Of the 30 registered competitors, 16 are debutants and 14 veterans; 19 of them presenting boats of the latest generation with innovative and exciting designs. This Vendée Globe promises some exceptional levels of competition and emotion. In the 1981/82 Whitbread race there were 29 participants on the starting line and this Vendée Globe has surpassed this number with an un-precedented success that no doubt will provide all ocean sailing fans with three months of genuine pleasure. Unai Basurko will be there following in the wake of Jose Luis Ugate.1

Thomas Ruyant from the protype class and Hugo Ramón from the production boat class, were the winners of a brilliant Mini Barcelona. In its fifth year, it broke its record for number of participants, which totalled 35, consolidating the regatta as a classic Mediterranean race. 1

The first edition of the Barcelona World Race has proved to be all that organisers and competitors could have hoped for. Nine teams set off on November 11 to tack the challenge of a non-stop circumnavigation double-handed. But as an indication of the scale of the challenge, only five are on track to complete the circumnavigation, and just two of them will do it without having stopped at least once.Below is a daily log, summarising the highs and lows of what will be more than 100 days of racing in the Barcelona World Race.

This afternoon, the day after winning the Barcelona World Race, the Paprec-Virbac 2 team sent in this story - a resume of the race - as a reminder of the 93 days as lived by Jean-Pierre Dick and Damian Foxall.

Home is in sight this Sunday for the leading crew of the Barcelona World Race as Paprec-Virbac 2 prepares for what could be their last night at sea. The finishing line is less than 300 miles away, weather conditions are moderating, and their closest opposition is still in the Atlantic Ocean, 304 miles behind. Victory is nearly close enough to taste!

The drama of IMOCA Open 60 sailboat racing is coming to television in a multi-programme, international series to be shown on over 20 channels around the world.

After tacking overnight, the leader of the Barcelona World Race, Paprec-Virbac 2, is now heading towards Gibraltar, the penultimate scoring gate of the race, and the doorway to the Mediterranean Sea. Entering the Med and finishing off the race can’t come soon enough for the race leaders. Sunday marks 85 days at sea and with just over a week left, body and mind, not to mention boat, are getting tired.

“It’s amazing just how the human body will adapt to absolutely anything, and I think a lot of people wouldn’t even realise it unless they had been in that kind of situation!” – Javier Sansó, Skipper of Mutua Madrileña.

Paprec-Virbac 2, the leader of the Barcelona World Race has crossed back into the Northern hemisphere and today managed to escaped the clutch of a stubborn doldrums. Skippers Jean-Pierre Dick and Damian Foxall are now on the home stretch, with just a little more than 10 percent of the race distance, 2838 miles left until the finishing line off Barcelona.

After rounding Cape Horn, Servane and Albert, on board Educacion sin Fronteras, are currently sailing 130 miles from the Falklands islands, 480 kilometres off the coast of Argentina and 940 kilometres north of Antarctica.