#bwr_2014 – In the Barcelona World Race British entry Hugo Boss have consolidated over the course of last night, gybing back from their position in the east of the pack, to line up in the front of their rivals with a lead cut to just over 11 miles this morning. As well as their desire not to pin themselves out to the west, the trade winds were a little quieter for them so close to the African coast, and so the move back to the west made sense.
Cheminées Pooujoulat have been quick through the night and are back up to third at about eight miles up on GAES Centros Auditivos. Hugo Boss gybed just in front of Neutrogena which is now second.
The east-west separation between Hugo Boss' course and that of GAES Centros Auditivos is 30 miles and Anna Corbella and Gérard Marin are slightly faster than Alex Thomson and Pepe Ribes, at just on 17.8kts.
The fast pace should continue for the coming days, probably until Friday. The next strategic decision will be at the Cape Verde islands tomorrow when they must decide how to pass this island group. To he west there is slightly more wind on the forecast, but the same situation as the Canary Island holds true again, but there will be up to 30kts of NE'ly trades to ensure sailing will be fast and furious.
The motorway south is well and truly working for the fleet. The leaders are a likely to gybe west again this evening as the breeze appears lighter close to the Mauritania coast. But up ahead the Doldrums do not look too active at all and a reasonably easy passage through to the Equator does seem likely, the overall race pace very similar to the 2010-2011 edition.
Once again conditions through the night will have been excellent with the full moon and little or no cloud cover, temperatures are very pleasant.
One Planet One Ocean remain in good wind pressure on their course, but they too will have to adjust to the west and when they settle on their course south then the speed differential between their older boat and the newer generations will start to really show and they might expect to lose 40-50 miles a day. Correspondingly We Are Water can start to see steady gains on their nearest rivals once they are on the fast route south.
Spirit of Hungary had some good, faster sailing through the night but it will only really start to get into the stronger trade winds today, a chance to enjoy the speed potential of their newest IMOCA 60.
