|
La Solitaire du Figaro 2011
www.lasolitaire.com -Übersicht
Monday, August 22nd 2011
Beyou in the lead, but suspense runs high to the finish
After the first day and night at sea, and two key points of passage, the
solo sailors are halfway to the finish of the fourth and decisive leg of La
Solitaire du Figaro, that left Les Sables d’Olonne on Sunday bound to
Dieppe. Shortly after 4 am the overall race leader Jérémie Beyou climbed up
again in the lead of the final leg with Fabien Delahaye and young rookie
Morgan Lagravière practically “glued” to his stern.
|
Beyou (BPI) at the raz de Sein
Photo Credits: Courcoux/Marmara – Le Figaro
|
While the front of the fleet is tacking upwind towards the Four Channel to
round the Brittany Point, the skipper of BPI is reported to have a half-mile
advantage on Fabien Delahaye (Port de Caen Ouistreham) second placed in the
overall ranking. The two look more than determined to stay up in the
leadership over the reindexing 260 tricky miles to the finish. But their
pursuers are all but giving up hope and tension runs high as the first 13
boats are all in a tiny 2 two and a half mile range.
Undoubtedly, the final stage of La Solitaire du Figaro so far has met the
skippers’ expectations with 15 hours of demanding upwind sailing to Belle
Ile followed by an equally stressful reaching spell with continuous sail
changes. At approximately noon Monday, the first skippers faced the
difficult passage of the raz de Sein against the tide, incredibly close to
the Plate lighthouse. This coastal course split the fleet in different
small groups.
Jérémie Beyou is in command of a troupe of 12 sailors lined up over a
stretch of less than 2.5 miles among which Fabien Delahaye (Port de Caen
Ouistreham), surprising first rookie Morgan Lagravière (Vendée), Erwan
Tabarly (Nacarat), Jean-Pierre Nicol (Bernard Controls), Adrien Hardy (Agir
Recouvrement), Fred Rivet (Vendée 1)… another group made of 8 boats is
following the leaders’ tracks, albeit with more lateral separation and
another two miles behind the rest of the fleet is scattered over a broad
area with skippers taking different options, like Nicolas Lunven (Générali)
and Thierry Chabagny (Gédimat) who went for a far more offshore route.
According to the position report, Portuguese Francisco Lobato (ROFF) lies in
11th, less than two miles behind the leader and showing good speed, a good
morale boost for the Lusitanian sailor who, up to now, had quite a
disappointing race. Jersey’s Phil Sharp (The Spirit of Independence) too,
has been consistently sailing in the top group and is reported to be in 15th
place, Conrad Humphreys (DMS) managed to climb back some places and is 28th
while the youngest competing sailor Sam Goodchild fell back in the ranking
and is 31st at 7 miles from the top while Nigel King (E-Line Orthodontics)
who suffered some electronics problems is 36th at 7.3 miles.
Late afternoon the fleet was heading to Ushant in a very variable and shifty
NE. In theory the breeze should increase and veer left after Brittany Point
and when the 44 skippers will have to set the course to the Channel Islands
they will be faced with a last dilemma: go offshore to get the shift or not?
Two skippers abandon racing
In the morning Damien Guillou (La Solidarité Mutualiste) and Louis Maurice
Tannyères (St Ericsson) warned the Race Direction that they were forced to
abandon. Tannyères’s decision was due to technical issues with his ballast
system, while Guillou, who sprained his right ankle during the stopover in
Les Sables d’Olonne, reported that manoeuvring and moving had become too
painful and he reluctantly resolved to stop and head to his homeport of
Lorient, where he arrived shortly after 16:30. The skippers still racing are
thus down to 44.
Skippers’ quotes:
Jérémie Beyou (BPI)
“I’ve never enough of getting past the raz de Sein, because every time it’s
closer and closer to the Plate lighthouse. There the current was against us,
then we had to stay on starboard to cross and not to end up in the flow
again. It’s a classic and some of us know the trick well, I managed to come
out in front and I’m some lengths ahead now. The Solitaire this year is
really close racing… We’re back into the same group with Fabien Delahaye,
the two Vendée boats (Morgan Lagravière and Fred Rivert), Adrien Hardy and
Jean-Pierre Nicol. Only Gildas Morvan who went further offshore is missing.
It’s going to be tougher after the Four: more chop and a good twenty knots
of breeze. Plus, we’re expecting the wind to go left (to the NE) and we’ll
have to decide whether to go for a long tack offshore or stay inshore. And
it is going to be jib or genoa? At the moment the air is more easterly and
then I’ve decided to stay close to shore, to enter the Four channel on a
single tack. And after that...it’s going to be a gymkhana to the finish! »
Frédéric Duthil (Sépalumic)
“All good onboard, I can see the guys in front, they’re not too far away, so
I’m still in the game. I wasn’t so happy about my start yesterday. Then the
night was tricky, with all those wind shifts. I slept, because the fatigue
we accumulated over the first three legs starts to seep in. The passage of
the raz de Sein was not bad, in that boiling sea! The wind is lighter than
we thought, I’m not sure was we’re going to have. We’re waiting for the NW
to come, but first, is a long series of tacks upwind…”
Marc Emig (Ensemble autour du monde)
“I know the raz de Sein, even if I’m from Marseille! I’ve passed through it
twelve times with the Tour de France à la Voile… But, normally it’s in the
opposite way. We had to go well inshore to get the good tide and then go
right to get out of the raz. I’m not the fastest on the planet, but I still
manage to stay close to the ones in front. I’ve already had a 30 minutes nap
since the start in Les Sables d’Olonne: battling with the best ones is a
good drive and I want to show that I deserve more than my place in the
overall ranking.”
Adrien Hardy (Agir Recouvrement)
“The last hours of the night were quite easy, reaching in 15 knots, and I
had some sleep crossing the Alderney bay. I managed to have three 20-minute
siestas as there wasn’t much else to do. When we entered the raz de Sein
there were at least 3 knots of current, which compressed the fleet back
together. Now we’re heading straight to the Four channel. The tide is going
to reverse and it won’t be easy to make the good choice. I will try and grab
some food and some sleep because you need to be in top shape. Conditions are
really nice now, it’s warm, ten knots of sea breeze and flat sea.”
Photo Credits: Courcoux/Marmara – Le Figaro
Beyou (BPI) at the raz de Sein
For the latest videos please register at:
http://solitairedufigaro.nefertiti-prod.tv
Formats: Flash, I-Phone and Quicktime
Facebook:
http://fr-fr.facebook.com/pages/La-Solitaire-du-Figaro/340274282728
Sabina Mollart-Rogerson –
|
|
|
|
