Davies in eighth spot

Six races completed in Generali Solo Figaro as fleet heads offshore again today

Skandia skipper, Sam Davies, is now positioned 8th overall after five days of racing in the two-week Generali Solo Figaro event. Sam is currently four points ahead of one of the race favourites Eric Drouglazet (winner of the 2003 Solitaire du Figaro) who is in 9th place and only four points adrift of Kito de Pavant (winner of the 2002 Solitaire du Figaro) in 7th. Other race favourites are already positioned in the top four with leader Gildas Morvan below (2nd in the Generali Solo 2004), Jéremie Beyou in second place and Yann Elies (winner Generali Solo 2004) in fourth.



Yesterday's inshore race was scheduled to take place off the French port of Gruissan in the Mediterranean but lack of wind forced the organisers to abandon the seventh race of the event and the 22 skippers returned to port to prepare for their next offshore leg today starting at 1000BST.

The Generali Solo is a notoriously testing event combining inshore windward/leeward races and offshore races, one after the other, with little respite in between. So far, Sam has had a mixed bag of results scoring an 8th, 5th, 5th, 16th, 5th and 20th. Her worst results so far have been the result of a miscalculation and a dose of bad luck that ultimately proved costly: "In Monday's inshore, I had gone out early to get used to the wind, it was going right the whole time and I got used to it being like that. Then just before the start there was a windshift and it went left so that wasn't a good start. I felt confused and everything went wrong after that."

Tuesday saw the start of the second offshore leg, a 40-mile race from Port Leucate to Gruissan. The fleet set off in 25 knots of wind from the northwest, spinnaker reaching and fast sailing with boat speeds up to 12 knots. After rounding the first race mark, Skandia ran into trouble: "I got stuck in no wind 15 miles after the start. There was only about 50 metres separating Skandia from the rest of the fleet but the breeze didn't reach us. I tried everything to get us going but I was stuck there long enough to know there was nothing I could do to catch up. I can normally make some ground up on the leaders but not today - it was just one of those things and typical Figaro racing!"

But Sam can be encouraged by her three top-five results - two inshore races and the other, a 130 mile offshore race. "I am not stressed about where I am at this stage of the competition. We are not even halfway yet and we still have 11 races to go. Also, my objective for this event is to capitalise on this short-style racing experience and to try and improve my tactics on these race courses which are both coastal and offshore which is all really good preparation to the Solitaire du Figaro event. It's important to me to do well but it's more important for me to learn from my mistakes and try not to repeat them!"



Overall top 10 (after six races):

1. CERCLE VERT / MORVAN Gildas / 35 pts
2. DELTA DORE / BEYOU Jéremie / 39 pts
3. THALES / TABARLY Erwan / 41 pts
4. GROUPE GENERALI ASSURANCES / ELIES Yann / 50 pts
5. BANQUE POPULAIRE / GREGOIRE Jeanne / 53 pts
6. ESPOIR CREDIT AGRICOLE / KRAUSS Oliver / 58 pts
7. GROUPE BEL / DE PAVANT Kito / 62 pts
8. SKANDIA / DAVIES Samantha / 64 pts
9. MALONGO / DROUGLAZET Eric / 68 pts
10. CLIPTOL SPORT / PELLECUER Laurent / 75 pts

Remaining race schedule:

Thursday, 16 June: Offshore leg 3, Gruissan - Hyères (150nm)
Friday, 17 June: Boats arrive, Hyères
Saturday, 18 June: Inshore race 5/6, Hyères
Sunday, 19 June: Offshore leg 4, Hyères - La Giraglia - Beaulieu sur Mer (240nm)
Monday, 20 June: At sea
Tuesday, 21 June: Boats arrive, Beaulieu sur Mer
Wednesday, 22 June: Offshore leg 5, Beaulieu sur Mer - Porquerolles (70nm)
Thursday, 23 June: Inshore race 7/8, Porquerolles
Friday, 24 June: Inshore race 9/10, Porquerolles
Saturday, 25 June: Inshore race 11/12, Porquerolles