Local Hero Marchand wins La Solitaire URGO Le Figaro Stage 1 into home waters
by La Solitaire URGO Le Figaro 29 Aug 2018 23:17 PDT
29 August 2018
Anthony Marchand (Groupe Royer-Secours Populaire) wins La Solitaire URGO Le Figaro Stage 1 © Alexis Courcoux
For Anthony Marchand, who won the 464 nautical miles Stage 1 of La Solitaire du Figaro at 22:54:28hrs (French Time/UTC +2hrs) this Wednesday night, there is something a Hollywood fairytale to his first ever Leg win, coming as it does on his eighth attempt at the legendary multi stage solo offshore race.
Marchand, 33 years old sailing Groupe Royer-Secours Populaire clung on to a tiny lead to score dream into his own home waters when the famous race visits the town of his birth, Saint Brieuc, for the very first time in its 49 year history, triumphing in what was one of the closest finishes for many years.
Triumphant Marchand said on the dock, "It was only in the last mile that I started to think of winning. But now I am satisfied. You see everyone behind you and say, 'it is not possible' Now you just want to start again and not to stop."
"A month or so ago on the Solo Normandie (race) I parked up off Saint Quay-Portieux and so to come back here now and to win my first ever stage win of La Solitaire is great. I was still worrying about a re-start in the bay and so I am still stressed. I am so happy it is great. This year has been great I have been doing La Solitaire for seven or eight years and now I feel like the experience is paying off. It was my first time with the kite up in 40kts and I ripped the fleet. I was happy with myself. It's my second podium."
After 3 days 09hrs 54mins 28 secs of racing since leaving Le Havre on Sunday, Marchand finished just three minutes and six seconds ahead of second placed Thierry Chabagny (Gedimat) and 3 minutes and 38 seconds ahead of Charlie Dalin (Skipper Macif 2015) who staged a remarkable recovery from 11th at Wolf Rock to lead 90 miles later at Portsall off the north tip of Brittany.
British skipper Alan Roberts (Seacat Services) and Hugh Brayshaw (KEMAT) secured their best ever finishes. With 28 year old Roberts crossing the line off Saint Quai-Portrieux in fifth, six minutes and 18 seconds behind Marchand and Brayshaw, 25 years-old in seventh, eight minutes and 32 seconds behind the winner, it proved an historic night for British solo racing, the first time two British skippers have made the top ten on any Le Figaro stage.
Roberts lead the race out of Le Havre last Sunday, recovered from 12th to round the mid race turn south at Wolf Rock in third place on Tuesday evening, less than half a mile behind the leader Corentin Douguet (NF Habitat) who finished 13th tonight. The British skipper, racing on his fourth La Solitaire, then took the lead again early on Wednesday morning, racing in towards the finish tonight with Brayshaw, last year's Amateur winner, hard on his heels.
Roberts smiled, "I feel good. I knew that I have had solid top ten, top five finishes in the races I have done this year including one podium finish, and in two of the races that I have finished I have been solid top five, top four until the final miles to the finish when I have dropped a bit, so it is not too much of a surprise. It is good to get it on this race track." He added, " I was very aware of what my strengths were and what my weaknesses, the upwind in the wind is a weakness and I still don't have a solution to that on the first night. In the breeze upwind I can not get it going. But as soon as it goes light, tactical, flukey and fiddly, then I am good. I seem to have good speed. I am really happy to finish top five for the first time ever in my La Solitaire career. There were points when I thought I would lead it in but it was not to be, not this time"
Both successful British skippers stuck to their pre-race plans. Roberts utilised his meteo homework and knowledge of the south coast of England to make an assured move to the north to find better wind on the edge of a high pressure ridge, against the strategy of his French rivals – other than Douguet – to get himself back from 12th into the leading pack.
And Brayshaw stayed disciplined, maximising his rest, to ensure he was much better towards the end of the long leg than on previous races.
The skipper from Dorset, England said, " I feel so good. It was such a tense last day. So tense. You just knew that it was so close people were going to pass people at every point and so I was just hanging on in there. And to be in ahead of a lot of very fast boats feels really good. And I managed to hold my speed and stay with them. It is amazing to have a top ten result. I managed to stick to my game plan and stay rested to the end. I had enough energy and brain power to make a good result. I feel like I just worked through the fleet without taking too many risks.
For Marchand the win exorcises memories of having had to abandon Stage 1 last year when his mainsail ripped on the leg from Bordeaux to Dijon. He has had to abandon before because of injury. Only once has he finished on the podium before. His success comes finishing on the waters he sailed for nearly 20 years, starting in what he calls his 'soapbox' – diminutive Optimist dinghy at the age of nine, before moving to the Laser. He vividly recalls, as a youth, going to Saint Brieuc and on to the bay to see Figaro and Vendee Globe racer Yann Elies, the town's most famous and successful sailing son, preparing for his races.
"I sailed a lot here until I was twenty between Saint-Quay and Tournemine. And so I feel like it is my destiny a bit, but to win this one is great because it was hard. On average though I think I am going well with the boat. My goal is not to win La Solitaire but to finish on the podium would be a dream. I always seem to have stages when I tore my mainsail or I hurt myself or there was one bad leg that pullled me down. With Alexis (Loisin) we worked together and that is away to get better. I have not had a break since January all we have done is Le Figaro, whether that is boat work or training." Marchand recalled.
At one point during the final stage of this first of four legs, 25 of the 29 solo racers were compacted on to a 1.4 nautical miles long patch of water. The top ten finished tonight within seven short minutes. With so little time between the top skippers the second stage, which starts Sunday racing 520 nautical miles to Ria de Muros-Noia in NW Spain, will ensure this will be the most open race for years.
Stage 1 Finishers, Le Havre to Saint Quai/Saint Brieuc:
1- Anthony Marchand / Groupe Royer-Secours Populaire, finished at 22h 54m 28s
2- Thierry Chabagny / Gédimat at 22h 57m 34s
3- Charlie Dalin / Skipper Macif 2015 at 22h 58m 06s
4- Sébastien Simon / Bretagne CMB Performance at 22h 58m 53s
5- Alan Roberts / Seacat Services at 23h 00m 41s
6- Erwan Tabarly / Armor-Lux at 23h 02m 01s
7- Hugh Brayshaw / Kamat at 23h 03m 00s
8- Alexis Loison / Custo Pol at 23h 04m 18s
9- Tanguy Le Turquais / Everial at 23h 04m 27s
10- Xavier Macaire / Groupe SNEF at 23h 05m 27s
11- Pierre Leboucher / Guyot Environnement at 23h 05m 36s
12- Martin Le Pape / Skipper Macif 2017 at 23h 07m 22s
13- Corentin Douguet / NF Habitat at 23h 07m 58s
14- Vincent Biarnes / Baie de Saint-Brieuc at 23h 09m 11s
15- Ronan Treussart / Les Perles de Saint Barth à 23h 10m 25s
16- Benjamin Dutreux Sateco / Team Vendée Formation à 23h 11m 01s
17- Thomas Cardrin / Team Vendée Formation at 23h 11m 33s
18- Justine Mettraux / TeamWork at 23h 12m 06s
19- Romain Baggio / Maison Meneau - Les marins de la Lune at 23h 12m 24s
20- Pierre Quiroga / Skipper Espoir CEM - CS at 23h 12m 32s
21- Damien Cloarec / SafeRail at 23h 12m 34s
22- Lois Berrehar / Bretagne CMB Espoir at 23h 15m 48s
23- Sophie Faguet / Corben Porsche at 23h 21m 17s à 23h 21m 17s
24- Eric Péron / Finistère Mer Vent at 23h 26m 56s
Anthony Marchand (Groupe Royer-Secours Populaire):
"It was hard because there were a lot of transitions which meant restarts and each time it seemed like I did not come out very well but I seemed to come back each time into the group and the lead. I think I have almost always been in the top five. Remember when we got to Wolf Rock we had a lead of 13 miles ahead of some of the others and we were just five or six boats. At that time I thought it was going to be good for us and hard for them and then it was impossible to get past Wolf Rock with them all catching again. And from there you really had to work so hard. And so this finish along the Brittany coast was great. A month or so ago on the Solo Normandie (race) I parked up off Saint Quay-Portieux and so to come back here now and to win my first ever stage win of La Solitaire is great. I was still worrying about a re-start in the bay and so I am still stressed. I am so happy it is great. This year has been great I have been doing La Solitaire for seven or eight years and now I feel like the experience is paying off. It was my first time with the kite up in 40kts and I ripped the fleet. I was happy with myself. It's my second podium. I sailed a lot here until I was twenty between Saint-Quay and Tournemine. And so I feel like it is my destiny a bit, but to win this one is great because it was hard. On average though I think I am going well with the boat. My goal is not to win La Solitaire but to finish on the podium would be a dream. I always seem to have stages when I tore my mainsail or I hurt myself or there was one bad leg that pullled me down. With Alexis (Loisin) we worked together and that is away to get better. I have not had a break since January all we have done is Le Figaro, whether that is boat work or training. It was only in the last mile that I started to think of winning. But now I am satisfied. You see everyone behind you and say, 'it is not possible' Now you just want to start again and not to stop.
Charlie Dalin (Skipper Macif 2015):
"I've come back so much. I was 11 miles behind at Wolf Rock and I was leading at Portsall. So overall it did not go so badly. It was a long leg and I feel like I left Le Havre a month ago. There were so many different conditions and nights that seemed to last an eternity. During the second night it did not go well. I don't know what happened. Then I could see on the AIS the leaders were not getting past Wolf Rock because of the current and the lack of wind. And so I was happy to lead at Portsall when the Oscar flag went up to shorten the course, that is my son's name. So to finish third at 3 minutes 39 and 23 hundredths (he looks at his stopwatch), it's as if I am turned for first, there is so little difference between us everything remains open on this Solitaire. The most difficult time is when I thought the Solitaire was over and done for me on Tuesday morning, I told myself that it is screwed, but I had a second chance."
Alan Roberts (Seacat Services):
"I feel good. I knew that I have had solid top ten, top five finishes in the races I have done this year including one podium finish, and in two of the races that I have finished I have been solid top five, top four until the final miles to the finish when I have dropped a bit, so it is not too much of a surprise. It is good to get it on this race track. I was very aware of what my strengths were and what my weaknesses, the upwind in the wind is a weakness and I still don't have a solution to that on the first night. In the breeze upwind I can not get it going. But as soon as it goes light, tactical, flukey and fiddly, then I am good. I seem to have good speed. I am really happy to finish top five for the first time ever in my La Solitaire career. There were points when I thought I would lead it in but it was not to be, not this time. I did not get time to think about leading out of Le Havre but I remember a moment when I looked back at the Radio France buoy and saw all the spinnakers, that always looks good. As soon as the breeze dropped off I was quick. I had my plan of what I was going to do in all the areas, I had done my homework on the weather stuff. The high pressure ridge was sitting over the channel and normally you try to get to a side of it and that worked but the ridge was kind of all over that area. Normally you get little things that happen in by the shore and that was what happened. It was funny because we held that breeze all the way to Wolf Rock and 100 metres before Wolf Rock, baff, it stopped. There was a clear line on the water and we sat there flapping sails. I got round third. Today I dropped right back, but I just seemed to have awesome speed. Hugh had a great race too and so having two of us in the top ten is brilliant.
Hugh Brayshaw (KEMAT):
"I feel so good. It was such a tense last day. So tense. You just knew that it was so close people were going to pass people at every point and so I was just hanging on in there. And to be in ahead of a lot of very fast boats feels really good. And I managed to hold my speed and stay with them. It is amazing to have a top ten result. I managed to stick to my game plan and stay rested to the end. I had enough energy and brain power to make a good result. I feel like I just worked through the fleet without taking too many risks. You had to be on it with the clouds when the breeze went light again this morning, but it was so tense, just hour after hour going 'hold on, hold on, counting down the miles to get a good result. I had some weed on the keel towards the end and was flossing like crazy but it came off and I was quick again and it was OK."
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