Le Cleac'h shows how it's done

After two inshore races for singlehanded Figaro Beneteau fleet in Marseille debut of Generali Méditerranée

Big sun and a good sea breeze made for ideal conditions for the first day of racing in the first ever singlehanded race for the new generation Figaro Beneteau 2s. The Generali Méditerranée's first races were round the cans held off Marseilles in 10-15 knot winds.

Of the 32 singlehanded sailors taking part, Armel Le Cléac'h dominated the first day of racing, along with the young blades Gwénaël Riou on Espoir Crédit Agricole and Yann Eliès on Groupe Generali Assurances. Those who did best chose the left side of the course. Le Cléac'h was first to the top mark and performed the best hoist along with Eliès. They were narrowly ahead of Jérémie Beyou on Delta Dore and Gildas Morvan on Cercle Vert.
There was a surprisingly good result for Figaro newbie Christopher Pratt on Café Malongo, who finished sixth.

The second race of the day saw a general recall. Eliès was first to the windward mark ahead of former Solitaire du Figaro winner Eric Drouglazet on David Olivier and Armel Le Cléac'h. Le Cléac'h played the breeze better and overtook the two Figaro veterans to take his second race of the day. Subject to protests he now leads the rankings ahead of Gildas Morvan and Jérémie Beyou

Sole Brit Sam Davies finished 20th and 27th in her first solo races ever in the class. "It was hard, hard work," said Davies. "I feel I'm in the ball park but just have to avoid making the big mistakes."

Skandia started with the back pack in race one, fighting dirty air on the first upwind leg but managed to make up a few places on the downwind leg capitalising on other competitors errors: "Any mistake, like a bad hoist or sailing to high can give you an advantage," said Davies. "At the bottom mark, I gybed nice and early to get on the inside of the fleet ahead and took down the spinnaker earlier as well, so I was ready and well prepared to tack off at the mark."

In the second race the wind had increased to 18 knots but two mistakes proved costly for Davies: "Because I had a bad start and was further back than in the first race, I tried something different," said Davies. "I tacked away to the right of the course when it was obvious the left was paying, but I wanted to try and get some clear air and space."

This proved to be the wrong decision costing Skandia crucial places. Another error on the final downlind leg put any hope of bettering her 20th place in first race out of the window: "I wasn't hearing the race committee on the VHF that clearly and thought they were going to finish us on the next upwind leg," said Davies. "So I went down below to flick the switch for the ballast tanks but managed to hit the wrong switch disabling the auto-pilot! I went out of control for a while but managed not to crash gybe - the main problem was I had to reset the autopilot but we were full-on downwind in 18 knots so it wasn't easy to leave the tiller and get down below!"

Tomorrow, the fleet will leave Marseilles at 1100 on their first long coastal race, bound for Port Camargue 115 nautical miles away. Current forecast is for 15 knots from a westerly direction. "The wind can sometimes fade away overnight in the Med," said Sam Davies. "But there will be no time to sleep at all - even just heating up some water to prepare a freeze-dried meal is questionable - I will probably survive on energy bars."

Results

Pos	Boat		Skipper		Tot
1	CREALINE	Armel	LE CLEACH	10	2
2	CERCLE VERT	Gildas	MORVAN	9	6
3	DELTA DORE	Jeremie	BEYOU	1	7
4	DAVID OLIVIER	Eric	DROUGLAZET	2	8
5	GROUPE GENERALI ASSURANCES	Yann	ELIES	5	12
6	THALES	Erwan	TABARLY	7	16
7	E. LECLERC  Protégeons l'environnement	Sébastien	AUDIGANE	96	18
8	AON	Laurent	PELLECUER	31	19
9	CREPES WHAOU !	Franck-Yves	ESCOFFIER**	33	20
9	Café MALONGO	Christopher	PRATT**	95	20
11	ESPOIR CREDIT AGRICOLE	Gwenaël	RIOU	25	21
12	3201 METEOCONSULT Groupe Prosodie	Gilles	CHIORRI	8	23
13	VILLE DE CHERBOURG / MORY TEAM	Alexandre	TOULORGE	11	25
14	BOSTIK FINDLEY	Charles	CAUDRELIER BENAC	6	29
15	BERMUDES	Marc	THIERCELIN	34	30
16	SORELEC MBD Design	Arnaud	BOISSIERES	28	32
17	PETITS-PETONS / FTH THIRARD	Christophe	ARTAUD**	36	34
18	Rêve de grand - ACTUAL Interim	Yves	LE BLEVEC**	94	35
19	Petit Navire Le Bon Goût du Large	Thierry	CHABAGNY	92	36
20	PORT TREBEURDEN	Romain	ATTANASIO	97	37
21	ART IMMOBILIER CONSTRUCTION	Daniel	DUPONT	29	39
22	Skipper ag2r	Jeanne	GREGOIRE	93	42
23	SKANDIA	Samantha	DAVIES**	27	47
24	IN EXTREMIS	Marc	EMIG**	30	48
25	SOR  TMC	Christophe	BOUVET**	17	49
26	M@RSEILLE ENTREPRISES	Jean Paul	MOUREN	13	55
26	ALTAVENTURE / SNSM	Eric	PILAT**	24	55
26	STERN groep	Sander	BAKKER**	23	55
29	MONACO MARINE GROUP	Alberto	SPINA	42	58
29	PLUS PHARMACIE	Stéphane	SEVAUX**	35	58
31	SECTOR SPORT WATCHES	Corrado	AGUSTA**	38	60
32	LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR	Lionel	PEAN	51	66