After more hours of exhausting sailing, in choppy seas and strong breeze with gusts at 30 plus knots, Armel le Cléac’h has imposed his supremacy once again at Saint Nazaire. Jérémie Beyou and François Gabart keep alternating in second position, ready to lauch the final attack. The latest ETA for leaders is around midnight. Brilliant performances by the newcomers to the race Francisco Lobato and Anthony Marchand.
At 21h57 last night, Armel le Cleac’h Brit Air’s skipper and winner of the first leg, rounded SN1 mark getting Grand Prix GMF Assistance, young François Gabart (Skipper Macif 2010) and Jérémie Beyou (BPI) followed him shortly. The fleet then attacked the long stretch along the Brittany coast. Tacking upwind towards Brest in a northerly/north westerly breeze the 45 sailors had to put their best helming, manoeuvring and strategic abilities to the test on the last 115 miles in tricky.
The new kids on the block. He was last in Gijon at the end of a catastrophic leg for him, but on this second stage Francisco Lobato, the naval engineering student from Lisbon racing on ROFF/TEMPO-TEAM, seems to have quickly recovered from the setback and has conducted a magnificent second stage. His sixth position overall and second among the newcomers say it all. He is being duelling with „colleague“ Anthony Marchand on Espoir Region Bretagne to be first rookie in Brest and at the latest position reports they were less than one mile apart They not only fight for the honour of being the best young skipper but also for the Bénéteau special ranking that awards each winner’s leg with a cheque worth 800 Euros.
Italian Pietro D’Alì on I.NOVA.3 has just left the scoreboard top ten and is now 11th but well into the leading group at only 4.50 miles form the leader.
Other non French skippers are Swiss Bernard Stamm (Cheminée Poujoulat) in19th leading on Isabelle Joschke (Synergie) by a tiny 0.10 miles and under 10 miles from the top whilst Briton Jonny Malbon (Artemis) has nearly 17 miles disadvantage on the fleet. But Jonny has informed the race management team of the Solitaire du Figaro that he has an auto pilot problem, which explains his last place and difficult sailing. Jonny’s team are unable to clarify whether the pilot is working at all or not but Jonny is in for some extended helming periods, and will clearly be off the pace.
A major setback for Frédéric Duthil (BBox Bouygues Telecom). Strong French skipper at 8h03 a.m. today called Race Direction to announce that he was abandoning and was heading to Lorient. Frédéric decided to take part to this years‘ La Solitaire du Figaro despite having broken his right elbow some weeks previous to the start. He made every possible effort to be on the line in Le Havre and to race. But last night his condition worsened and the pain being nearly unbearable, he decided to abandon La Solitaire. The race is undoubtedly losing one of the race’s favourites.
Race Management issued the newest ETA for the leaders who could sail past the finish line, placed just a few hundreds metres from shore and the Oceanopolis Aquarium, at around midnight, which could mean a huge public waiting to welcome the sailors on the pontoons.
Quotes from the sailors:
Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air)
„I try to sail as I want to, after SN1 we’ve been upwind, tacking frequently. I do my best to keep at bay my nearest competitors Jerem and François (Beyou and Gabart ed. note). It’s stressful, that’s for sure. The game is not over and you can’t be somewhere else, we made our choice. Feels fine to be in the lead once again but Brest is still way to go. Physically I’m all right, I ate, changed my clothes, dried the boat that was pretty wet, there was water everywhere, actually… I will concede myself one or two naps before Penmarch to be ready to deal with the Bay d’Audierne, the raz de Sein and the final miles to Brest.“
Francisco Lobato (ROFF/TEMPO-TEAM)
„I feel good, it’s a weird sensation to be in the leading pack. Yet, there is still a long way to go. I broke my spinnaker boom, made some temporary repairs with what I could find on board but I guess we don’t need to use it to get to Brest. I’ve been sailing in Armel’s group since the start, then he sped away and now I can see Fabien and Anthony Marchand… The first night was hard, didn’t sleep much and, all in all, I never slept for more than 15 or 20 minutes in a row. I’m starting to feel tired.“
Nicolas Lunven (Generali)
„We’ve got some work to do! My strategy to get across the Bay of Biscay was not so brilliant, didn’t know exactly when to gibe, when to hoist the spinnaker. I was not so inspired and tended to copy my mates‘ ideas. The last part up to Brest will be interesting. Almost all upwind, tacking, the game is not over yet. In a minute I will take a little pleasure, I will change my clothes as I’m completely soaked and my boots leak. I guess I will feel better later! When you’re racing on a Figaro you never rest enough and I concede myself short naps of 5 or 10 minutes every now and then.
Gildas Morvan (Cercle Vert)
„At Groix I was sailing in a small group of boats, we were having fun, going very close to the rocks, I was in front of that flock and everything was fine but I didn’t look closely at the chart and there was a rock just in the middle… and I hit it, I crashed into it. I saw it but it was too late, I guess the bulb is damaged. I will need to work on it in Brest. This leg was no different from the first one, I made the wrong choices, I’ve been sailing well after the SN1 though, it’s nice to get some miles on the ones preceding me. There is still work to do, wind shifts, passages, it’s going to be tricky up to the finish.“
Isabelle Joschke (Synergie)
„I reckon you can say this was a pretty complete leg, we had a bit of everything. Light wind at the start to be dealt with patience, then the crossing of the Bay of Biscay, then a particularly demanding and stressful passage of a front, under spinnaker, exhausting for me. The last part to the finish will be equally hard. True I have dry clothes on and it’s sunny, sailing is nicer but tricky anyway.“