Gales and penalties

Final leg for Solitaire Affelou le Figaro shortened

The fleet of 43 Bénéteau Figaro 2 boats, currently berthed at the Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven set off tomorrow, Tuesday 23 August, on the fourth and final leg of this year’s edition of La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro race. The singlehanded sailors will leave Crosshaven at 1000 local time for Port Bourgenay on the French Vendée coastal region, where they are expected as early as Friday.

A notice to all skippers, concerning the last leg of the race from Crosshaven in Ireland to Port Bourgenay in France, was issued this afternoon: The rounding of both waypoints No2 and No3 on the official race course has been removed, so the fleet will no longer round the Fastnet Rock. This change to the race course will reduce the total course length from 496 miles to 425 miles.

The reason for this course change is due to the weather forecast which shows a big low building in the Atlantic, with warnings of rough seas and forecast gusts of up to 50 knots expected at the Fastnet Lighthouse on Tuesday/Wednesday. To avoid the worst of the weather the Race Committee are attempting to get the boats across the Celtic Sea and back to France as quickly as possible in front of the gale.

The Race Committee is currently preparing the different scenarios which will be presented at this evening's Skipper Briefing. To replace the previous waypoint, the Race Committee is considering setting up a waypoint gate off the east coast of Ile d’Yeu, however a decision remains to be made regarding this.

The third leg prize giving was hosted at the world’s oldest yacht club this morning, in the presence of Mr. Peter Crowley, the Royal Cork Yacht Club Admiral, Mrs. Françoise Letellier, the French Vice Consul for Ireland, and Mr. Gérald Berge, the Managing Director for the Figaro Group. All 43 skippers were present to receive their prizes; the first three finish were awarded the Afflelou prize: First for Laurent Pellecuer ( Cliptol Sport), second for Yann Eliès ( Groupe Generali Assurances) and third for Kito de Pavant ( Groupe Bel). The Bénéteau Rookie Prize for the best performance from a sailor new to the race went to: Pietro D’Alí ( Nanni Diesel). The Grand Prix Aigle was awarded to: Jérémie Beyou ( Delta Dore) and Michel Desjoyeaux ( Géant) was awarded both the Challenge AGF and the Radio France prizes.

The Hublot Record is a prize awarded by the Swiss watchmaker, to the skipper covering the most miles in 24 hours on each leg. Between La Rochelle and Crosshaven Oliver Krauss covered 153,32 nautical miles at an average 6,4 knots. Bernard Stamm, Open 60 winner of the Rolex Fastnet Race, honoured the skipper with a chronographer Hublot watch.

As all this has been going on, the international jury has stated that 14 boats with broken seals arrived into Crosshaven. Due to the rough seas, the ARGOS emergency beacons that are attached on the port pushpit, were hit by wavees and in several instances the lead seal that surrounds the beacon snapped, hence these penalties being awarded. The lead seals are perhaps too fragile for these rough conditions the boat experienced...
The same penalty has been given to all the competitors: 2 minutes and 30 seconds. There are a few changes, most notably in the new overall results for: Jérémie Beyou ( Delta Dore) who moves up to second place 10m32s behind Laurent Pellecuer ( Cliptol Sport) as Italian skipper Pietro D’Ali on Nanni Diesel is amongst those penalised and therefore moves down to third overall and 12m09s behind the leader.

The 14 skippers who have been penalised are : Yann Eliès ( Groupe Generali Assurances), Michel Desjoyeaux ( Géant), Pietro D’Alí ( Nanni Diesel), Yannick Bestaven ( Aquarelle.com), Nicolas Bérenger ( KONE Ascenseurs), Eric Drouglazet ( Crédit Maritime), Liz Wardley ( Sojasun), Gérald Véniard ( Scutum), Etienne Svilarich ( Sogeti), Oliver Krauss ( Espoir Crédit Agricole), Franck Legal ( Lenze), Sébastien Audigane ( D’Aucy Cultive la vie), Jean-Christophe Caso ( Groupe STEC/Charente Maritime), Sébastien Thétiot ( Déclic Morbihan), Thierry Fournier-Foch ( Cortal Consorts).

Revised leg three times:

Pos	Skipper	Boat	Time
		arrived 21/08/05 09:14:47 in 87h57'47''
1	PELLECUER Laurent	Cliptol Sport
2	ELIES Yann	Groupe Generali Assurances	+18'36''
3	de PAVANT Kito	Groupe Bel	+21'45''
4	TABARLY Erwan	Thales	+26'19''
5	BEYOU Jérémie	Delta Dore	+26'20''
6	DUTHIL Frédéric	Brossard	+32'11''
7	CAUDRELIER Charles	Bostik	+34'34''
8	DESJOYEAUX Michel	Géant	+42'19''
9	D'ALI Pietro	Nanni Diesel	+45'22''
10	DAVIES Samantha	Skandia	+49'2''
11	PETIT Benoit	Défi Santé Voile	+49'24''
12	ATTANASIO Romain	MrBookmaker.com	+49'36''
13	BESTAVEN Yannick	Aquarelle.com	+1h2'17''
14	GREGOIRE Jeanne	Banque Populaire	+1h4'8''
15	TROUSSEL Nicolas	All Mer	+1h20'50''
16	MORVAN Gildas	Cercle Vert	+1h28'28''
17	EMIG Marc	Total	+1h37'39''
18	BERENGER Nicolas	KONE Ascenseurs	+1h49'17''
19	TRIPON Armel	Gedimat	+1h50'51''
20	VITTET Dominic	ATAO Audio System	+2h0'15''
21	CHABAGNY Thierry	Lèbre Bermudes	+2h0'24''
22	DROUGLAZET Eric	Crédit Maritime	+2h3'6''
23	LEPESQUEUX Marc	Maisons Pierre	+2h3'8''
24	WARDLEY Liz	Sojasun	+2h3'33''
25	VENIARD Gérald	Scutum	+2h7'29''
26	MOUREN Jean-Paul	M@rseillentreprises	+2h25'42''
27	SVILARICH Etienne	Sogeti	+2h33'24''
28	PEAN Lionel	L'Esprit d'Equipe	+2h51'51''
29	ROGNON Cyrille	ENO & Navi Line	+3h5'9''
30	RIECHERS Jorg	Germanytoo	+3h51'38''
31	LE CLEAC'H Armel	Foncia-TBS	+3h58'18''
32	KRAUSS Oliver	Espoir Crédit Agricole	+4h9'54''
33	LE GAL Franck	Lenze	+4h34'38''
34	SEVAUX Stéphane	Sarthe	+4h36'23''
35	AUDIGANE Sébastien	D'Aucy Cultive la vie	+4h45'42''
36	BIGOT Gaël	Team 117	+4h48'1''
37	CASO Jean Christophe	Groupe STEC / Charente Maritime	+5h23'27''
38	DEFERT Eric	Amiral de Bretagne - Suzuki	+6h0'36''
39	BOUVET Christophe	Bo Travail !	+6h12'13''
40	THETIOT Sébastien	Déclic Morbihan	+6h42'37''
41	BOUGARD Patrice	Kogane	+7h2'26''
42	FOURNIER FOCH Thierry	Cortal Consors	+8h15'53''
43	NABART Laurent	Corsica	+12h0'8''
DNF	BOS Christian	Raynal et Roquelaure	DNF
DNF	ALFARO Amaiur	www.pays-basque-entreprises.com	DNF

Overall:

Pos	Skipper	Boat	Time
1	PELLECUER Laurent	Cliptol Sport	in 196h 53min 21s
2	BEYOU Jérémie	Delta Dore	+10'32''
3	D'ALI Pietro	Nanni Diesel	+12'9''
4	DUTHIL Frédéric	Brossard	+12'51''
5	TABARLY Erwan	Thales	+22'53''
6	de PAVANT Kito	Groupe Bel	+24'46''
7	CAUDRELIER Charles	Bostik	+26'34''
8	DESJOYEAUX Michel	Géant	+36'59''
9	ATTANASIO Romain	MrBookmaker.com	+51'54''
10	ELIES Yann	Groupe Generali Assurances	+55'56''
11	MORVAN Gildas	Cercle Vert	+57'51''
12	PETIT Benoit	Défi Santé Voile	+1h7'39''
13	CHABAGNY Thierry	Lèbre Bermudes	+1h49'40''
14	GREGOIRE Jeanne	Banque Populaire	+1h58'53''
15	BERENGER Nicolas	KONE Ascenseurs	+2h5'57''
16	VENIARD Gérald	Scutum	+2h9'39''
17	DAVIES Samantha	Skandia	+2h14'26''
18	VITTET Dominic	ATAO Audio System	+2h20'4''
19	DROUGLAZET Eric	Crédit Maritime	+2h23'27''
20	TROUSSEL Nicolas	All Mer	+3h0'59''
21	EMIG Marc	Total	+3h10'14''
22	WARDLEY Liz	Sojasun	+3h20'35''
23	BESTAVEN Yannick	Aquarelle.com	+3h43'50''
24	LE CLEAC'H Armel	Foncia-TBS	+3h48'18''
25	LEPESQUEUX Marc	Maisons Pierre	+4h3'30''
26	TRIPON Armel	Gedimat	+4h4'18''
27	ROGNON Cyrille	ENO & Navi Line	+4h12'22''
28	SVILARICH Etienne	Sogeti	+4h39'8''
29	MOUREN Jean-Paul	M@rseillentreprises	+5h2'44''
30	KRAUSS Oliver	Espoir Crédit Agricole	+5h8'55''
31	PEAN Lionel	L'Esprit d'Equipe	+6h8'52''
32	AUDIGANE Sébastien	D'Aucy Cultive la vie	+7h22'21''
33	LE GAL Franck	Lenze	+7h35'16''
34	SEVAUX Stéphane	Sarthe	+7h58'24''
35	BIGOT Gaël	Team 117	+8h20'45''
36	BOUVET Christophe	Bo Travail !	+8h42'45''
37	DEFERT Eric	Amiral de Bretagne - Suzuki	+9h43'55''
38	CASO Jean Christophe	Groupe STEC / Charente Maritime	+10h13'52''
39	RIECHERS Jorg	Germanytoo	+11h6'4''
40	BOUGARD Patrice	Kogane	+11h40'45''
41	THETIOT Sébastien	Déclic Morbihan	+11h51'18''
42	FOURNIER FOCH Thierry	Cortal Consors	+13h13'22''
43	NABART Laurent	Corsica	+16h29'59''
44	ALFARO Amaiur	www.pays-basque-entreprises.com	+18h36'54''
45	BOS Christian	Raynal et Roquelaure	+19h18'0''