From America's Cup to Figaro

We speak to the Solitaire du Figaro's newbie non-French leader Pietro d'Ali.

Pietro D’Ali, a 42 year old Italian father of two, is causing some awe in the Figaro fleet at the moment. Not only is it as rare as hen's teeth for someone outside of la Belle France to win a leg of the annual Solitaire Figaro, but D'Ali is a 'Bizuth' - in the Figaro class where competitors return year after year after year to hone their skill and improve their result, this is the first occasion D'Ali has raced the Solitaire du Figaro, he is a newbie. Following his arrival ahead of Fred Duthil into La Rochelle in the early hours of yesterday morning, D'Ali is now not only a leg winner but is leading the Solitaire du Figaro.

The reasons for D'Ali's performance are relatively simple. Regardless of the small amount of singlehanded offshore racing he has done compared to his competitors, D'Ali is a hugely experienced racing sailor in the widest range of disciplines at the highest level. Brought up in Optimists he graduated up to 420s and 470s, in which he finished second at the Worlds Championship in Kiel in 1987. He then moved into small keelboats becoming Italian Champion in the J/24 and the Asso 99.

In 1993-4 D'Ali raced around the world on board Brooksfield in the Whitbread and in 1997 sailed this boat, normally crewed by 12, in the Roma per Due - Italy's leading doublehanded race - with Stefano Rizzi. Despite sailing the race without an autopilot or furling headsails, they won beating Giovanni Soldini in the purpose-built Open 50 Kodak.
In 1997 having raced the Admiral's Cup as part of the Brava Q8 team, D'Ali signed up with Prada and was on Italy's America's Cup challenger for the 2000 and 2003 campaigns, on the mainsheet the first time when they won the Louis Vuitton Cup only to be beaten by Team New Zealand and in the less success 2003 challenge when he was in the reserve squad. Aside from Prada he regularly races on Swan 45s and Farr 40s as well as the Mani Frers-designed Open 60, Shining in his native Italy .

As if this were not enough credentials, D'Ali has also been to the Olympics, finishing 10th in the Star in Sydney, although he maintains he held third place for much of the regatta. Previously, in 1993, D'Ali had been Star European champion.

Looking at this CV we can only think of perhaps Paul Cayard who has a similar depth and breadth of experience in our sport... However a discipline even the great moustachioed one has never attempted is solo offshore racing.

So why the Figaro now? "I’ve always liked to sail alone and I’ve been interested for a long time in this," says D'Ali. "When I was a kid, I dreamed of living on a boat. I like sailing in the open sea without stopping or seeing anything."

Before the last America's Cup he had been attempting to raise sponsorship for an Around Alone campaign, however sponsorship wasn't forthcoming. Since then he has received financial support from engine manufacturer NanniDiesel and it is to the Figaro class that D'Ali has headed, a rare Italian in a French-dominated class.

Usually sailors who have come from a fully crewed background find the logistics of singlehanded sailing hard - the skill of keeping all the plates spinning; sailing the boat, helming, trimming, tactics, navigation, DIY meteorology, fixing items that break as well as human functions - finding time to sleep, eat and drink. Quiet even insular D'Ali, one gets the impression, is naturally a singlehander who has been masquerading for all these years as a team player. "Even when I’m sailing with a crew I don’t say a lot. I am more of an instinctive sailor," he admits of himself.

D'Ali, perhaps due to his past offshore experience with Brooksfield, perhaps having two kids, says he has learned how to sleep at sea and can successfully catnap. "When I get to be really tired those work for me when it is necessary. Sleeping is a big deal, but it is also the navigation and we haven’t had problems with rocks and close inshore light wind navigation yet. That will be difficult as will keeping an eye out for ships and other floating vessels."

The duration of Solitaire du Figaro legs means that it is possible - just - to do each leg without sleeping. On this last leg the boats set out from Bilbao at midday on Friday and until their arrival in La Rochelle in the early hours of Monday morning, D'Ali says he slept 10 minutes...in total. His winning move was sailing upwind across the Bay of Biscay when the boats where heading northwest on starboard into a zone of high pressure out to the west, awaiting the wind to back so that they could tack northeast towards for the turning mark off the northern side of Belle Ile. D'Ali timed his tack to perfection leaving him neck and neck with Fred Duthil. The duo effectively match raced continuously trading places for more than 24 hours, until the arrival in La Rochelle when the Italian slipped ahead.

“He dared to decide his own options, tacking without paying attention to Michel Desjoyeaux's course, which I would no doubt not have done," says pre-race favourite and Groupe Generali Assurances skipper Yann Eliès of D'Ali. "We are certainly witnessing the birth of a great champion.”

When NanniDiesel finally docked in La Rochelle D'Ali was shattered but says the biggest issue physically was how his back and arms ached. "I did the whole race like it was a windward-leeward, playing the traveller and mainsheet and barbers continuously". Imagine a two and a half day long non-stop Finn race...

Coming from the heights of the America's Cup and Olympics it is interesting to find out how D'Ali feels the Solitaire du Figaro stacks up as a competitive event within our sport. He is under no illusion: "The Figaro class is extremely competitive. It is the equivalent of an Olympic class. The Olympic classes used to be the most competitive class, but the America’s Cup is now as competitive as the Olympic classes," he maintains. This was certainly proved on this last leg where after two and a half days at sea he won by just 50 seconds, the first 20 boats arriving within an hour.



Aside from having talent and experience, D'Ali recognises that the Figaro despite being a singlehanded race, is a team affair. While many campaigns make do with a single shore crew, the NanniFigaro campaign has two in the highly experience Mauro Piani and technical expert Jose Luis Ruiz Romero (blasting him with champagne above), both of whom previously worked on Simone Bianchetti's admittedly ill-fated Open 60 campaign in Around Alone. Piani's experience dates back to Italy's Azzurra 12 metre campaigns and he, like D'Ali, has also done time in the Star. Several other specialists have been brought in to help too such as router Richard Bastide.

"It is the most important thing - they are essential," says D'Ali of his shore support. "When you arrive, the idea of putting the boat back together at the end of a race is just impossible."

D'Ali says he is not one to think too far ahead in terms of his sailing, but clearly he would like to continue with the Figaro. Really he would like to get a three year Open 60 campaign together taking in the 5 Oceans and then the Vendee Globe. If this comes to pass then toerh competitors should watch out...

The last word on solo sailing's latest champion we leave to D'Ali's Project Manager, Mauro Piani: “for him to stop sailing you would have to let the plug out and completely empty the sea! I was expecting him to burst into the Figaro. Bravo for him. He has particular vision, and that is one of his strengths on the water, and he is able to get his boat moving faster than anyone: Two qualities you normal find in Olympic sailing.”