Early Sunday morning, the leaders of the Barcelona World Race, entered the dreaded doldrums zone, an area characterised by light, fluky winds, thunderstorm and rain cells and confused, lumpy seas. Not surprisingly, the first placed boat in the fleet, Paprec-Virbac 2 was the first to slow down, and there has been a general compression of the fleet.

As a result, second placed PRB began to rapidly close distance with the leader. In fact, over the course of the day, PRB gained some 40 miles on the leaders, leaving Paprec-Virbac 2 clinging to a tenuous seven mile lead.
 

Further back. Delta Dore remedied one concern of co-skipper Sidney Gavignet as they gained miles to the west overnight, gybing on favourable windshifts in order to position themselves closer to the rest of the fleet. On Saturday, Gavignet said he wasn't entirely comfortable with how far to the east Delta Dore was positioned, but he was hesitant to make the call to gybe to the west.

In very general terms, it is usually slightly quicker to cross the doldrums further to the west. But to get there means sacrificing miles to the south in the trade winds. And a more westerly position can be slightly disadvantaged after coming out of the doldrums when the boats pick up the southeasterly trade winds.

Day 15 - November 25, 16:00 GMT - Position report with distance to leader

1. Paprec-Virbac 2 - Jean Pierre Dick / Damian Foxall - 0.0
2. PRB - Vincent Riou / Sebastien Josse - 7.0
3. Veolia Environnement - Roland Jourdain / Jean Luc Nelias - 78.7
4. Delta Dore - Jeremie Beyou / Sidney Gavignet - 164.2
5. Hugo Boss - Alex Thomson! / Andrew Cape - 166.8
6. Mutua Madrilena - Javier Sanso / Pachi Rivero - 214.2
7. Temenos 2 - Dominique Wavre / Michele Paret - 231.1
8. Estrella Damm - Guillermo Altadill / Jonathan Mckee - 303.6
9. Educacion Sin Fronteras Servane Escoffier / Albert Bargues - 687.8

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