A balanced test of nerve ahead of leg 3 of Solitaire Bompard Le Figaro

by rivacom.fr on 1 Jul 2016 The opening two stages of the 2016 Solitaire Bompard le Figaro tested every aspect of the solo racing sailor’s art – boatspeed in all conditions, weather strategy, tidal strategy, sleep management and boat-on-boat tactics.

They were long and exhausting stages that also tested the sailors’ competitive desire – their appetite to push themselves to new limits – and they have left the 39-strong fleet spread out, first to last, over a yawning chasm of 33 hours of total elapsed time.

Those two legs were as a tough an opening in a Solitaire as has been seen in recent years and there are few in the fleet who are not feeling the pace at this stage. But the punishment is not quite over because leg three, that starts tomorrow from Paimpol, is not going to be easy either.

At 410 nautical miles it is marginally shorter than leg two, but the stage to La Rochelle has plenty of pitfalls and moments where the snakes and ladders of tidal effects could be devastating to sailor’s overall time.

The stage amounts to a north-south tour of the Brittany coast with the notorious Chenal du Four and Raz de Sein super-tidal corridors – where rocks and vicious currents pose real danger to boats and overall times – are prominent challenges.

Then the skippers have to plot their way through the islands flanking southern Brittany – Groix, Belle Ile and Yeu – before the course opens out in the final section ahead of the finish at La Rochelle.

Weatherwise this looks as though it could be the lightest in terms of breeze of the race to date with a moderate west-southwesterly airflow, turning the early stages into a beat. Then the wind is set to back into the north and decrease, making for slow downwind conditions in the final two-thirds of the stage.

In terms of the overall positions, the race is beautifully–balanced at the top with Yoann Richomme on Skipper Macif 2014 sitting at the head of affairs after his impressive second place in stage one and then his first ever leg win in the Solitaire in leg two. He has a useful, but not crushing, advantage over second-placed Charlie Dalin in Skipper Macif 2015, who is 30 minutes and 30 seconds behind.

The battle between these two campaigners will be a fascinating one. Dalin is a precocious talent at 32 who was second overall last year and third overall in 2014. He desperately wants that top step on the podium but Richomme, also 32, is blocking his way on his seventh attempt to win this prestigious championship.

Clearly they are going to be watching each other like hawks, especially as the final leg is a relatively short sprint of just 130 miles in length that will not present as many passing opportunities as the first three stages.

Dalin reckons he can throw the kitchen sink at it now as he tries to depose Richomme. 'What interests me is first place,” he said in Paimpol where he finished third behind his rival for overall honours in stage two. “I was on the podium in 2014 and again in 2015, now I need to make that final step…I think my position is easier than that of Yoann though. I have nothing to lose, he has everything to lose.'

Richomme, for his part, knows he will have to track Dalin’s every move. But he must also ensure that he is not outflanked by those further down the ranking like stage one winner Erwan Tabarly on Armor Lux who is third overall, one hour and three minutes behind, and Nicolas Lunven on Generali in fourth place, another 21 minutes back.

'This is not necessarily a simple situation, for which I have not practised,” said Richomme. “There will inevitably marking because I cannot let Charlie try anything without following him. And it's not just Charlie. One hour lost and my lead could disappear very fast.”

Barring extraordinary events it hard to see the overall winner coming from outside the top-four and clearly Richomme and Dalin are heavily-favoured, even at this halfway stage.

Behind them the fleet is spread out, hour-after-hour. The eighth-ranked sailor Christoper Pratt on Sourire a la Vie is just over three hours off the pace while Gildas Morvan on Cercle Vert in 16th is over seven-and-a-half hours behind. (Morvan was fourth on leg two but he lost oceans of time on stage one after sailing the wrong course just after the start).

High hopes for British sailors have not been fulfilled in this championship to date with Alan Roberts the best of them on Alan Roberts Racing but way down the field in 17th place, eight hours and 31 minutes behind Richomme.

The bright spot on the British horizon is 22-year-old Will Harris on Artemis 77 who leads the rookie division, but he has a battle on his hands to secure the first-timer title. In 21st overall, Harris is nine hours and 42 minutes behind Richomme. The next best rookie is Pierre Quiroga in 23rd place on Skipper Espoir CEM who is just 27 minutes behind him.

Leg two saw a big drama for Robin Elsey on Artemis 43, when his boat hit a rock in the Chenal du Four while Elsey slept, causing significant damage to the bow, keel and one of the rudders. Remarkable work by local boat-builders to fix the keel, the keelbolts and the bow, plus a spare rudder hastily shipped from Cowes, means Elsey will take the start for stage three – something that looked highly unlikely when he arrived in Paimpol on Wednesday.