Rollercoaster for British and Irish skippers in La Solitaire du Figaro Leg 3

Leg 3 from Roscoff to Les Sables d'Olonne was a bit of a rollercoaster for the International, non-French contingent. From the high of having Sam Goodchild (Team Plymouth) lead the fleet in the early stages to the lows of several Brits getting dumped into the really cheap seats the ups and downs were significant. The low points were usually the end result of a combination of unlucky transitions into new breeze but these sometimes magnified simple early self inflicted mistakes, like kite wraps, getting too tired and dozing off, or following ill founded strategies. It it will be a difficult leg for them to debrief conclusively before the final leg starts Sunday.

In the end there were those who benefited from this morning's shut down and compression, having their fortunes resuscitated from the ER table at the last minute by being well position for the new W'ly when it finally came in. Others were not so lucky – Goodchild went from a steady 19th around much of the course to 29th at the finish. Nick Cherry went from 34th and 61 miles off the lead to 28th, and 15 miles ahead of Goodchild. Ed Hill rose four places to 24th.

Key result in terms of the overall standings is the 20th of Sam Matson. The young Brit has dropped to second on the Rookies standings now. After his 12th, 18th and 20th he is now 32minutes and 25 seconds behind Gwenolet Gahinet (Safran-Guy Cotten) which is still very much in touch when the final 490 miles via Eddystone to the final finish in Cherbourg Octeville is considered. And Matson is still a very respectable 14th in the overall standings.

Best British finisher on Leg 2 was Jack Bouttell (GAC Pindar) in 19th who took five places on the final stage up to Les Sables d'Olonne.

Quotes:

Jack Bouttel GBR 19th GAC Pindar: "There were really two halves to the race and I was going quite well up until Belle Isle where there was a park up. And really from there the first 15 boats just sailed away into oblivion. I just kept plugging away and got a good finish out of it. It was frustrating to have the park up again this morning, the whole fleet was a bit closer again, and everyone was pushing again coming into the finish like it was the first beat of the first leg, so it was quite fun into the finish. It was long and hard work.

The boats in the front this morning ended up quite inshore and then the new breeze came in from offshore, I took the punt offshore and that seemed to work. So it was tough. I feel quite tired mentally, physically it was not so strenuous trying to just keep the boat going, but there was a very low point when the front boats just sailed away. But I never gave up and came back into it. It is a better result, I am starting to put things together a bit more. Hopefully I can get back into it a bit more and have a good final leg. My boatspeed was good at times and I was keeping true to the end, really a lot of guys had given up on life by the end of the third day. I was close to that when they announced how far the leaders were ahead, they were 25 miles ahead. I ended up OK and it was a nice leg to look back on, not so much fun during it."

Sam Matson Artemis GBR 20th Artemis 21, lying second rookie overall: "The first night I had a bad throat and after that I had bad flu, just trying to stay in the shade and going nowhere very fast, it was pretty tough. It was roasting hot and the boat was very hot below. I did think I would be dehydrated badly and thought it was serious until I found two bottles of water under my coat, and so I was OK. But yesterday morning I had a serious panic and thought I had nothing left. This morning was interesting when the guys who went around the mark went inshore and parked up. They did warn about some fronts coming through but they did not say what or when, so you could just see a line of clouds. I was on the verge of going to sleep and the alarm went off and I went on from there. Considering I was dragging my heels and so far down the fleet, to have got back into it is amazing. It is unbelievable. There was a moment when there was just me and Nick Cherry out the back. We hit a really slow point at ODAS where we watched fleet sail around the mark and get another two or three miles on me and that was a low point. There it looked like it would be straight lining, we did not know there would be the big shut down in the end and that is what got me back into it."

"As far as the first rookie thing goes I am just pleased to be still in it. My goal was to be on the rookies' podium and I am there still."

Sam Goodchild GBR 29th Team Plymouth: "I sailed my best leg – I feel – and got my worst result. I had a dream race to Belle Ile and I could not have asked for much more to there. And then I was 200 metres from the boats that got wind. I felt like I could almost touch it but it just never ever reached my sails. I was a little bit slow there, a couple of guys sailed past me, but not that much past me. They just got a little bit past me until I found my feet and then I was keeping up with them. If I had been able to get up to speed quicker maybe I would have been able to stay with them. I spent most of the Leg then in 19th which was OK but the whole Bay of Biscay bit was just dull, incredibly dull, miles away from anyone and anything. There was no one in our part of the fleet was up, everyone was down on the radio chat. We all left Belle Isle within two miles and twelve hours later we were spread over 30 miles. It was just from the breeze that picked up some people and not others. By this morning I was still quite happy with my race, I felt like I had not made any big mistakes – that little one at Belle Isle was pretty expensive. And this morning everyone came around the mark and pointed the finish, footing, and came back from behind and the whole fleet did 180 degrees. I feel bad for Alan Roberts and Anthony Marchand who were just ahead of me and they then sat for two hours. There is nothing they could have done. I was disappointed to have been 19th and so it feels worse where I did finish, but I still think it was one of the best legs I have sailed and yet with the worst result. It was the longest leg I have done. I did not manage my water very well, I drank 12 litres in the first 24 hours and then eight litres in the next three days. I slept enough. Even compared to my eighth last year I feel like I sailed better, the result is disappointing."

Henry Bomby GBR 30th Red - Rockfish: "It was such a long leg. When I was coming in I really had to think where it was we had left from. There were so many different elements to the leg. At the start I was not aggressive enough to win the pin. Then I sailed well through the first night and then was super slow in the morning. I had three lots of weed on my keel and for two hours I refused to do a back down until everyone had sailed past me and then I did the back down to get it off. So the lesson is to do that straight away. I had a chance to get back into it at Belle Isle but trusted a weather forecast which by that time I had worked out it was complete rubbish and yet I still put faith in it. I was thinking why am I going this way. The wind was just so variable the thing to do was just go course made good each shift, that was what everyone else did, on each change take the course closest to the mark. By the second night I was extremely tired. The whole shut down this morning I had a chance to bale out early and did not take it. Nicholas Jossier baled out first and got to 14th and I was ahead of him. He tacked off to clear out of my dirty air, he went west and then carried on and I think so the AIS showing the boats shut down by the coast, and he was doing eight knots the whole way and from 32 at the last mark he went to 14th. Mine is not a great result really. But when you get these shut downs in Biscay that is what is going to happen."

Nick Cherry GBR 28th Redshift: "I started well and it got worse. I got my spinnaker caught through the forestay early on. I was happy then in about 20th for a while and then I was pretty tired coming into Belle Isle and I think I must have had a little nap by accident and everyone was sailing off. I never got back into it and the rich got richer. Then I got a bit of a reprieve this morning after BXA only about 15 miles after the mark did I realise everyone in front had sailed into a big hole. And I got back into it. At the back I was not too down it was a nice night, good stars, dolphins and some nice phosphorescence. I resigned myself and was just plugging away to stay in contact in case an opportunity came my way. And it did. You have to get yourself into a position to take the chances if they come and I did. And so at the moment I feel like I got let off on that one, a bit lucky. Four nights was hard because it was so shifty it was really hard to get sleep. I made an effort to bank sleep. I have not set the world on fire in this race but my preparation coming into this was not ideal. I am enjoying the experience and learning from that to take it all forwards to next year.

Dave Kenefick IRL 25th Full Irish Le Comptoir Irelandais: It is nice to finish in Les Sables d'Olonne. It is impossible to finish into the Canal here and not think about what it would be like to do the Vendée Globe. I got off to another good start. I was really, really happy with my start and I had good speed. But it is so frustrating to find yourself drifting towards to the back of the fleet. I feel my speed is good but I am not as good and not as quick in the transitions. And that is when the experience really comes into play. To have three good starts and not yet have a good result is very frustrating. It is funny I am so sure I have a good race in me and I have had that feeling for 18 months but it has yet to happen. If this was last year I would be swearing and hitting winch handles off the deck but my mood is a lot more even this year. I am more level headed. It is all good for the future. It was very tricky, difficult leg. I made one big mistake and feel asleep before the ODAS mark for about 40 minutes, but the truth is it had been so difficult to sleep before that because the breeze had been iin every different direction and wind speed.

Ed Hill GBR 21st Macmillan Cancer Support: "I wrapped my kite at one point which was a big mistake. It was good fun leg but it was tricky and having been behind from that initial incident it was always tough to keep pushing and I did not want to take any big risks and end up 40 miles back. I was in the early 20s for most of this leg and pulled something back and so I feel a bit better. It could have not been much worse. I had some big issues with my boat. The worst was with my radio it was not communicating. Race Direction were trying to contact me for one hour and a half and until I started flashing my torch on my sails when they were really close did they realise I was OK. My whole system went down four hours before the finish. I am tired. It was really tiring because there were so many times you could not sleep because the breeze was never constant, it was up and down and shifting and so it was hard to set a pilot to it. And there was key moments that you just could not sleep and let people get away. It was really tough.

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