Paprec Virbac 2 reached the Gibraltar gate ahead of PRB by 20 minutes sailing fast says J.P. Dick: "Passing the straits of Gibraltar alongside the cargo ships and Paprec-Virbac overtakes them!" This 20 minute edge equates to 60 cases of beer! Unfourtantly about 25,000 miles to sail before the 1st cold one. 2nd to the gate was PRB with Estrella Damm about 5 hours back and then Temenos 2 another 2.5 hours back.
In the overall picture these position don't stand for much. However, BWR does have a points system. At each of 8 scoring gates boats are ranked by elapsed time between the most recent points. This way even if you are off the overall lead you are still racing for points. This is much like the Tour De France and cycling.
The next gate is at the Canary Islands. This is a distance of approximately 500 miles and is expected to take about 3 days.
Co-skipper Foxhall decribes Paprec Virbac' tactics: "Yesterday, upwind in the last stretch of the Alboran sea, we were following PRB and postioned ourselves right behind them for the last tack off Malaga - trying to catch a shift close to shore. That's where we were able to overtake them."
Farther back Veoila has passed Delta Dore and Hugo Boss, certainly the best showing yet for co-skippers Jourdian and Nélias. Delta Dore's Gavignet says, "It is a long way round but we are going to lose out quite a bit now before we can get back into the race."
As the boats pass Gibraltar there next mission is to find the tradewinds. Currently the tradewinds are pretty meagre and south so they are not a given.
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