Press release of 06/05/2013
Eliès wins leg 1, Bouttell is first rookie,
Goodchild scores his best
French solo sailor and reigning race champion Yann Eliès on board Groupe Quéguiner-Leucémie Espoir, crossed the finish line in Porto at 16:03:26 CEST today, June 5th 2013, winning leg one of the 44th edition of La Solitaire du Figaro ??“ Eric Bompard cachemire. Eliés covered the 536 miles long leg from Bordeaux to Porto in 3 days, 3 hours, 3 minutes and 26 seconds thus taking his personal leg wins record to 8 victories in 14 editions of the race.
After leaving left the village of Paulliac on the Garonne river on Sunday, June 2nd bound for Porto, on the northern coast of Portugal, the 41 boats strong fleet experienced a relatively quiet crossing of the Bay of Biscay, a very tough night off Cap Ortega and to Cap Finisterre with high winds up to 35 knots that put to the test men and boats and caused several skippers to loose vital downwind sails. After rounding Finisterre the fleet was slowed down by light and fickle airs and compressed, causing a re-start with the skippers taking different options, inshore, offshore or an intermediate course to find the best pressure to approach the final stretch to Porto. With some of the stars of the class like Nicolas Lunven or Fabien Delahaye, getting stuck and losing ground the frontrunners swapped places several times and in turn the fleet was led by Michel Desjoyeaux (TBS), Alexis Loison (Groupe Fiva), Jean-Pierre Nicol (Bernard Controls) and finally Yann Eliès (Groupe Quéguiner-Leucémie espoir).
The Anglo-Saxons in the spotlight
This will be remembered as an extraordinary day for the Anglo-Saxons in the Solitaire du Figaro. At his third Solitaire du Figaro, Sam Goodchild (Shelterbox – Disaster Relief) looks like he has come of age in what is considered as one of the world's toughest offshore single-handed races. All along the 536 miles long first leg Goodchild showed enough consistency, boat speed and tactical skills to reindex in close contact to the fleet, climbing to the top ten on the last night and finally crossing in 8th overall, that is to say his best leg result so far after a 14th on last year's leg 3. Nick Cherry (Magma Structures) gets an excellent 11th overall, missing 10th place by only a minute. 22 years old Jackson Bouttell (Artemis 77) at his very first experience closes in 23rd and 1st rookie, overcoming the only female sailor competing in this year's race Claire Pruvot (Port de Cahen Ouistreham) by only 11 minutes after three days and three nights at sea. Edmund Hill (Artemis 77) after having led the rookies for well over a day and having climbed as up as 16th suffered some technical hitches and finished in a most honourable 27th, preceding Henry Bomby (Rockfish) on the line by less than five minutes. The youngest skipper in this year's race, David Kenefick (Full Irish) finished in 33rd
Skippers' quotes:
Yann Eliès (Groupe Quéguiner-Leucémie Espoir), winner of leg 1: “It's been a long battle, as it always is. I'm happy with the final result because I've been up in front almost all the time, save at the start, but this seems to be the norm for me! I had some bad moments too. At Cap Finisterre I thought I was safe, and when the wind started to drop I said to myself it's ok, I have ten miles, time to clear up a bit and I saw three little red lights passing to the leeward. I thought: ok, let's start this over. It was tough... Finally I managed to put some time between me and the others, that is good. But this is only the first one, it's not won yet, there is still three to go. I'm happy but I know that I have to keep focused and modest because the reverse can always happen, especially on the second leg. I reckon I'm among the favourites, one needs to be self-confident and I think I'm ready to go for it. This is my 8th win, one more to my goal to equal Jean Le Cam. I had no computer, no navigation software and I couldn't get the position reports. But I studied the lesson well before the start and I knew what was needed on every segment of the leg. This worked up to Cap Finisterre, I always had issues with it... Not having a computer may have saved me, because when you don't know where the others are you can choose where you want to go. And this can be positive. It was kind of “old style” sail racing... I got out paper charts, ruler and pencil...”
Frédéric Duthil (Sepalumic), 2nd placed leg 1: ”It's one of those legs that are uncertain to the last night. With Yann (Eliès) we took the same option: I was pretty sure and at sunrise we realized we made the right choice because we had some breeze. But we didn't know where the others were because the fleet was spread out and we couldn't even get them on the AIS. This morning report reassured us... there was a sort of re-start after Finisterre, I made the right choice and that was long overdue... I'm fast downwind in fresh air but I'm slower when it's light. It's been a very demanding leg, we couldn't relax a minute and the finish never come...”
Jean-Pierre Nicol (Bernard Controls), 3rd placed leg 1: “Looks like I come from the end of the world! I fought because I really want to do something good in this Solitaire, and especially on this first leg. Yann gave us a good bash but on the rest of the fleet it's not bad. After Cap Finisterre I stayed inshore, but I've privileged the sea breeze until I saw that the ones offshore were fast, so I turned to go and meet them on an intermediate route to have a good angle to approach the finish. Yann has a good advantage, but behind there are ten favourites, who have lost a lot. There is still a chance...”
Sam Goodchild (Shelterbox – Disaster Relief, 1st non French skipper and 8th overall: ”I'm happy with my position, I'm aware that I had also some luck on my side. This is one leg, there are three more, and the gaps are small. There is still a long way to go. It was different, very interesting between Finisterre and here, nobody knew what was going to happen. The first part was about being careful, exiting the Gironde was quite interesting, in the Bay of Biscay I did some things well and some badly, managed to make some gains at Finisterre and then it was a gambling game. I broke too many spinnakers in my previous Solitaires so this time I changed early because I knew it was going to be windy.”
Jackson Bouttell (Artemis 77), 23rd overall and 1st rookie: “The turning point in my leg was the storm off Cap Ortega, with 30/35 knots. That was good. I broke my big spinnaker just before the cape and that was frustrating, but I manage to repair it. I slept quite a lot on the first day, after we left the river and up to Finisterre, so I was well rested. Last night I couldn't sleep because the wind was so fickle that if you miss something that can cost a lot. What do I expect from the next ones? Keep that going, keep on learning more every time. In this one I think I've learned to look at a more general strategy, see the bigger picture...”
Edmund Hill (Artemis 37) 27th overall: “It's an incredible experience, my first time! Also because we had pretty brutal conditions off the northern Spanish coast. And then some light wind areas, very tricky to manage. But I'm very happy, I enjoyed it, it's important”.
Henry Bomby (Rockfish) 28th overall: ”This morning the air was so light!It's really a tough race, before Cap Finisterre it was really hard: I've seen 22 knots on my log... my straight recod! Later I chose a conservative route, but that didn't pay...”
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