The Day of the Jackal

Armel le Cleac'h wins leg two of the Solitaire du Figaro

Armel Le Cléac’h on Foncia TBS crossed the finish line in pole position this evening at the conclusion of the second stage of La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro.

Le Cléac’h reached Saint Gilles Croix-de-Vie at 21:30:30 French time to win the longest leg of the race. Jérémie Beyou on Delta Dore followed across the line less than a minute later at 21h31m18 with third place going to Charles Caudrelier on Bostik Findley who finished at 21h33h34. Following this leg Jérémie Beyou has become the leader on cumulative elapsed time over the first two legs.

The 463-mile leg from Portsmouth to Saint Gilles-Croix-de-Vie in France, has been particularly demanding, testing the levels of endurance and skill of the 50 skippers taking part.

Mother nature threw her best at the competitors throughout the leg: on the Solent light winds for the Friday start, followed by strong tides and currents, sand banks and very light and shifty airs as the boats negotated the waters off the south coast of England. The turning tide past Star Point will remain a very sore point to many of the sailors who found themselves fighting a losing battle as they made little headway towards Wolf Rock Lighthouse.

The lucky few to make an early break such as, Yann Eliès on Groupe Générali Assurances, who was first to round the lighthouse (and in so doing won the Prix Aigle), and Armel Le Cléac’h on Foncia TBS found themselves crossing the Channel in good conditions. Meanwhile those astern were forced to wait for the tide to turn once more - all the more painful as the leaders wolfed up the miles to the finish.

The 117-mile Channel crossing to the île de Sein was to be one of the only short moments of respite for many of the sailors, as they enjoyed a steady 8 to 10 knots of breeze, time enough to catch up on sleep with the autopilots switched on.

The final 155-mile stretch of inshore sailing opened the game up once more. The erratic winds dropped to between 4 and 6 knots and thunder, lightning, rain and poor visibility kept the sailors on the edge of their seats trying to outguess each other’s moves. Monday morning saw the sailors fight against sleep and exhaustion from setting in as they faced the final run to the finish line, a tactical conundrum for the skippers.

Three sailors maintained a lead over the last 100 or so miles of the leg. The three leaders played a game of cat and mouse often with less than 0,10 mile separating them.

Yann Eliès on Groupe Générali Assurances, newcomers Oliver Krauss on Espoir Crédit Agricole and Eric Drouglazet on Crédit Maritime - Zerotwo gambled on an inshore course hoping to benefit from the thermal inshore breeze to give them added boat speed.

Within 10 miles of the leader, Jeanne Gregoire Banque Populaire, lead the second group of 11 boats, all within three miles of each other until the final 40 miles of the race. Each skipper and boat grouping looking for the best angle of attack for the final sprint to Saint Gilles Croix-de-Vie.

“A leg win for me and an overall lead for Jérémie: perfect!" commented the winner. "We are both happy. Jérémie has been trying to win for a long time. I won a beautiful leg, what I had classified as a very tough leg. I go into second place overall… not far behind Jérémie: I am on the right track to achieve my objective: to repeat my win!”

Meanwhile Jérémie Beyou added: “Hard, hard… but shared. Thank you Jackal [the nickname for Le Cleac'h], he leaves me the champagne bottle and the overall lead! Both hard to earn boys and girls… because the girls are never far behind. We had a nice little group going, and then at the end there were three of us. Armel played his hand better than I, maybe I will not ever win a leg of the Figaro…I am however in the lead on overall timing, a few second ahead of Armel. The most important thing is that we have left many behind, at quite a distance, and we deserve it!

Samantha Davies on Skandia crossed the line in Saint Gilles Croix-de-Vie in 14th place, two hours and 30 seconds behind the winner.

Results leg two:

Pos	Skipper	Boat	Time
1	LE CLEAC'H Armel	Foncia - TBS	arrived 02/08/04 at 21:30:30 in 81h39'30''
2	BEYOU Jérémie	Delta Dore	+ 48''
3	CAUDRELIER Charles	Bostik Findley	+ 3'04''
4	VITTET Dominic	ATAO Audio System	+ 5'54''
5	KRAUSS Oliver	Espoir Crédit Agricole	+ 34'44''
6	ELIES Yann	Groupe Generali Assurances	+ 38'10''
7	DROUGLAZET Eric	Crédit Maritime - Zerotwo	+ 43'00''
8	de PAVANT Kito	Navy Lest	+ 1h41'45''
9	GREGOIRE Jeanne	Banque Populaire	+ 1h45'56''
10	PETIT Benoit	Défi Santé Voile	+ 1h48'54''
11	NELIAS Jean-Luc	Chauss-Europ	+ 1h51'36''
12	MORVAN Gildas	Cercle Vert	+ 1h52'10''
13	TABARLY Erwan	Thalès	+ 1h52'19''
14	DAVIES Samantha	Skandia	+ 2h00'10''
15	CHABAGNY Thierry	Le Caennais Blochon - Martin	+ 2h00'30''
16	VENIARD Gérald	Scutum	+ 2h06'44''
17	de BROC Bertrand	Aigle	+ 2h13'15''
18	JACQ Rodolphe	Skipper AG2R Prévoyance	+ 2h18'53''
19	EMIG Marc	Total	+ 2h28'59''
20	TOULORGE Alexandre	Caen La Mer	+ 2h35'36''

Overall results:

Pos	Skipper	Boat	Total time
1	BEYOU Jérémie	Delta Dore	114h25'00''
2	LE CLEAC'H Armel	Foncia - TBS	+ 1'28''
3	CAUDRELIER Charles	Bostik Findley	+ 11'43''
4	ELIES Yann	Groupe Generali Assurances	+ 36'12''
5	VITTET Dominic	ATAO Audio System	+ 40'16''
6	DROUGLAZET Eric	Crédit Maritime - Zerotwo	+ 1h05'35''
7	KRAUSS Oliver	Espoir Crédit Agricole	+ 1h19'06''
8	PETIT Benoit	Défi Santé Voile	+ 1h48'50''
9	TABARLY Erwan	Thalès	+ 1h54'24''
10	NELIAS Jean-Luc	Chauss-Europ	+ 1h56'55''
11	de PAVANT Kito	Navy Lest	+ 1h57'22''
12	CHABAGNY Thierry	Le Caennais Blochon - Martin	+ 2h00'50''
13	DAVIES Samantha	Skandia	+ 2h01'26''
14	MORVAN Gildas	Cercle Vert	+ 2h16'20''
15	VENIARD Gérald	Scutum	+ 2h27'12''
16	GREGOIRE Jeanne	Banque Populaire	+ 2h38'07''
17	EMIG Marc	Total	+ 2h41'41''
18	TOULORGE Alexandre	Caen La Mer	+ 2h50'01''
19	JACQ Rodolphe	Skipper AG2R Prévoyance	+ 2h53'38''
20	de BROC Bertrand	Aigle	+ 3h00'02''
21	KOCH Antoine	Nobody	+ 3h10'32''
22	BERENGER Nicolas	Paprec - CNEM	+ 3h16'15''
23	TROUSSEL Nicolas	D'Aucy	+ 3h22'42''
24	GUERIN Ronan	Camus Immobilier	+ 3h36'49''
25	PELLECUER Laurent	CLIPTOL Sport	+ 3h43'35''
26	LEPESQUEUX Marc	Maisons Pierre	+ 3h57'51''
27	MABIRE Halvard	Biodiversité	+ 3h59'25''
28	TRIPON Armel	Gedimat	+ 4h11'29''