Duthil bucks superstition

Figaro sailors race Prologue Afflelou in Caen prior to Tuesday's off for the La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro

The 50 sailors competing in the 38th edition of La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro sailed their warm-up race today with the Prologue Afflelou of the start port of Caen, prior to the start of Tuesday's first leg to Crosshaven.

Tens of thousands of people have flocked to the Bassin St. Pierre, the inner harbour of Caen, over the past week to catch a glimpse of the skippers, including many of the stars of the French singlehanded racing world and their Figaro Beneteau II boats before they head off a month long solo sailing marathon over 1,876 miles between France, Ireland and Spain.

Despite the early drizzle hundreds gathered today to see the skippers off for the compulsory Prologue Afflelou race. Held in a 20 knot westerly, this 17 mile course was held off Ouistreham (at the mouth of the canal leading to Caen) and comprised an initial upwind leg, a dog leg to port, a run down to the third and fourth marks before heading back upwind to the 5 mark, a cardinal set due north of the finish line.

For the race conditions were lively with the swell coming in from the west at 20 knots, gusting 25. The start was mostly clean but Jean-Pierre Nichol on Gavottes was later disqualified having to cross the line properly. Marc Emig ( A.ST Groupe) was forced to withdraw with batten problems right at the start. Jean-François Bulot ( Crédit Mutuel-Ville de Caen) also encountered technical problems, forcing him to retire on the first beat.

At the first mark Armel Tripon on Gedimat led the now 48 strong fleet followed by Frederic Duthil on Brossard and Italian sailor, Pietro d’Alì in a close third on Kappa. Over the course, Armel Tripon and Frederic Dutil would swap the lead at the next mark closely followed by Cercle Vert (Gildas Morvan, sailing his 12th participation this year). The overcast skies cleared for some sunny intervals for the finish as the wind veered round to the north and eased in strength.

At the finish line superstitious traditional states that the winner of the Prologue Afflelou is never the winner of the Solitaire itself, however this did not stop Frederic Duthil ( Distinxion) who crossing the line first, ahead of Gildas Morvan ( Cercle Vert) and Frank le Gal ( Lenze) in second and third places respectively. Italian Pietro d’Alì ( Kappa) finished 11th overall while British sailor Nigel King ( Nigel King Yachting) can in a very respectable 15th overall and first in the overall 'rookie' ranking for first timers to this race.

"Winning and tempting fate does not bother me!" commented Duthil on his arrival. "I have come here to do my best on each leg so anything I do not win this year I plan to next. I had quite a good start and it is great to see that all the preparation work done this year is paying off. Conditions were not easy but I had planned to go right so with the shift it worked off and all the maneouvers well. My objective is to be in the top ten and it was not to necessarily win it!"

Nigel King added: "I was last out of the lock so it was a rush to get to the start in time and prepare the boat and set the right sails. I had a good first beat and had planned to keep to the right which paid off when the shift came in. I got caught up be three boats at the finish and had a small incident but managed to hold my spot. It was not very pretty but it was effective! The boat speed was quite good, but low particularly as conditions where quite lumpy. On one beat, both Scutum and Foncia passed with better boat speed, but I am not worried and will need to work on tuning the rigging and do some checks on the pilot."

Fellow Brit James Bird who finished a 27rd on his GFI Group: “I am pretty happy with my race and did not work on a plan as we did not have too much time before the start. It was quite straightforward and I went round the first mark ahead of 'Mich Desj' (Michel Desjoyeaux on Foncia and two time Solitaire winner), which I was quite happy about! The aim was to get around without hitting or breaking anything and I treated it as a race and also a gage for Monday. I have raced the boat since December so had some time to prepare and am set for Tuesday."

Results:

Pos		Skipper	Boat	Time (+)
1		Duthil Frédéric	Distinxion
2		Morvan Gildas	Cercle Vert	01'42'
3		Le Gal Franck	Lenze	02'19'
4		Pratt Christopher	Espoir Crédit Agricole	02'25'
5		Veniard Gérald	Scutum	02'57'
6		Tripon Armel	Gedimat	03'19'
7		Berenger Nicolas	Kone Ascenseurs	03'29'
8		Desjoyeaux Michel	Foncia	04'28'
9		de Broc Bertrand	Les Mousquetaires	04'34'
10		Drouglazet Eric	Luisina	04'59'
11		D'Ali Pietro	Kappa	05'13'
12		Mouren Jean-Paul	M@rseillEntreprises	06'39'
13		Treussart Ronan	Groupe Celeos	07'14'
14		Douguet Corentin	E.Leclerc / Bouygues Telecom	07'19'
15	*	King Nigel	Nigel King Yachting	08'19'
16		Pellecuer Laurent	Cliptol Sport	09'19'
17		Svilarich Etienne	Grain de Soleil	09'47'
18		Wardley Liz	Sojasun	11'16'
19	*	Biarnes Vincent	Côtes d'Armor	11'44'
20		Le Miere Grégoire	Basse-Normandie / OTCex Group	12'04'
21		Lepesqueux Marc	Rapid'Flore Caen-La-Mer	12'19'
22		Bos Christian	Belle Ile en Mer	12'24'
23		Chabagny Thierry	Brossard	12'49'
24		Gregoire Jeanne	Banque Populaire	13'19'
25	*	Belloir Aymeric	Cap 56	13'49'
26		Rouxel Thomas	Défi Mousquetaires	14'19'
27	*	Bird James	Gfi Group	14'34'
28		Loison Alexis	All Mer Inéo Suez	14'49'
29		Nabart Laurent	Corsica	15'04'
30	*	Nigon Erik	AXA Atout Coeur Pour Aides	15'19'
31		Lebas Christophe	LoLa La piscine assemblée	15'49'
32		Bougard Patrice	Kogane	16'04'
33	*	Rivet Frédéric	Novotel Caen	16'19'
34		Troussel Nicolas	Financo	16'34'
35		Nagy Robert	Théolia	16'49'
36	*	Duprey du Vorsent Tierry	Domaine du Mont d'Arbois	17'04'
37		Defert Eric	Suzuki Automobiles	17'19'
38	*	Lunven Nicolas	Bostik	17'34'
39		Mahe Gildas	Le Comptoir Immobilier	17'49'
40	*	O'Rian Paul	City Jet	18'04'
41	*	Le Nabour Quentin	Votre Nom pour Le Figaro	18'19'
42	*	Bouillard Didier	MEDevent	18'34'
43		Le Baut Jimmy	Port Olona - Arrimer	18'49'
44		Thiercelin Marc	Siemens	19'04'
45		Da Cruz Antonio-Pedro	Baïko	21'19'
46	*	Le Meitour Jean-Philippe	Construction Dorso	37'51'
47	*	Monnet Jean-Charles	Degrémont Suez Source de talents	40'11'
48		Bulot Jean-François	Crédit Mutuel de Normandie - Ville de Caen	02h40'11'
48	*	Nicol Jean-Pierre	Gavottes	02h40'11'
48		Emig Marc	A.ST Groupe	02h40'11'
		* = First timer/rookie

James Bird reports:

Very quick update from yesterdays prologue: Position 27th out of 50 and 4th
Bizuth (Rookie)

The course for the prologue was a simple loop finishing just off the channel
into Caen. the conditions were fairly breezy 20-30 knots and a bumpy swell
running.

We got a reasonably good start alongside Gildas Morvan and Gerald Veniard. There was a clear split up the first beat left and right. I decided to take the right hand side and as we tacked over to come into the top mark it was clear that this was the side to go. I rounded the top mark inside the top 20 and took the opportunity to have a look behind to see Michel Desjoyeaux a few boats behind...big grins all round. The breeze was up in the the 25-30 bracket but I felt happy with popping the big spinnaker up. Despite a full twist in the spinnaker which cost a few places we were still in there and come the second mark I had overtaken Nicholas Trousell (2006 winner)...second big grin.

The final beat took us up to the entrance off Caen then a short leg to the finish. In the heavy upwind we had good boat speed which is a real confidence builder and when I could really get the boat into the groove throught the steep chop we seemed faster than some of the boats around us.

All in all I am over the moon with the performance of the boat and the rewards from the last two months of re-fitting and training. My boat handling has come on a huge amount since the first few races and with it my confidence to push the boat in the big breeze.

My aim for this race is top 25 overall and a position inside the top three Bizuths would suit me just fine...top Bizuth is the ultimate goal, it'll be a tough one to achieve but I think if I'm clever it is possible!!!

Tomorrows start is at midday so i'm hoping for a sea breeze that will...fingers crossed see us across the channel to the Needles. The outlook for the 1st leg is light winds all the way, the chances that we'll be anchoring in the foul tide is certain, so I'm packing in a mixed grill for dinner tonight!