TOUR DE BRETAGNE A LA VOILE - 18-24 MAY 2003
LEG ONE : ST.MALO TO ST.QUAY
DISTANCE : 34 MILES
CONDITIONS : 15-20 knots from SSW mostly upwind, with strong tide in their favour

IN BRIEF:

* Sam Davies and co-skipper Emma Westmacott survive first Figaro test on board SKANDIA in Leg 1 of the Tour de Bretagne a la Voile... Twenty six boats crammed on the start line, five hours of intense, close racing, constant trimming of the new one-design Bénéteau Figaro 2...

* Winning boat skippered by Erwan Tabarly (grandson of sailing legend Eric Tabarly) crossed the finish line at 1700 hrs...18 minutes later SKANDIA crossed the line in 21st place. The entire 26-boat fleet finished within 20 minutes of each other - an exhausting first race for Davies and Westmacott...

* "It was just amazing to be racing in this fleet - we had huge crowds, spectator boats, helicopters above filming us...I was really nervous and apprehensive at the start..." said Davies on finishing.

* TOMORROW LEG 2 starting at 1030: Saint-Quay Portrieux to Perros Guirec ...very little rest for the skippers to debrief from today, study the weather and tactics for tomorrow and prepare the boat. The Figaro circuit is relentless. Conditions expected : mostly upwind, 15 to 20 knots.

IN DETAIL:

Twenty-six new one-design Bénéteau Figaro 2 boats crossed the start line of leg 1 of the Tour de Bretagne a la Voile at approx 1220 hrs today in 12-17 knots of breeze from SSW and calm seas. Some of France's best-known sailors were amongst the fleet...Loick Peyron, Bertrand Pace, Marc Thiercelin to name a few, attracing huge crowds to the coastline of St Malo and hundreds of spectator boats out on the water as TV helicopters whirred above.

A sense of nervousness afflicted the whole fleet as the reaching start was postponed a couple of times: "The start was the worst bit really," commented SKANDIA skipper Sam Davies. "It was a port tack start - pretty dangerous situation and no way to come in on starboard. We were not sure what to do and because the start line kept changing we had to keep changing our strategy as well." Finally underway the experienced skippers amongst the fleet hoisted their spinnakers - although the call was marginal - ultimately this gave them the lead. "In retrospect we should have done that but we thought we would lose time hoisting and dropping because of our lack of practice on this boat rather than just concentrating on a good start and speed."

"From there it was upwind and a case of follow my leader as we were behind and in the dirt," said Sam. "But we made a massive gain in the middle thanks to a shift that our weather router Dr Meeno Schrader had told us about - although we tacked out of it too early and lost a bit." Meeno routed for Ellen MacArthur in the Route du Rhum and the Jules Verne record attempt.

Not surprisingly the leading French names of Tabarly, Peyron, Pajot, Thiercelin all appear in the top 10 finishing boats. But Davies and Westmacott as newcomers to the fleet were in touch with the likes of Mini Transat winner Yannick Besthaven (finished 20th) and Gael Le Cleach (22nd) - Gael was Ellen’s Figaro coach in the same race in 1999, and is Roland Jourdain’s co-skipper on the Open 60 Sill. The quality of the fleet is quite extraordinary.

The learning curve for Davies and Westmacott and the other skippers has been huge as they learn the set up of these new boats. "Sometimes we were dog slow then just changing a small thing, tweaking and moving things about and you could be really fast - its relentless though, you can never stop trimming the boat, we didn't even have time to eat even a sandwich for the whole race!"

"Massive relief to have done first race - once you've done one race you get a whole lot more confident of how the boat handles," commented Sam. "It's a case of getting back into it as I haven't done this since my Mini campagin in 2001 but sailing with Emma again is fantastic. We have a really good understanding and we can both do everything on the boat whether helming or making a manoeuvres."

Leg 2 from Saint-Quay Portrieux to Perros Guirec starts tomorrow at 1030 hrs. Similar in length, the Figaro skippers face similar sailing conditions... reaching start and upwind conditions then a triangle course at the end of the leg. Another testing time and little time overnight to prepare the boat and study the all important weather and tidal charts. It is a relentless pace.

RESULTS TOUR DE BRETAGNE - LEG 1 SAINT MALO - SAINT-QUAY PORTRIEUX:

Skipper / co-skipper / boat
26 starters

1st Erwan TABARLY / Philippe VICARIOT - THALES
2nd Ronan GUERIN / Yves PAJOT - CAMUS IMMOBLILIER
3rd Benoit PETIT / Tangi MAHE - DEFI SANTE VOILE
4th Jeremie BEYOU / gilles CHIORRI - DELTA DORE
5th Yann ELIES / Loick PEYRON - GROUPE GENERALI ASSURANCES
6th Charles CAUDRELIER-BENAC / Pascal BIDEGORRY - BOSTIK FINDLEY
7th Thierry CHABAGNY / Corentin DOUGUET - PETIT NAVIRE
8th Marc THIERCELIN / Cyrille ROGNON - BERMUDES
9th Bruno JOURDREN / Jean-Marie DAURIS - D'AUCY
10th Eric DROUGLAZET / Hans BOUSCHOLTE - DAVID OLIVIER
21st Sam DAVIES / Emma WESTMACOTT - SKANDIA

See full race results at http://www.tourdebretagnealavoile.com

Sunday 18 May, Saint-Malo to Saint-Quay Portrieux
Monday 19 May, Saint-Quay Portrieux to Perros Guirec
Tuesday 20 May to Wednesday 21 May, Perros Guirec – Brest Thursday 22 May, Brest – Port La Forêt Friday 23 May, Port La Forêt – Lorient Saturday 24 May, Lorient, parcours « banane » et côtier

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