Barcelona World Race 2010-2011

“It’s spectacular” 

D+49. It’s off again for a half round-the-world! Jean-Pierre Dick and Loïck Peyron cast off at precisely 11:11 (French time, UT+1) after a 48 hour pit stop in Wellington. This unplanned technical pit stop was carried out by the hands of a master, in the given time, by Luc Bartissol’s team on site and supervised by Nicolas Abiven, the technical manager of Virbac-Paprec Sailing Team.  The outcome of this stopover is “spectacular”, as the skipper says. Virbac-Paprec 3 is back racing again, in the lead of the Barcelona World Race with 128 miles lead on their pursuers Mapfre. The boat is back in tip top condition and the sailors are on good form. At midday, Virbac-Paprec 3 left Wellington bay under full sail at 14 knots, with a course set for the Pacific Ocean and Cape Horn.

Can you tell us how this 48 hour technical pit stop went in Wellington? 
Jean-Pierre Dick: “We worked hard. The cars were changed very quickly. There were other things like the roof dome, and a few items of rigging to change. We have checked everything necessary, notably the pilots. We are setting sail ready for anything.”

What did you and Loïck do during the stopover? 
“We ate well and we rested up. We can’t say that the stopover was entirely relaxed, because there was work to be done. We followed the technical team which was working on the boat. We even slept in a real bed and we shaved. We took advantage of it to take some fruit on board.”

What’s your frame of mind after this 48 hour break and return to racing today? 
“We must win this race. We are going to do everything possible to achieve this objective!  We are going to try to increase our lead and continue the fine race that we began.”

You are leaving with a head start on Mapfre; did you think that the weather conditions would be as favourable as this? 
“It’s spectacular, we have been successful. We knew as we were stopping that we had a good window on our side.  However, we didn’t plan anything at all. It would not have been a good sailor’s decision to continue without spare parts, when the majority of our mainsail batten cars had already broken in the first half of this round-the-world.”

* Time authorized by the race management. The technical stopover must last for an obligatory period of 48 hours.

 Ranking at 15:00 (UT+1):
1.Virbac-Paprec 3, 11,510.2 miles distance to finish
2. Mapfre, 127.8 miles from leader
3. Groupe Bel 298.6 miles from the leader