It was with a sense of release that many of skippers finally got to the start line of La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro. This morning of the start was spent checking over the latest weather files, double and triple checking equipment and fittings and tweaking the routing for the first leg that lies ahead: 415 miles from Caen to Cork.
At 15h20 today 49 skippers competing in La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro crossed the start line to set off round the 15.3-mile inshore course to the Radio France Bouy in ideal sailing conditions: clear skies, a flat sea and 10 knots of northerly breeze. Three individual recalls were given to Jeanne Gregoire (Banque Populaire), Pietro D’Alì (Kappa) and Nicolas Lunven (Bostik). At the outset, five-time world champion windsurfer, Robert Nagy (Theolia) was leading by some 10 boat lengths over Frederic Duthil (Distinxion).
The fleet face a 35 mile reach west along the Cotentin coastline to Barfleur, before they head across the Channel to the Fairway marker buoy off the Needles this evening.
There was all round disappointment for James Bird sailing GFI Group before the start. Upon leaving the canal to join the race area, Bird hit something whilst preparing to tack. “I was just about to tack with 2.5 metres of depth when suddenly I stopped dead. From 7 knots to nothing, which just threw me down the hatch. I am going to go back to Caen and see what is the situation is and try fix it tonight, but not sure if I can rejoin tomorrow.” Explained the your 24 yearold rookie sailor from London upon returning to Ouistreham.
This morning, Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) foresaw the weather conditions being slightly better than predicted yesterday: the “wind should be more established today and a little less complicated for tomorrow. We are going to have to make the most of any opportunities that that come our way and there should be quite a lot at play along the south coast of England.” The general thought is that there will not be much sleep for the sailors on the first part of the race.
The key to a successful Figaro race according to Jean-Yves Chauve, the race doctor working on his 21st Solitaire race this year, is the sleep deprivation management factor. “When you are at sea tiredness becomes hard to handle and it comes on quickly and then it is easy to make poor judgements and boat handling is tougher. It is imperative to manage your sleep well and in particular to actually sleep when possible. This heavily influences the single-handed sailors' performance so the more experienced ones are able to take 10 to 30 minute naps to keep them alert. On a three-day race like this one, you can expect the sailors to get something like one hour’s sleep over a twenty-four hour cycle. The first year is always hard for the rookies because even if you are a very good boat handler it is your sleep management that will be most important.”
For this leg it is likely the fleet will remain quite bunched and play more with tactics and not making important strategic moves for the initial part of this leg. The current however, which can be very strong at key headlands such as Start Point and the Lizard, together with the forecast wind shift on Wednesday may see some large gaps develop between the competitors. Looking ahead, keeping a clear and focused mind to make the right tactical decisions at the right times, is going to be the key to coming out on top on this first leg.
First 10 at the Radio France Buoy:
1./ Frederic Duthil - Distinxion
2./ Nicolas Trousell - Financo
3./ Robert Nagy - Theolia
4./ Marc Emig - A.ST Groupe
5./ Gerald Veniard - Scutum
6./ Michel Desjoyeaux - Foncia
7./ Nicolas Berenger - Kone
8./ Gildas Mahe - Le Comptoir Inmobilier
9./ Frederic Rivet - Novotel Caen
10./ Laurent Pellecuer - Cliptol Sport
