Caudrelier new Figaro winner

Mass carnage for Solitaire du Figaro fleet in 30-50 knot winds on Bay of Biscay crossing

Yann Eliès on Groupe Générali Assurances won the fourth leg of La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro race, crossiong the finish line in Quiberon at 15h30'04'' (French time). This was Eliès' fourth leg win in the eight Solitaire du Figaros he has competed in.

However on combined elapsed time the overall winner of the 35th La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro race is Charles Caudrelier on Bostik Findley who crossed the Quiberon finish line in third place after 2002 winner Kito de Pavant on Navy Lest. Caudrelier crossed the line 16 minutes and 56 seconds after Elies, giving him 52 minute lead overall - a large margin compared to previous year.

Last year's winner, Armel Le Cléac'h on Foncia-TBS crossed in fourth followed by Thierry Chabagny on Le Caennais Blochon - Martin in 5th.

Sam Davies on Skandia clawed her way back up the fleet from 39th position last night to finish 13th.

On her arrival Davies commented that in the large winds that regularly blew at 30 knots and at one point gusted up to around 50 knots, it was the hardest singlehanded race she had ever done. "I'm a bit stiff. I've only got the use of one hand, after hanging on to the tiller for 24 hours in 30 knots." She says she definitely saw 47 knots but wasn't looking at the wind readout, as she was concentrating on keeping the mast above the deck.

The leg had been carnage ridden due to the severe conditions and many skippers hanging on to their big spinnakers for too long. Several boats blew out both large and small kites arriving in Quiberon under small headsail with the top corner of one of their kites still at the top of the mast.

In one of the most dramatic incidents Armel le Cleac'h managed to pitchpole his Figaro - the recorded incident of this with the new boat - piling the boat down the mine, with the deck submerged back to the mast. As it turned over, considerable water came down the companionway filling up the boat. Fortunately le Cleac'h was able to recover from this prior to his fourth place finish.

The really big wind came in in the early hours of this morning but prior to this there has been thunderstorms and many squalls. Davies says that she could see boats regularly wiping out by their nav lights dipping up and down and changing colour.

The big problem was knowing that the big wind would hit, but not when. The difference in speed between having the big kite up and not having it up was 5 knots but the price of keeping it up was spinning out, possible gear failure and time wasted sorting out the mess.

Overall Sam says she is pleased with her result in three out of four of the legs, but not her overall result which at 19th position is the same as last year. She feels she lost the race on the second leg, when she was slowed down sailing down the coast of the UK and ended up getting out of the leaders' tidal situation.

Leg four results:

Pos	Skipper	Boat
1	ELIES Yann	Groupe Generali Assurances	arrived at 15:30:34 in 26h41'34''
2	de PAVANT Kito	Navy Lest	+ 11'10''
3	CAUDRELIER Charles	Bostik Findley	+ 16'56''
4	LE CLEAC'H Armel	Foncia - TBS	+ 17'25''
5	CHABAGNY Thierry	Le Caennais Blochon - Martin	+ 20'13''
6	DROUGLAZET Eric	Crédit Maritime - Zerotwo	+ 20'58''
7	BEYOU Jérémie	Delta Dore	+ 23'50''
8	MORVAN Gildas	Cercle Vert	+ 24'26''
9	TABARLY Erwan	Thalès	+ 27'08''
10	NELIAS Jean-Luc	Chauss-Europ	+ 33'24''
11	de BROC Bertrand	Aigle	+ 34'59''
12	LEPESQUEUX Marc	Maisons Pierre	+ 36'32''
13	DAVIES Samantha	Skandia	+ 36'49''
14	VITTET Dominic	ATAO Audio System	+ 38'47''
15	EMIG Marc	Total	+ 53'50''
16	ATTANASIO Romain	Port Trebeurden	+ 1h06'04''
17	PELLECUER Laurent	CLIPTOL Sport	+ 1h08'57''
18	TRIPON Armel	Gedimat	+ 1h15'38''
19	TROUSSEL Nicolas	D'Aucy	+ 1h16'12''
20	PETIT Benoit	Défi Santé Voile	+ 1h16'52''
21	VENIARD Gérald	Scutum	+ 1h29'03''
22	KOCH Antoine	Nobody	+ 1h43'56''
23	GREGOIRE Jeanne	Banque Populaire	+ 1h45'56''
24	MAISONNEUVE Brieuc	Pays Granvillais	+ 1h48'46''
25	MOUREN Jean-Paul	M@rseille Entreprises	+ 1h49'11''
26	LE GAL Franck	Monaco Marine - Sodifac Roubaix	+ 2h01'51''
27	KRAUSS Oliver	Espoir Crédit Agricole	+ 2h04'08''
28	BERENGER Nicolas	Paprec - CNEM	+ 2h05'10''
29	TOULORGE Alexandre	Caen La Mer	+ 2h07'59''
30	GUERIN Ronan	Camus Immobilier	+ 2h11'26''
31	DUTHIL Frédéric	All Mer	+ 2h16'05''
32	JACQ Rodolphe	Skipper AG2R Prévoyance	+ 2h24'05''
33	MABIRE Halvard	Biodiversité	+ 2h25'59''
34	WARDLEY Liz	Kookaï - Eol	+ 2h56'54''
35	BOISSIERES Arnaud	Région Aquitaine	+ 3h02'04''
36	VACHETTE Vincent	Duc et Preneuf	+ 3h21'09''
37	SEVAUX Stéphane	Sarthe	+ 3h38'38''
38	BALOGH François	Générale d'Emballage	+ 3h41'22''
39	BAKKER Sander	STERN Groep	+ 3h44'30''
40	DELORD Alain	TAT - Aviation Services	+ 3h46'06''
41	ALFARO Amaiur	www.PAYS-BASQUE-ENTREPRISES.com	+ 3h58'31''
42	BULOT Jean-François	Crédit Mutuel de Normandie -Ville de Caen	+ 4h09'50''
43	FAVRE Hervé	World Games Inc.	+ 4h11'53''
44	BOS Christian	Raynal et Roquelaure	+ 4h18'28''
45	EINHORN Jacques	Connivence	+ 4h25'28''
46	BEAURIN Laurent	Latitude Nord	+ 5h02'24''
47	DANIEL Marie-Albane	ACADOMIA	+ 5h05'43''
48	BIGOT Gaël	TEAM 117	+ 5h16'58''
49	DESMARETS Pascal	Tetraktys	+ 5h38'52''
50	LEQUIN Benoit	Nannidiesel	+ 6h02'21''
51	BOSSARD Philippe	Karukera	+ 7h36'21''
52	LECHARPENTIER Bertrand	Entreprendre en Pays d'Auge - Calvados	+ 9h36'21''

Final results:

Pos	Skipper	Boat	Time
1	CAUDRELIER Charles	Bostik Findley	in 220h53'54''
2	ELIES Yann	Groupe Generali Assurances	+ 52'35''
3	BEYOU Jérémie	Delta Dore	+ 1h24'35''
4	LE CLEAC'H Armel	Foncia - TBS	+ 2h15'49''
5	TABARLY Erwan	Thalès	+ 2h37'07''
6	DROUGLAZET Eric	Crédit Maritime - Zerotwo	+ 3h28'48''
7	NELIAS Jean-Luc	Chauss-Europ	+ 3h32'19''
8	de PAVANT Kito	Navy Lest	+ 4h05'44''
9	MORVAN Gildas	Cercle Vert	+ 5h02'51''
10	VITTET Dominic	ATAO Audio System	+ 5h06'40''
11	CHABAGNY Thierry	Le Caennais Blochon - Martin	+ 5h27'31''
12	PELLECUER Laurent	CLIPTOL Sport	+ 5h52'49''
13	EMIG Marc	Total	+ 6h31'18''
14	PETIT Benoit	Défi Santé Voile	+ 7h12'42''
15	GREGOIRE Jeanne	Banque Populaire	+ 8h00'38''
16	VENIARD Gérald	Scutum	+ 8h11'38''
17	TROUSSEL Nicolas	D'Aucy	+ 8h36'44''
18	BERENGER Nicolas	Paprec - CNEM	+ 9h17'43''
19	DAVIES Samantha	Skandia	+ 9h22'20''
20	de BROC Bertrand	Aigle	+ 9h36'47''
21	KOCH Antoine	Nobody	+ 10h06'14''
22	DUTHIL Frédéric	All Mer	+ 10h11'33''
23	KRAUSS Oliver	Espoir Crédit Agricole	+ 10h36'28''
24	GUERIN Ronan	Camus Immobilier	+ 11h33'10''
25	ATTANASIO Romain	Port Trebeurden	+ 11h36'14''
26	MABIRE Halvard	Biodiversité	+ 12h07'13''
27	TOULORGE Alexandre	Caen La Mer	+ 12h22'31''
28	LEPESQUEUX Marc	Maisons Pierre	+ 15h01'59''
29	TRIPON Armel	Gedimat	+ 15h27'37''
30	JACQ Rodolphe	Skipper AG2R Prévoyance	+ 16h45'55''
31	BOISSIERES Arnaud	Région Aquitaine	+ 18h54'32''
32	MAISONNEUVE Brieuc	Pays Granvillais	+ 19h11'00''
33	MOUREN Jean-Paul	M@rseille Entreprises	+ 19h11'34''
34	FAVRE Hervé	World Games Inc.	+ 21h05'44''
35	LE GAL Franck	Monaco Marine - Sodifac Roubaix	+ 22h13'41''
36	BOS Christian	Raynal et Roquelaure	+ 23h07'16''
37	BALOGH François	Générale d'Emballage	+ 24h55'40''
38	BULOT Jean-François	Crédit Mutuel de Normandie -Ville de Caen	+ 24h56'43''
39	SEVAUX Stéphane	Sarthe	+ 24h57'04''
40	BAKKER Sander	STERN Groep	+ 25h13'55''
41	BIGOT Gaël	TEAM 117	+ 25h32'36''
42	DELORD Alain	TAT - Aviation Services	+ 27h18'00''
43	DANIEL Marie-Albane	ACADOMIA	+ 27h52'52''
44	ALFARO Amaiur	www.PAYS-BASQUE-ENTREPRISES.com	+ 27h59'24''
45	BEAURIN Laurent	Latitude Nord	+ 28h13'46''
46	LEQUIN Benoit	Nannidiesel	+ 28h45'58''
47	VACHETTE Vincent	Duc et Preneuf	+ 31h21'36''
48	DESMARETS Pascal	Tetraktys	+ 32h05'29''
49	WARDLEY Liz	Kookaï - Eol	+ 36h28'53''
50	EINHORN Jacques	Connivence	+ 37h58'27''
51	BOSSARD Philippe	Karukera	+ 43h29'16''