Press release of 07/06/2012
Travelling from far afield
Competing in La Solitaire du Figaro - Eric Bompard Cachemire, the unofficial world championship of solo offshore racing, is hard at the best of times but if you have to travel to France from overseas to take part, it is all the harder.
Those who have come the furthest to sail in this year's race are Portugal's Francisco Lobato (Roff) and Norwegian sailor, Kristin Songe-Møller (Kristin for fulle seil). Lobato is competing for his third time, and while for Songe-Møller, one of three women competing this year, alongside Jeanne Gregoire (Banque Populaire) and Isabelle Joschke (Galettes Saint-Michel), this is her first time.
Francisco Lobato still seems tired from leg two. “The first leg was really long and tiring and the second one everything was decided some hours after the start and then it was all straight and difficult to recover and there were no big choices to make. I started to feel the fatigue and the sleepless nights were more difficult. There were opportunities to sleep, because sometimes the wind was stable, but I was tired indexly because in Gijon we didn't have too many days to rest.”
Best known in solo sailing circles for dominating the Series class in the 2009 Mini Transat, Lobato tried a few ‘options' on the first two legs – heading east to get around the Bay of Biscay high on leg one and heading west to get around the high shortly after the start from Gijon. Unfortunately neither really paid off.
“On the first leg my goal was to go south as fast as possible, but I went south too early, I should have gone south while in the high and not before. That was a big mistake.” He arrived in Gijon a disappointing 27th. “And then on the second leg the idea was to pass to the northwest of the high, but it was not very good, it would have been better to go north for speed. It was the opposite of the first leg!” he admits. Fortunately he was subsequently able to claw back some positions and, sailing more conservatively, arrived in St Gilles Croix de Vie 17th, leaving him 26th overall.
However Lobato is frustrated that his first Solitaire du Figaro back in 2010 reindexs his best. “In 2010 the first leg was very bad and then I finished two legs in the top 10, and another 17th, so I know I can do it but I haven't been sailing very well this time. It is frustrating because some people who were sailing much worse than me in the first year are starting to sail good now. Maybe it is how I manage the campaign, maybe I am straining too much. The fact of being in Portugal with the sponsors there and then coming to France - it is very tiring and maybe it doesn't help me progress.”
His results on the first two legs have not been helped by blowing up his big spinnaker in the fresh conditions approaching Gijon and then losing the masthead sheave for both his spinnaker and genoa halyards while closing on the finish of leg two. In the latter case he was worried that losing the turning block at the top of the mast would cause his spinnaker halyard to chafe through, but fortunately it held to the end.
Looking for the positives Lobato has to think hard, but says he has been pleased with his start and it is always a pleasure to compete in La Solitaire and its impossibly high level of competition.
For the final leg, starting Sunday, he is hoping for a top 10 position. “The English coast is always difficult with the tides and the currents that I don't know very well. We have studied it with Jean Yves Bernot and last year we sailed there, but there are always details you don't know.”
While Lobato has been hampered by not sailing conservatively enough and a few technical failures, Kristin Songe-Møller found herself sailing leg one with a fever. “I think I got a virus from all the kissing the French do! I mean what is wrong with a proper handshake?” she jokes, but the first leg must have been dire. “I don't usually get sick so I must have caught something off someone. I had a temperature and my body didn't work properly. I was just taking Paracetamol and kept going. So I must admit I sailed more of it under autopilot and slept more than I normally would. I managed – so no big deal. But I have been struggling with that ever since. I am only getting well again now.”
Kristin's objective was not to be last and in that she has succeeded, 32nd of 37 starters into Gijon and then 33rd on leg two. “The racing is very good actually, really enjoyable. There haven't been too rough conditions, so it has been good, better than I thought.”
She feels she has been handling the sleep deprivation side well and out on the race course there is a surprisingly good atmosphere, despite being alone on board. “It is really absurd being out in the middle of the ocean on your own and you have a radio show going on on the VHF – it's in French, so I don't understand all of it, but it's great. There's normally a quiz at around 1100pm and there's some music occasionally as well. Sometimes it is too much, but at other times it is funny.”
Her highlights have been sailing under spinnaker the big wind conditions, particularly on the final run into the finish of leg one. “We had nearly 30 knots of wind and logged 17 knots which is always nice. When you manage to get the right trim and you see yourself catching up on people, that's fun too.”
As to her progress she says that in general she is quite pleased. “On the last leg I was still a bit tired from being sick, so I didn't manage to focus all the time and I was struggling with getting my trim right - I was taking too long and I am not happy with that. But when I got the trim right, I was really fast and was closing in on everyone. I just have to work on that. I know I could have done much better. But that is the way it is - I bet everyone is saying that.”
Like Francisco Lobato, Kristin says she is not looking forward to the tidal conditions when they get back into the Channel on leg three that involves crossing the Channel to Wolf Rock near Plymouth and heading along the south coast of the UK before returning back across the Channel to the finish in Cherbourg-Octeville. “It is fairly new to me racing in those conditions. So I just have to do my best. It is going to be tough.”
Marie LE BERRIGAUD-PEROCHON
Rivacom
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