Solitaire du Figaro preview

From Les Sables d'Olonne James Boyd looks at why this world championship of singlehanded offshore racing is such a big deal

I have never been to Les Sables d'Olonne in the summer. Usually it is in the depths of autumn, November time once every four years for the start of the Vendee Globe, to return again to the greyness of the Bay of Biscay port the subsequent February once the lone sailors have completed their circumnavigations.

The end of July and Les Sables d'Olonne is fully into holiday mode. La soleil brille. The long stretch of beach normally used for autumnal jogging or occasional dogwalkers is covered in sunbathers and the harbour is alive with cruising folk, but they are not alone.

Over the last few days Port Olona, in the deepest recess of Les Sables d'Olonne harbour here has been playing host to the build up to the start of La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro (otherwise known as 'La Solitaire du Figaro' or simply 'the Figaro').

The set-up is a mirror of the Vendee Globe, with the 42 32ft long Beneteau Figaro Solos taking part in Wednesday's race lined up stern-to among some old generation Open 60s (and one of the old Tokios) on the same well trodden pontoon where Ellen MacArthur kissed her boat two years ago and 12 years before that Titouan Lamazou stepped ashore the first ever Vendee winner.

Shore-side and there is the normal tented village centred around a giant red and white wedge that is the display for the Vendee department (roughly the equivalent of Hampshire Country Council). Many of the boat sponsors have stands here, as do the local papers and magazines, clothing manufacturers and of course there is a sizeable restaurant and bar where everyone gets fed. The most interesting display is a swimming pool in which punters can take a ride on a tethered F18 catamaran: two massive fans fill the sails and then the hull starts flying...

In terms of crowd-pulling, it is busy here but not as busy as a Vendee Globe start/finish despite the show being every bit as impressive and the weather decidedly more clement (saying this is has of course just started to rain).


So what's the big deal?

Most impressive about the Figaro class is the number of old faces it draws. These are particularly prolific this year with the advent of the class' new 32ft Marc Lombard one design.

But the real incentive is that the Figaro is so hard to win. The Figaro is one of the few one design classes found in singlehanded offshore racing, where any potential boat speed or design advantages, as found in the Mini fleet or the Open 60s, are removed. Where it not so French-dominated it could be most accurately described as the world championship of singlehanded offshore racing.

As with any one design there are of course tweaks you can make to ensure your boat is the fastest, but primarily it is a test of each skippers' skills - and here is the real challenge. In singlehanded offshore racing the widest possible range of skills are required from straightforward sailing skills - helming, trimming and manoeuvring (all singlehanded remember) to racing skills such as tactics to offshore sailing skills such as navigation, weather forecasting on the hoof - and all of this while dealing with human requirements such as food and sleep - each of the race's four legs is around 500 miles/three days duration and the skippers are unlikely to get any sleep while out on the water.


The form

Returning this year with the advent of the new one design are a number of grandees of the singlehanded offshore racing community, including many former Vendee Globe skippers.

Among them are the old adversaries from the 1992 singlehanded round the world race, Loick Peyron and Alain Gautier. Also trying their hand again in the Figaro class are 2000-1 Vendee winner Michel Desjoyeaux and fellow competitor Marc Thiercelin. Interestingly Peyron, Gautier and Desjoyeaux are all racing Figaros in the colours of their 60ft trimaran sponsors - Fuji, Foncia and Geant.

All these 'old timers' have competed in the Solitaire du Figaro before. Desjoyeaux has seen the greatest success of them in the class having sailed it seven times, winning the event twice (1992 and 1998) and coming second twice (1996 and 1991). Although Desjoyeaux has the reputation for being something of a 'Mr Figaro', in terms of results he has been upstaged by both veteran ocean racer Philippe Poupon and Bonduelle skipper Jean le Cam, both of whom have won the Solitaire du Figaro three times.

In the early 1990s Alain Gautier used his second place in 1988 and his win the subsequent year as the ticket to get sponsorship for his Vendee Globe campaign that saw him ultimately win the round the world race on Bagages Superior. Impressively this will be Gautier's 15th Solitaire du Figaro - but even he has been upstaged. Jean-Paul Mouren is sailing his 17th this year.

From an earlier generation still is Lionel Pean, who was first in the Solitaire du Figaro in 1983, shortly before winning the 1985/86 Whitbread Round the World Race on handicap aboard his L'Esprit d'Equipe. "The race is more exciting than ever with the arrival of the new boat. It’s a great occasion that I wouldn’t want to miss after recently spending so much time sailing regattas on bigger boats," comments Pean.

Pean says he quit the Figaro class in 1992 as the old Figaro 30 footer being used at the time no longer interested him. "Now I’m back into solo sailing and have been taking the time to find my feet on board the new one design. I’m hoping that singlehanded racing is going to be like riding a bike - you never lose it."

There are also many more recent winners of the event taking part, including Kito de Pavant (2002), Eric Drouglazet (2001) and Pascal Bidegorry (2000).

If one looks at the form so far this season then it strongly suggests that Gildas Morvan is the one to watch. Morvan won the singlehanded Generali Mediterranee series ahead of Erwan Tabarly (nephew of the great Eric) and Jérémie Beyou, both of whom are also strong contenders. Morvan also won the Tour de Bretagne sailing two handed with former Team New Zealander Bertrand Pace and finishing ahead of Jérémie Beyou and Benoit Petit. Morvan has taken part in the Figaro seven times and to date has managed three thirds - in 1999-2001.

In total, looking at the entry list we count 15 skippers of the 42 total who are more than capable of winning this event.

The 'bizuth'

Of the 42 competitors 10 are taking part in the Solitaire du Figaro for the first time. Because it is so hard to win in the Figaro class, the first timers, known in the class as 'bizuths' have their own special position in this race, their own set of results and their own cash prize (800 Euros for the first bizuth on each leg and 12,100 Euros between the first three overall).

It is for these prizes that British sailor Sam Davies is gunning.


La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro course

Leg 1: Les Sables d'Olonne (France) to Bilbao-Getxo (Spain) 449 miles
Depart Les Sables d'Olonne, Wednesday 30 July
Arrive Bilbao-Getxo, Saturday 2 August

Leg 2 : Bilbao-Getxo (Spain) to La Rochelle (France) 494 miles
Depart Bilbao-Getxo, Tuesday 5th August
Arrive La Rochelle, Friday 8th August

Leg 3 : La Rochelle (France) to Dingle (Ireland) 536 miles
Depart La Rochelle, Monday 11th August
Arrive Dingle, Friday 15th August

Leg 4 : Dingle (Ireland) to Saint Nazaire (France) 500 miles
Depart Dingle, Monday 18th August
Arrive St Nazaire, Thursday 21st August

To read more about the Solitaire du Figaro - see our special section on it here

The field

	Skipper	Born	Nationality	Boat	Number of participation (without 2003)
1	AGUSTA Corrado	1981	Italy	SECTOR SPORT WATCHES	-
2	ALFARO Amaiur	1972	France	EKI	2
3	ARTAUD Christophe	1963	France	PETITS PETONS	3
4	ATTANASIO Romain	1977	France	PORT TREBEURDEN	3
5	BAKKER Sander	1972	Holland	EGERIA	-
6	BASURKO Unai	1973	Spanish Basque Country	BIZKAIA	-
7	BEYOU Jérémie	1976	France	DELTA DORE	6
8	BIDEGORRY Pascal	1968	France	REGION AQUITAINE	6
9	BOISSIERES Arnaud	1972	France	MBD DESIGN - SORELEC	1
10	BOS Christian	1964	France	RAYNAL ET ROQUELAURE	2
11	BOUGARD Patrick	1955	France	KOGANE	3
12	BOUVET Christophe	1963	France	SAVOY OPEN RACE TELE MONTE CARLO	-
13	CAUDRELIER  Charles	1974	France	BOSTIK FINDLEY	3
14	CHABAGNY Thierry	1972	France	PETIT NAVIRE, LE BON GOÛT DU LARGE	2
15	CHIORRI Gilles	1964	France	32 01 METEO CONSULT GROUPE METEOCONSULT	7
16	DAVIES Samantha	1974	Great Britain	SKANDIA	-
17	de PAVANT Christophe	1961	France	CRASH BANDICOOT	3
18	DESJOYEAUX Michel	1965	France	GÉANT	7
19	DROUGLAZET Eric	1967	France	DAVID OLIVIER	10
20	DUPONT Daniel	1954	France	ART IMMOBILIER CONSTRUCTION	1
21	ELIES Yann	1974	France	GROUPE GENERALI ASSURANCES	6
22	EMIG Marc	1969	France	ESPOIR TOTAL COURSE AU LARGE	-
23	ESCOFFIER Franc-Yves	1957	France	CRÊPES WHAOU !	4
24	GAUTIER Alain	1962	France	FONCIA	14
25	GREGOIRE Jeanne	1976	France	SKIPPER AG2R	1
26	GRIMONT Damien	1966	France	SOLETANCHE-BACHY	4
27	GUERIN Ronan	1973	France	AMANDINE & CHERIE	8
28	LE BLEVEC Yves	1965	France	REVE DE GRAND-ACTUAL INTERIM	-
29	LE CLÉAC'H Armel	1977	France	CRÉALINE	3
30	LEBRETON Eric	1961	France	CYP	-
31	MORVAN Gildas	1968	France	CERCLE VERT	7
32	MOUREN Jean-Paul	1953	France	M@RSEILLE ENTREPRISE S	16
33	PÉAN Lionel	1956	France	NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR	7
34	PELLECUER Laurent	1974	France	CLIPTOL SPORT	6
35	PETIT Benoit	1972	France	DEFI SANTE VOILE	2
36	PEYRON Loick	1959	France	FUJUFILM	3
37	PILAT ERIC	1962	France	ALTAVENTURE-SNSM	-
38	RIOU Gwénaêl	1977	France	ESPOIR CREDIT AGRICOLE	1
39	SEVAUX Stéphane	1955	France	PLUS PHARMARCIE	-
40	TABARLY Erwan	1974	France	THALES	3
41	THIERCELIN Marc	1960	France	BERMUDES	4
42	TOULORGE Alexandre	1978	France	VILLE DE CHERBOURG/CREDIT MUTUEL	3

The course