Final round

Solitaire du Figaro fleet gets underway from Dingle

At 12 o’clock the fourth and final leg of the Solitaire du Figaro got underway from Dingle in southwest Ireland.

All the boats got away first time round and headed off for a five mile inshore windward/leeward course before turning the final inshore Radio France race mark before turning west.

At the Radio France Buoy, the first race mark one hour after the start it was Gwenaël Riou on Espoir Crédit Agricole who was leading followed by Armel Le Cleac’h on Créaline and Ronan Guérin on Amadine et Chérie. Sam Davis sailing Skandia was 29th just behind leading rookies Marc Emig in 26th and Yves le Blevec in 27th.

Rather than the light fickle conditions that have dogged racing in the British Isles for the last fortnight, the 42 skippers enjoyed a 15 knots northwesterly to set them on the way on the 500 mile leg that will see the boats sail back across the entrance to the English Channel leaving the Scilly Isles to starboard and Ouessant to port to the finish line at St Nazaire.

Unfortunately the forecast charts show that the wind is not going to hold for long as yet another high pressure system to the southwest of Ireland looks set to influence the race. The northwesterlies will hold allowing the boats to broad reach under spinnaker to the Fastnet Rock and across the Celtic Sea, but the wind will get lighter over the course of tonight and will go right making for a dead run across to Ushant. One forecast chart shows that the boats may encounter a cold front and a big shift to the west once they sail down the Brittany coast although this may have moved south by the time the boats get there.

Sam Davies commented prior to the departure this morning: "I am nervous because I just want to get the best result I can and I know that is very difficult in this fleet. I am hoping I will have just a little bit of luck coming my way and I am going to try and sail the best I can. It's going to be hard because again we have no wind coming - we have wind for the first day and a half which will be nice but then we are sailing into high pressure again coming to France... Then all the way down the coast of France it's a bit doubtful whether we are going to have wind or not so it's going to be tricky, again. I am tired but don't feel exhausted as the adrenalin keeps you going."


LEG 4 POSITIONS AT RADIO FRANCE BOUY - MONDAY 18.8.03:

1st Gwenael RIOU / Espoir Crédit Agricole
2nd Armel LE CLEAC'H / Créaline
3d Ronan GUERIN / Amandine & Chérie
4th Gildas MORVAN / Cercle Vert
5th Charles CAUDRELIER / Bostik Findley
6th Erwan TABARLY / Thalés
7th Laurent PELLECEUR / Cliptol Sport
8th Yann ELIES / Groupe Générali Assurances
9th Jérémie BEYOU / Delta Dore
10th Pascal BIDEGORRY / Région Aquitaine

26th Marc EMIG* / Espoir Total Course au Large
27th Yves LE BLEVEC* / Reve de Grand-Actual Intérim
29th Sam DAVIES* / SKANDIA