Veniard 23 minutes ahead

Unexpected winner for leg one of the Solitaire du Figaro

Gerard Veniard on board Scutum reached the Santander finish line of leg one of la Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro first yesterday evening to win the first of four legs of this effective world championship of singlehanded offshore racing.

The passage took just 79 hours, 24 minutes and traveled at an average 7,43 knots over the 590 miles course from Cherbourg. 23 minutes after Veniard saw the arrivals of usual suspects Gildas Morvan, Charles Caudrelier and Armel le Cleac'h, three boats within in a minute and a half of one another after three and a half days of intense solo racing.

Jeanne Gregoire on board Banque Populaire once again performed very well finishing sixth 54 minutes after the leader, but the leg proved a highly disappointing one for Sam Davies on Roxy, finishing 26th of 44, despite arriving just 2 hours 8 minutes after Veniard. We understand Sam suffered a fall early on in the leg and was suffering considerable back pain for most of the race.

Prior to the start Veniard was considered an outside chance among the leading sailors, despite this being his third participation of La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro. Veniard, 34 from La Rochelle, is a professional sailor, having graduated in mathematics and has enjoyed a career in Figaro offshore sailing for three years. This is his first Figaro leg win.

18th among the 44 boats after 24 hours of racing, Véniard opted for a different course along the south coast of England, remaining further north in towards the coast than most of his fellow competitors. This decision paid off after hours of patience and on 7 August he moved up to third place behind Gildas Morvan on Cercle Vert and Charles Caudrelier on Bostik as the boats were rounding Wolf Rock. These three were soon joined by a fourth in Figaro veteran Yann Eliès on Groupe Generali Assurances for the spinnaker run south to Santander. On 9 August at 01h00 in the morning, Scutum showing particularly good pace downwind moved into the lead which she held until the finish.

"I can’t believe it," commented Veniard upon his arrival. "I thought it would finish differently with a big calm at the finish. Actually, I managed to get away from the other boats and right to the finish, I had wind. I dedicate this victory to my sponsor, Scutum who has backed me for three years and followed my progress, to my family and particularly to my parents, my girlfriend and all my friends in La Rochelle where I live and train.

"During the race we had ideal conditions, crossing the Bay of Biscay as you rarely get, with wind, good weather, good visibility both day and night," continued Veniard. "I was with the leading pack from the start. Even at Shambles where I lost contact with the leading group, I remained confident. The boat is fast; we have really worked a lot on that - with Jeanne (Grégoire) we found a top set up during the Transat AG2R, but I am not going to start talking about it to the others!

"It is true that I was the least likely among the top four or five to win, but then it could be the chance I had. In the end I did have some luck. I thought they would all catch up and then the opposite happened, I extended my lead, and that, for example, was not expected.

"Since I had a small accident with a fishing boat when I was sleeping, I no longer put an alarm on. I fall asleep in the cockpit and I get 5 minute cat naps, which suits me fine. I never go for a sleep in the bunk. People say I have bags under my eyes, but I think I look fine. At the finish I was quite fine and could have gone on for longer.

"So I have achieved my objective: I wanted to win a leg of a Figaro race this season. It just happens to be on the toughest and greatest race…and it could not be better! I see it as a good omen. I was 7th in the Championnat de France of offshore racing last year. I managed a 5th and 8th place last year, so I knew that one day I would get on to the podium, but here, a victory on La Solitaire…might be a bit brutal, but let’s take it as it comes! The only problem is that we have arrived one hour ahead of schedule and we have not arranged for the hotel rooms, but then, we will get by. The Spanish are very welcoming, are they not?



Results from leg one:

Pos	Skipper	Boat	Time
1	VENIARD Gérald	Scutum	arrived on 09/08/06 at 18:31:00 in 79h24'00''
2	MORVAN Gildas	Cercle Vert	+ 23'02''
3	CAUDRELIER Charles	Bostik	+ 24'12''
4	LE CLEAC'H Armel	Brit Air	+ 24'36''
5	ELIES Yann	Groupe Generali assurances	+ 26'50''
6	GREGOIRE Jeanne	Banque Populaire	+ 54'48''
7	CHABAGNY Thierry	Littoral	+ 01h11'35''
8	DUTHIL Frédéric	Brossard	+ 01h14'55''
9	BERENGER Nicolas	KONE Ascenseurs	+ 01h16'52''
10	MAHE Gildas	Le Comptoir Immobilier	+ 01h19'25''
11	de PAVANT Kito	Groupe Bel	+ 01h20'15''
12	TABARLY Erwan	Iceberg Finance	+ 01h20'48''
13	KRAUSS Oliver	AXA Plaisance	+ 01h22'00''
14	TRIPON Armel	Gedimat	+ 01h27'50''
15	DOUGUET Corentin	E.Leclerc - Bouygues Telecom	+ 01h29'45''
16	EMIG Marc	A.ST Groupe	+ 01h30'04''
17	SVILARICH Etienne	Sogeti	+ 01h33'10''
18	D'ALI Pietro	Nanni Diesel	+ 01h40'05''
19	MOUREN Jean-Paul	M@rseillEntreprises	+ 01h40'40''
20	DROUGLAZET Eric	PIXmania.com	+ 01h49'14''
21	TROUSSEL Nicolas	Financo	+ 01h54'48''
22	WARDLEY Liz	Sojasun	+ 01h59'14''
23	LE GAL Franck	Lenze	+ 02h06'50''
24	PRATT Christopher	Espoir Crédit Agricole	+ 02h07'44''
25	TOULORGE Alexandre	Starkey	+ 02h07'47''
26	DAVIES Samantha	Roxy	+ 02h08'05''
27	ISRAEL Erwan	Delta Dore	+ 02h12'36''
28	PERON Eric	Cigo	+ 02h16'30''
29	TREUSSART Ronan	Groupe Céléos	+ 02h25'42''
30	PELLECUER Laurent	Cliptol Sport	+ 02h57'25''
31	ROUXEL Thomas	Défi Santé Nutrition	+ 03h06'30''
32	AUBERT Jérome	La Normandise	+ 04h14'14''
33	DEFERT Eric	Suzuki Automobiles	+ 04h25'30''
34	LOISON Alexis	Région Basse-Normandie	+ 04h53'08''
35	NAGY Robert	THEOLIA	+ 04h54'20''
36	LE MIERE Grégoire	Man Of All Seasons	+ 04h57'30''
37	DICK Jean-Pierre	Virbac-Paprec	+ 04h59'10''
38	GOUEZIGOUX Laurent	Côtes d'Armor	+ 05h11'56''
39	VACHETTE Vincent	SCO Saveur et Vie	+ 05h51'54''
40	SEGUIN Damien	AltéAd Région Pays de la Loire	+ 06h07'45''
41	LEBAS Christophe	Armor Lux	+ 06h46'18''
42	PELLET Jean-François	Lubexcel	+ 07h34'58''
43	DA CRUZ Antonio Pedro	Baïko	+ 07h44'25''
44	LE BAUT Jimmy	Port-Olona	+ 10h36'40''