting the final ascent of the Mediterannean out of the Alboran

The first British sailor to take home the Solitaire du Figaro Rookie prize in 2013, a then 22-year-old Jack Bouttell, was deemed the shining new star of solo offshore racing.

Jean Le Cam and Bernard Stamm on board Cheminées Poujoulat have become the first team to return to the Mediterranean in the Barcelona World Race, passing Gibraltar this morning at 0

On 19 September, 84 competitors will be heading out to do battle with the Atlantic in the 20th running of the Mini Transat.

Sunday should see Cheminées Poujoulat back in the Mediterranean. Some time Sunday.

The Volvo Ocean Race boats passed back into the supposedly 'Roaring Forties' yesterday, but with it came a change in conditions, ith the furious blasting reaching conditions abating, the wind backi

There may be some truth in the perception that life at the front of the Barcelona World Race fleet inherently feels better than that in any of the other current positions.