Caudrelier-Benac into the lead

As offshore race of Route du Ponant concludes

The offshore race of the Figaro class' Route du Ponant concluded with another win for Charles Caudrelier-Bénac on Bostik Findlay - his fourth in this regatta - with Laurent Pellecuer on Cliptol Sport and Romain Attanasio on Trébeurden Port completing the podium.

The 17 boats (there were 18 but one skipper had to go to his sister's wedding) set sail from St Gilles (near Les Sables d'Olonne) on Friday morning on the 290 mile course around Ouessant to Guernsey, where they arrived on Sunday night before heading off again this morning for Perros-Guirrec on the north French coast.

After arriving into Guernsey at around 7pm last night and spending a night in a hotel recovering last night, the boats took the start line at 0910 this morning for the final 53 mile run across to the French coast in 15-18 knot southwesterly breeze on a fetch.

For Sam Davies on Skandia it was a race of mixed results. The first night at sea they briefly saw 27 knot headwinds before the wind died - a common occurence for the Figaro racing this season.

At the mark off Brest Skandia was up to eighth place ahead of many of the top players, only to drop down the fleet to finish 14th. "I had a complete shocker off the north coast because I didn’t gybe inshore," Sam told The Daily Sail. In this race - falling immediately after the Solitaire du Figaro and immediately before the Figaro class' race south to Dakar in Senegal, only the top Figaro sailors and the ones after points to count in the overall 2003 Figaro championship are taking part.

Tomorrow there is a day off followed by three more days of 'windward-leewards'. "In fact because there is so much tide here they can’t lay marks very well, so we race around channel marks and rock marks," continued Davies. "There are courses which look like windward-leewards, but it may be a fetch and a reach. It will all pretty hard because we are tidally dependent so we have to spend 12 hours on the water because you go out at high tide in the morning and come back in at high tide in the evening – so it is a big day."

When we spoke to her Sam once again sounded utterly exhausted. "We had done two days of windward-leewards so I was pretty tired when I started and I'd got really tired arms. Now they are super-tired. In fact I had a moment today when I thought there was some weeds on the bottom or something, but it may have been because I wasn’t trimming the main enough to keep up. I had Gildas Morvan next to me and he just went off and there was nothing I could do, because my arms were just dead."

Sam will not be racing on the final day because she must be at Southampton boat show on Friday for an announcement about her, an Open 60 and a two handed race in November.

Offshore race results
1: "Bostik Findley" Caudrelier Charles (3 pts) Y C de L Odet
2: "Delta Dore" Beyou Jérémie (10 pts) S R Perros Guirec
3: "Port Trebeurden" Attanasio Romain (15 pts) Centre Nautique Municipal de Penmarc'h
4: "Thales" Tabarly Erwan (15 pts) Y C de Morlaix
5: "Crealine" le Cleac'h Armel (16 pts) C N de St Pol
6: "Petit Navire, le Bon Gout du Large" Chabagny Thierry (18 pts) Ctre Naut de Cornouaille
7: "Cercle Vert" Morvan Gildas (20 pts) S R de Brest
8: "Cliptol Sport" Pellecuer Laurent (24 pts) Yacht Club de la Grande Motte
9: "David Olivier" Drouglazet Eric (27 pts) Ctre Naut de Cornouaille
10: "Espoir Credit Agricole" Riou Gwénaêl (29 pts) U S A M Brest
11: "Defi Sante Voile" Petit Benoit (29 pts) S R de Brest
12: "Groupe Generali Assurances" Elies Yann (34 pts) C N de Binic
13: "Skandia" Davies Samantha (40 pts) Grande-Bretagne
14: "Petits Petons" Artaud Christophe (41 pts) Yacht Club de la Grande Motte
15: "Reve de Grand-Actual Interim" le Blevec Yves (42 pts) S N Trinite S/mer
16: "Skipper Ag2r" Gregoire Jeanne (45 pts) France
17: "Sector Sport Watches" Agusta Corrado (51 pts) Societe Nautique de Marseille
---: "Mbd Design Sorelec" Boissieres Arnaud (57 pts) Cercle Voile Pyla S/mer

Route du Ponant overall results
1: Bostik Findley Caudrelier Charles (29 pts) Y C de L Odet
2: Cercle Vert Morvan Gildas (36 pts) S R de Brest
3: Delta Dore Beyou Jérémie (37 pts) S R Perros Guirec
4: Crealine le Cleac'h Armel (44 pts) C N de St Pol
5: Thales Tabarly Erwan (50 pts) Y C de Morlaix
6: Port Trebeurden Attanasio Romain (51 pts) Centre Nautique Municipal de Penmarc'h
7: Groupe Generali Assurances Elies Yann (55 pts) C N de Binic
8: Cliptol Sport Pellecuer Laurent (64 pts) Yacht Club de la Grande Motte
9: David Olivier Drouglazet Eric (66 pts) Ctre Naut de Cornouaille
9ex: Petit Navire, le Bon Gout du Large Chabagny Thierry (66 pts) Ctre Naut de Cornouaille
11: Defi Sante Voile Petit Benoit (72 pts) S R de Brest
12: Espoir Credit Agricole Riou Gwénaêl (85 pts) U S A M Brest
13: Petits Petons 6 FTH Thirard Artaud Christophe (102 pts) Yacht Club de la Grande Motte
14: Skandia Davies Samantha (106 pts) Grande-Bretagne
15: Reve de Grand-Actual Interim le Blevec Yves (110 pts) S N Trinite S/mer
16: Skipper Ag2r Gregoire Jeanne (126 pts) France
17: Mbd Design Sorelec Boissieres Arnaud (131 pts) Cercle Voile Pyla S/mer
18: Sector Sport Watches Agusta Corrado (141 pts) Societe Nautique de Marseille