Barcelona World Race

Hugo Boss closed to within 12 miles of race leader Paprec-Virbac 2 on Wednesday, before slightly falling back again over the afternoon at the Barcelona World Race. At the 16:00 position report, Hugo Boss was 21 miles behind, but sailing a couple of knots slower. Still, it's been an 18 mile gain over the past day, so the cat and mouse game continues.

Barcelona World Race

Veolia Environnement skippered by French sailors Roland Jourdain and Jean-Luc Nelias dismasted at 1800 GMT today (Monday, 17.12.07), the skippers are unharmed, and the boat itself undamaged. Veolia Environnement, lying in third place in the Barcelona World Race, was sailing in 22 knots of wind with full mainsail and gennaker, when they were hit by a stronger 30 knot gust of wind forcing the boat to 'nose-dive' into a 2-3 metre wave - the mast broke suddenly 3.5 to 4 metres up from the deck. The position at the time of dismasting was 48 49.49N, 82 42.41E, approximately 1660 miles south-west of the SW tip of Australia and approximately 500 miles east of the Kerguelen Islands.

After cutting the mast away to avoid secondary damage to the boat, the skippers managed to save the boom and one of the outriggers (that support the mast) and once daylight comes will use these parts to build a jury rig to propel the boat under sail, without assistance, towards Australia. Currently however they are advancing at 5 to 6 knots under engine.

Barcelona World Race

In the wee hours this morning, Veolia Environnement departed from the Kerguelen Islands to rejoin the Barcelona World Race. It was 00:50 GMT when skipper Roland Jourdain slipped his mooring in Port aux Francais, to sail out again into the Southern Ocean.

It was a slow beginning as for several hours the boat was sheltered in the lee of the island. But by mid-morning, Veolia Environnement was back up to pace and trying to cut into the advantage held by the leaders. By the 14:00 GMT position report, Veolia Environnement was the fastest boat in the fleet. The stop was necessary to repair their engine, a critical component in keeping batteries charged and electronics functioning. Helped by a team of mechanics and technicians, Roland Jourdain and Jean-Luc Nélias worked hard to find the source of the problem.

America's Cup

Judge Cahn spoke, and it appears most likely that we will see multihulls going at it next summer. And that will be OK: the path will clear up again. As a marketing exec recently remarked "all this will add appeal to the surrealism of this surreal event". One can only keep marveling at the staying entertainment power of the AC: all the ingredients are there and the most amazing part is that the particular mix was concocted over 150 years ago!

Barcelona World Race

The second placed boat in the Barcelona World Race fleet has made a dramatic gain over the past 24 hours, cutting the lead of Paprec-Virbac 2 by more than half. More distressing for skipper Jean-Pierre Dick and co-skipper Damian Foxall, their plan to sail further south in an attempt to find more favourable conditions resulted in them seeing an iceberg - the first one spotted so far in the race.

Volvo Ocean Race

The Green Team has confirmed it will be the seventh entry into the Volvo Ocean Race 2008 -09, and British sailor Ian Walker is named as skipper.

Ian Walker's achievements in the last 12 years include two Olympic medals, four World Championships and being skipper and tactician for two America's Cup campaigns (GBR Challenge and +39). His most recent success has been as skipper of the TP52 Patches where he worked alongside owner Eamon Conneely to secure the global championship in 2006.

As skipper of the Green Team entry in the Volvo Ocean Race, Walker will oversee both the design and build programme along with crew selection.

Ian will get his first taste of sailing on a Volvo Open 70 in this year's Sydney Hobart Race.

The build of the Green Team Volvo Open 70 is underway at McConaghy Boats in China. The moulds are completed and the hull lamination has begun. Reichel Pugh and the structural engineers at Applied Structural Analysis Ltd (ASTA) are working on all the drawings to a strict timescale. The deck plan is well advanced as is the sail plan. The rig is under design and the team have completed their first sail wind tunnel testing in Auckland New Zealand. The aim is to have the boat commissioned in June 2008.

The team has secured initial funding for the team from a combination of private investment (led by a project board which includes John Kileen, Enda O'Coineen, Eamon Conneely and Jamie Boag as Team CEO), commercial sponsorship and government backing.

Barcelona World Race

The three leaders in the Barcelona World Race are pushing deep towards 'iceberg country'. Veolia Environnement, in second place, awoke to find a couple of centimeters of snow on deck this morning. And race leader Paprec-Virbac 2 is already making course corrections to avoid the threat of icebergs.

Barcelona World Race

Sylvie Viant, Race Director of the Barcelona World Race, has been notified by skipper Jeremie Beyou onboard the fourth-placed IMOCA 60 Delta Dore that his boat has been dismasted. Both he and co-skipper Sidney Gavignet are unhurt and safe onboard and the boat itself is structurally intact.

Jeremie contacted the Race Direction team by Iridium satellite phone at 0120 GMT (11 December) just minutes after the incident. The Race Direction Team is in regular contact with the two French sailors Jeremie Beyou and Sidney Gavignet and their shore team headed up by Gilles Chiorri. The skippers have 188 litres of diesel onboard, which will provide approximately 60 hours of motoring, the equivalent of approximately 240 miles. The team are also already studying the options of a jury rig using spare mainsail battens onboard.

More Spanish

After Desafio Espanol and the new Ayre Challenge, a third Spanish syndicate is appearing.

While Vicente Rambla, the Deputy President of the Valencian Government, continues to state that Desafio unites all the sailing clubs of Spain, Real Club Maritim de Barcelona and Real Club Nautico de Madrid have joined their efforts to support Decision Challenge, a new challenger for the 33rd America's Cup.

Barcelona World Race

In a heartbreaking turn of events, skippers Vincent Riou and Sébastien Josse aboard PRB are almost certainly out of the Barcelona World Race. This morning, the team which has been alternating the race lead with Paprec-Virbac 2 over the past three weeks, lost the top three metres of its mast, making it impossible to continue racing. Both skippers are safe and the boat is now sailing towards Cape Town.

They were sailing at about 20 knots under the big gennaker (and with a reef in the mainsail) and they were down below with the auto-pilot on looking at the weather conditions, when the boat hit a wave and heard a crack. The two skippers thought it had broken a halyard or something. They went on deck and saw the main sail still in place but the top part of the mast hanging down.

Barcelona World Race

"We just covered 500 miles in 24 hours!" shouted an overjoyed Alex Thomson during today's video conference. As the Barcelona World Race enters its second quarter with the majority of the fleet in the Southern ocean, Hugo Boss has been putting on a real show for the past 48 hours, culminating with a new world record (monohull, up to 60 foot - subject to WSSRC ratification).

Groupama

Today, Thursday 6th December, Groupama 3, skippered by Franck Cammas will be on standby. Docked at Lorient, NW France, its home port, the 31.50 m trimaran with four records already under its belt, will wait for favourable weather conditions to begin its Jules Verne Trophy attempt.

At the Lorient base, the crew is virtually complete. From Brazil, South Africa and all around France, the sailors have joined the maxi-trimaran which they know so well, since the majority of them were aboard during the four records broken between May and July: Discovery Route, Miami New-York, North Atlantic crossing and the distance covered in 24 hours.

Under the direction of team manager, Stephane Guilbaud, the ten adventurers are gradually entering into what will be their daily routine around the planet.