Torment and tides around Brittany

Mike Golding and Marcus Hutchinson join the Figaro fleet

Vendee Globe skipper Mike Golding and Marcus Hutchinson are currently lying 18th in the Figaro class' two-handed round Brittany race. The race for the Beneteau-built one design 30 footers started from St Malo last Sunday (20 May) and has coast hopped anticlockwise around the Brittany coast. So far it has visited St Quay Portrieux, Perros Guirec, Brest and yesterday Loctudy. The 29 boats taking part are currently en route to Ile de Groix, the penultimate leg before sailing some windward-leewards tomorrow and pitching up in Lorient for a well-deserved prize giving.

The racing in this event has to be seen to be believed. Big electronic chart plotters and metre-accurate positioning from differential GPS are standard fit on the boats as they rock hop their way round the coast, taking unfeasibly narrow inshore passages that only fisherman are supposed to know about (and use). Added pressure has been brought to bear this year by the high pressure system parked overhead which has left the fleet at times struggling with little wind and strong tides.

Hutchinson won the 'Tour de Bretagne' in 1997 crewing for Vendee Globe winner and Figaro ace Michel Desjoyeaux, and came into contact with Golding when he worked for Team Group 4 during the last Vendee Globe. Their Figaro boat is called EDS Atlantic Challenge to promote Chay Blyth's race for fully-crewed Open 60s this summer. An 11th place in the leg to Loctudy yesterday hopefully shows the British team getting the bit between their teeth.

The race is currently being led by regular Figaro top ranker, Gildas Morvan on Cercle Vert. An exceptional performance is also being put in by the enigmatic Scot Yann Jameson who is in fifth place on board Toubois at the moment. Jameson's father, who works for the RYA, met Eric Tabarly when the great French sailor was cruising the west coast of Scotland one year. Jameson junior was so impressed by the amiable Tabarly that he got a place on board Pen Duick, and in 1995 went to France and, it seems, has never returned. He is now, aged 25, a naturalised Breton. Jameson has been racing in the Figaro class since 1997 and had a good season in 1999, culminating in the Mini Transat, but was not so successful last year.

Other luminaries in the fleet are Tabarly's nephew Erwan who is currently lying eighth one place ahead of Vincent Riou (Vendee Globe winner PRB's shore manager) who has the Vendee Globe winner himself crewing for him.