La Solitaire du Figaro - After a first night’s racing in the third leg ...
August 12, 2003

After a first night’s racing in the third leg of La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro, it was second leg winner, Armel Le Cléach who was in pole position this morning. As expected the wind dropped right out at the start of the night and the fleet were sailing in a 4 knot north-westerly by 0300 BST, leaving the 42 Figaro Bénéteau floundering in shifty conditions, both in terms of strength and direction of the wind. The race around the Ile de Ré went without mishap other than Marc Thiercelin (Bermudes) touching the bottom as he rounded the north-western tip of the island with little damage. The winds have called for a long night on the helm and in 24 hours, Sam Davies (Skandia) has been knocked off the top slot into 21st with Charles Caudrelier (Bostik Findley) holding the crown mid-fleet at the 1330 BST ranking with Armel Le Cléach (Créaline) in third just behind him. Pascal Bidegorry (Région Aquitaine) was in second and leading the group further out to the west with some big names in tow. He was the last to leave the pontoons yesterday, anxiously awaiting the very latest weather report before heading out to sea. Behind him, Michel Desjoyeaux (Géant), Loick Peyron (Fujifilm) and Alain Gautier (Foncia) have been sailing with each other all day and were in 5, 6 and 7th position at 1330BST, just 1.03 miles separating the “veteran” trio. Ronan Guérin (Amandine & Cherie) in 10th, was leading the inshore advance party. Marc Emig is now top rookie in 11th position, 3.48 miles from the leader. At 1530 BST the fleet were sailing off Saint Nazaire in light south-west to north-westerly winds, passing via the west but stabilising at 270 degrees with around 5.5 knots and occasional mild gusts of 8 knots. They were making an average of around 4/5 knots under heavy, leaden skies, hot air and occasional rays of sunshine breaking through. The seas are perfectly flat and the visibility poor. Some boats have passed inside the Île d'Yeu while others passed to the west and whatever the course, the three main groups are on port tack with Dutchman, Sander Bakker in 30th while Basque, Unai Basurko and Italian, Corrado Agusta bringing up the rear.

At 18 UT, the position West Noirmoutier has 1021 hPa , with west north-westerly winds of 4 to 8 knots and a visibility of 2 to 5 miles. A system of strengthening breezes is forecast for the second part of the day with patches of mist possible until Wednesday morning. Northerly 6 to 10 knot winds are expected off Belle-Île with a visibility of 2 to 5 miles around midnight. Off the Glénans an 8 to 12 knot north-easterly is forecast for the early hours tomorrow morning.

Alain Gautier (Foncia) : “We’re going to take on a big leg in a straight line, which will make a change from the zigzags of the two preceding legs. An interesting configuration as the difference will be made on the weather forecast and the strategic choices of the positions, comments Gautier, and the forecast is not simple though it will be quite a classic summer situation which will give rise to a lot of questions, estimations and worry, he continues laconically. There may be some difficult little local phenomena on the menu. It’s going to be interesting. I was able to recuperate myself a little in La Rochelle and I feel rested. I’m in an interesting position but I’m not going to let things get to me. There are a good dozen comrades on the warpath who are less than an hour apart and could still win the Solitaire. I intend to sail cleanly without being influenced by what the others are doing and continue to enjoy myself.”

Benoit Petit (Défi Santé Voile) : “Everything’s going fine, even if the night was a little bit difficult. I got a superb start as I left La Rochelle in the leading pack, but now there’s everything to do! But I knew there was going to be some calm and that we’re going to have to make do with it.”

Ronan Guérin (Amandine & Chérie) : “It’s gone rather well on the whole since the start even though it’s hard to manage your sleeping. We haven’t really had any long stages ashore to recuperate. Since the start of the night, I’ve been looking at the very unstable stretch of water and trying to anticipate it! The start of the course enabled me to see that I was OK aboard. I got a good start. I think there are going to be a good number of surprises in some time. We’ll see in the early hours if our trajectories have come good or not”.

Gwenaël Riou (Espoir Crédit Agricole) : “We can’t see the other boats, so I don’t really know where I am at the moment. There are little flurries of wind every couple of minutes then some windless spells. Earlier I had some trouble holding it together so I listened to some music which really helped, dub and a little electronic stuff. It’s soothing I feel a bit on edge”

Kate Jennings

...Official site La Solitaire Du Figaro