Solitaire du Figaro - Sailors set off on penultimate leg

by Artemis Offshore Academy on 23 Jun 2014 In the Solitaire du Figaro 2014, on Sunday, 22nd June at 1400 BST, the eight boat British contingent set off on the penultimate leg, racing 505 miles from Roscoff, France to Les Sables d’Olonne.

Relaxed on the dock, chatting and consuming fresh baguettes, in the blink of an eye the skippers were over the boat’s guard rails and off the pontoons – applause for the first competitor to cast off his lines their cue to leave. Currently leading the Rookies overall, Sam Matson (Artemis 21) was the first of the Artemis Offshore Academy armada to depart the harbour, empowered by the sound of a marching band and bagpipes playing the fleet into battle. With just 18 minutes and 14 seconds keeping Sam at the top of the Rookie leaderboard, pre-start he was determined not to let the pressure of keeping that time difference impact on his race: 'I’m trying not to think about those 18 minutes, but I think it’s inevitable that it’s going to be at the back of my head. My main focus for this leg, as it always is, is to just keep racing as fast and as consistently as I can - hopefully increasing that time difference. We’ll see how it goes.' [NB: Overall rankings are based on cumulative time over the four legs.]

Out on the start line the conditions were perfect, with 16-17 knots of wind from the northeast, sunshine and white horses on the waves. All clear over the line, the 38 boat fleet was soon bunched together on the favoured port tack to the first mark, powering upwind bow to bow before all piling in around the mark - hectic. Redshift skipper Nick Cherry came out of the first windward beat well and was one of the top five boats around the first mark, led by Yoann Richomme (Skipper Macif 2014). Next in the British line up came Ed Hill, who is raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support, with Henry Bomby (RED), Sam Goodchild (Team Plymouth) and Alan Roberts (Artemis 23) - all four Brits approaching the mark together inside the top 20. Alan was the first Rookie at the mark, before dropping his spinnaker under the boat – acting like a fishing net and rapidly losing places on the fleet. Nevertheless Nick, who got his campaign together just five weeks before the race, has been impressed by the performance of the British Rookies so far and is looking forward to pitting himself against them in this 505 mile majority downwind leg: 'Sam, Rich (Mason) and Alan’s performances have been really encouraging. They all seem very calm and relaxed and I think the training programme this year has been as good as it’s ever been. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to take beating them for granted, and I haven’t beaten them very much – good on them. Hopefully, I can beat them in this next leg; actually, I hope I beat more people in this leg, I don’t care who it is!' 2014 Rookie Rich (Artemis 77), Jack Bouttell (GAC Pindar) and Sam Matson passed around the mark with the back end of the fleet.

The start of Leg three was far from smooth sailing for Fabien Delahaye (Skipper Macif 2012) and Joan Ahweiller (Region Basse Normandie). The current race leader, Fabien broke his D1 (a lower part of the rigging that holds the mast in place) waiting for the start. Crossing the line and then returning to port to fix it, Fabien will have added plenty of time to his overall elapsed time. Meanwhile, Joan Ahweiller received a second foul blow, literally, as he and Sebastien Simon (Crédit Mutuel Espoir) collided shortly after the start. Reporting that his boat was taking on water, Joan was forced to retire from the race again – he had to retire from Leg two after hitting the Plymouth breakwater.

Ahead of the start, the British competitors were looking forward to what they described as a ‘typically French leg’ between Roscoff and Les Sables d’Olonne, taking the fleet through notorious areas of the French Atlantic coast line including Chenal du Four, Raz de Sain, through the Bay of Biscay and around Belle Ile. Leg three also differs from the first half of the race in that the skippers will spend a lot more time under spinnaker, almost two and a half days, as Alan explained: 'We’ve got a mainly downwind leg for Leg three, with a moderate breeze of between 10 to 12 knots swinging between north east and north west for the duration. From the mark at Birvideaux lighthouse, we go 155 miles across the Bay of Biscay and then 150 miles along the Vendée coast. Once on this offshore leg, we’re expecting quite a fickle wind, so it’s going to be important to rest well in the first half of the leg to ensure we’re in the game at the end.' The current ETA for the fleet in Les Sables d’Olonne, home of the famous Vendée Globe finish is Thursday 26th June.

Your last chance… If you want to be on the Solitaire du Figaro start line in 2015, then click here to apply for the Artemis Offshore Academy Selection Trials today. Applications close at midnight tonight! (Sunday 22nd June).

Alan Roberts, Artemis 23: 'We’ve all sailed the areas of this course before, through the Chanel du Four and Raz du Sein and across the Bay of Biscay around Belle Ile and Ile d’Yeu – I wouldn’t say it will make a huge difference having sailed this coast line before, but having talked about it a lot and not going into it for the first time, I feel more comfortable with where I’m going.'

'I found the most challenging thing for me about the race so far is the frustration of making silly mistakes that see you lose silly miles. For me this is just down to a lack of experience in this field. We’re up against guys who have raced this coastline, these boats and against each other for years and we’ve raced these boats for not even a year. I’m learning all the time.'

'I love being out there on the course, racing these boats against such a large and close together fleet. There’s such a great sense of community even though you’re up against each other, it’s like nothing I’ve ever done before.'

Nick Cherry, Redshift: 'The last two legs have been fairly typical of the Solitaire du Figaro, the race has been round Fastnet Rock plenty of time. However Leg three is much more typically a French leg and what we’ve been training for, sailing through notorious areas of the coastline like the Chanel du Four, Raz du Sein, the bay of Biscay and the islands in that area – more French.'

'This leg will also be different from the other two, as we will spend a lot more of it under spinnaker. We start off downwind and stay down wind for about two and a half days, which is quite a long time but it will be good to see whether I’m fast at a different angle.'

'I wouldn’t say I’m happy with my performance, but it was a rush for me to make it to the start line and I’m glad I got here, I’m enjoying and I hope there is more to come.'

Sam Matson, Artemis 21: 'I wouldn’t say that there has been anything I’ve not enjoyed about the race so far, the challenges are just part of it. Of course there are down times when you’re racing, when you feel a bit slow or you are passed by another boat. I’ve had moments when the whole fleet have caved in around me, but I just try to stay level headed and keep going and try to keep it in your mind that you can sail away again – all is not lost.'

'We’re sailing a lot of the Solo Maitre Coq course, our first race of the season, which was a disaster for me. I learned such a lot from that race and the mistakes I made and hopefully I can show that with this leg.'

'My starts really aren’t that great, and I’m finding myself at the back of the fleet going into the first night. From then on I try to sail fast and consistently and just plugging my way through the fleet. Through my double-handed sailing over the last five years, I’m quite used to playing the long game and trying to manage myself well on board – I think that this is helping me a lot with the solo racing. You see quite a lot of people around you on the course being impatient and making big calls to try and see a gain, but these decisions can cost a lot and I prefer to just sit tight, sail hard and consistently. I’m not one for risks.'

'On this leg it’s going to be important to get rest early on in this leg, to make sure we are awake for the final miles between Birvideaux and the finish line. We’ll be sailing on the breeze on this long stretch, and it will be important to be alert and making the right decisions. It’s not going to be a windy leg, I’m hoping we get a breezy one before the end. '

'The support from home has been amazing, from my friends, family, my sailing club – I’m constantly receiving messages of support, which is really nice. I’m really happy with the following I’ve got from everyone back home and with the media attention I’ve received. I think it’s so exciting to see people talking and getting excited about solo sailing back home. It’s great.'

Jack Bouttell, GAC Pindar: 'I’ve not performed as well as I’d hoped to, but there’s still a long way to go. It was pretty tough to even get to the start line and be ready for the race, and I’m not as prepared as I would have liked to have been and I just didn’t have enough time on the water this year – I’ve had about five days of training this year, compared to 55 last year. There are still two long legs to go, and I with these legs doing well could see you climbing the leaderboard. I’m currently 26th and I don’t think that getting inside of the top 20 is out of reach. The difference is that last year I was totally on top of everything and the boat was totally refined with the boat, while this year I’m still trying to get there with it.'

'It’s quite a frustrating position to be in right now, I know that I can be a lot better than I have done – it’s just the situation I’m in. I an hour outside of the 20’s so it’s definitely not out of reach so I’ll just keep pushing hard and try to close that gap.'

Rich Mason, Artemis 77: 'On reflection my last leg was pretty good, even though I was disappointed. I think mid-fleet is round about where I should be considering it’s my first year. I maybe didn’t get a good enough start to finish where I wanted to, but I’m going to build on that in this leg and make sure that I’m really where I want to be at the beginning, so that I can be there at the end.'

'I’m learning so much with each leg, it’s not getting any easier but I’m definitely getting more into a routine and becoming more accustomed to what the race is about. The first leg was a bit of a trip into the unknown and by the third one it’s a bit more of another leg – the excitement hasn’t gone from it, but I’m more comfortable with it.'
'The thing I enjoy most about the race is the ‘everything.’ There are so many things that you need to do to compete in this race, so many different elements. But then you also get those moments like the glorious weather we’ve had and the dolphins jumping alongside the boat. There are just so many parts to this racing that you wouldn’t experience in dinghy racing or short course racing. I just feel really happy while I’m out there – enjoying the elements and the water and the racing.'

Ed Hill, Macmillan Cancer Support: 'To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, ‘to lose… once may be regarded as unfortunate, to lose both looks like carelessness…’Although I don’t see myself as being careless it becomes hard to put things down to bad luck and instead I think I have to come to terms with the fact that I have been sailing badly.'

'Almost all of the Solitaire so far has been two sail reaching and so far I have been slow at this. Tactical options are limited firstly for being slow and secondly due to almost always the best option being to sail the minimum distance and point straight at the next mark. Even though I have been slow, I’ve tried not to panic and look for miracle shifts or strategies; banging corners and taking stupid risks I think will only make things worse and instead I believe there is some merit and valour in doing the right thing even if it means following most of the fleet. Of course I’m looking for options in the next two legs to do something special and I’ll be more inclined to take a 50/50 risk but don’t expect to see me leaving the fleet if there’s a 10% chance of something happening….'

Sam Goodchild, Team Plymouth: 'There are three different options for the inshore course, they'll make a decision 30 minutes before the start of this afternoon's race. - one is in the rocks around Roscoff, it could be quite interesting, hopefully there's enough space between the boats to not get too busy. There could be lots of putting up and down the kite - potentially three times in the first two hours of racing. So the aim is to not get too far back with so many manoeuvres it's easy to get spread out, I think.'

Henry Bomby, RED: 'There are two more legs of this Solitaire to go, I hope to keep having good segments during each of the legs so that in years to come I will be able to string it all together, with the consistency required to beat the best in the world. Till then it is back to earning those hard miles by myself on the water, experiencing the pain of four days alone by myself at the back of the pack so that I don't under any circumstances let myself get in that situation again. Thanks to everyone for their support, it means the world to me and I hope I can do you all proud over the next two Event Artemis Offshore Academy