It's a game of Patience for British and Irish skippers in Solitaire du Figaro
by La Solitaire du Figaro 20 Jun 2014 14:34 PDT
20 June 2014
Solitaire du Figaro skippers at I'Ile de Batz © Maxime Flipo
The nine British and Irish skippers in this year's Solitaire come from a variety of sailing backgrounds - Nick Cherry (Redshift) is a Match Racing master, Alan Roberts (Artemis 23) dominates in dinghies but the Solitaire du Figaro is a very different discipline.
Ed Hill (Macmillan Cancer Support): "There is no history of someone stepping into this class and winning it, zero history of that. There's a real skill and knack to this, it's a lot to do with experience, a lot of hard graft and it's hard to relate how tough it is out on the water and how your mind and body react when you're under severe stress, not just stress but sleep deprivation. The endurance side of it is really hard to say how someone will or will not cope."
This has been a real lesson for the three British rookies in the fleet this year.
Rich Mason (Artemis 77): "The Solitaire is at the opposite end of the sailing spectrum to what I'm used to! Dinghy sailing is fast and furious and each race is over in an hour. I was competing in a two-man boat so I had someone to talk through all the tactics with. In the Solitaire it's four days on your own, every decision is either your fault or your good judgement depending on how it goes! I went into this thinking I've done a lot of sailing and I've been professional for 4 years, that stood me in good stead for maybe the first beat into the windward mark and then after that it is just completely something else! I'm still a very competitive person, I want to do well but it's hard in a fleet of people who have been sailing 20 years longer than I have but they've also been doing the Solitaire for 20 years longer than I have."
The pre-race favourites, and two-time Solitaire winners, Yann Elies (Groupe Queguiner) and Jeremie Beyou (Maitre Coq) took many years to crack this race. Between them, they have done the Solitaire 27 times. It took Elies 5 attempts to finish in the top 10 and 13 races before he won his first Solitaire in 2012. Beyou took 9 attempts.
Henry Bomby: "I think what I find hardest is the expectation I put on myself, and that is my biggest problem. I want to be good, and I want to be good now. I want to be Top 10, fighting it out with the best in the world. But the one thing Leg 2 has made me realise is that this game of racing identical boats around the ocean by ourselves takes time to do well. I have spoken with numerous skippers and coaches about my frustrations with the Figaro, how the racing is too hard, too tough, how mentally it destroys you, and how disappointed I am at how I am performing. And I have always been amazed at the reaction I get back - about how young I am and how not to worry, keep working hard, and it will come. I don't care for any of that though, I don't see my age as an excuse at all. Corentin Horeau is 25, he started Figaro sailing the same year as me and came 2nd in Leg 2, it can be done. Saying that, being reminded of these facts since finishing the Leg has definitely helped me."
Bomby describes the Solitaire as an addiction. The reality is this race is one of the toughest single-handed events out there but that doesn't stop many of the world's top offshore sailors returning year after year for their annual fix.
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