Barcelona World Race

Paprec-Virbac 2 has left Cook Strait on December 27 in its wake as skipper Jean-Pierre Dick and co-skipper Damian Foxall begin the second half of the Barcelona World Race with their well-earned lead in good shape. They've begun their descent southwards again, heading to the Southern Ocean for the second time. It has been a stressful end to the year for the leading crew of the Barcelona World Race. Not only have Jean-Pierre Dick and Damian Foxall had to watch the second place Hugo Boss re-join the race and promptly set about dismantling their lead, but today, deep in the clutches of the Southern Ocean, the Paprec-Virbac 2 crew confronted an enormous iceberg. With Hugo Boss chomping at the bit for its 48 hour pit-stop to expire so that it can rejoin the Barcelona World Race, the race leaders aboard Paprec-Virbac 2 had their own rudder issues to deal with. They hit an 'unidentified floating object' at high speed yesterday and damaged the starboard rudder. On new year's day Paprec-Virbac 2 began to make miles to the north as they need to climb over 120 miles to make it through the ice safety gate. Now sailing at 53-degrees latitude and with sea water temperature approaching 10-degrees Celsius, skippers Jean-Pierre Dick and Damian Foxall could be forgiven for expecting they'd seen the last of the icebergs. But that hasn't been the case as a steady stream of photos and position reports of the seven icebergs they've spotted are being relayed in to race headquarters.