Barcelona World Race - Hugo Boss and FMC into the wind

by Barcelona World Race on 22 Apr 2011 Barcelona World Race - After more than 110 days of racing, Andy Meiklejohn and Wouter Verbraak were making steady progress this afternoon with less than 100 miles to the finish concentrating on bringing Hugo Boss home across the finish line after a slow, problematic period during yesterday evening and this morning when they were often slowed to just five to six knots.

The Kiwi-Dutch duo passed only six miles west of Dragonera, the west point of Mallorca, this afternoon and were sailing at just over 10 knots in a building easterly breeze.

In Barcelona the strong NE’lies have been blowing since last night and the duo are now expected between 2300hrs UTC tonight and 0100hrs on Friday morning, looking to cement seventh place from the 14 teams which started on December 31st.

Just over 120 miles behind are Gerard Marin and Ludovic Aglaor on Forum Maritim Catala. The Catalan-French pairing are expected Friday afternoon in Barcelona, but are also nursing their IMOCA Open 60 which has some rigging complications.

At just over 3000 miles from the finish, We Are Water ensured that when Hugo Boss finishes all of the remaining race fleet will be in the Northern Hemisphere after they crossed the Equator are 0845hrs UTC this morning.

'It was a time of great satisfaction and emotion after three months in the south, the East Indian, the Pacific and the big South and now every day feels like a day closer to home.' Wrote Jaume Mumbrú and Cali Sanmartí this morning.

The finish of Hugo Boss will be streamed live here; as will subsequent post finish interviews with Andy Meiklejohn and Wouter Barcelona World Race website