MichDes ahead

Figaro and solo sailing legend moves into Pole as Solitaire Figaro fleet heads for Brest

Positions at 1600

Pos	Skipper	Boat	Lat	Long	Crs	Spd	DTF/L
1	Desjoyeaux Michel	Foncia	49 29' 08' N	6 53' 77' W	142 º	11.1	129.6 nm
2	Mahe Gildas	Le Comptoir Immobilier	49 29' 28' N	6 54' 05' W	141 º	11	0.3 nm
3	Lebas Christophe	LoLa La piscine assemblée	49 27' 57' N	6 58' 48' W	145 º	10.4	0.8 nm
4	Chabagny Thierry	Brossard	49 29' 71' N	6 54' 60' W	139 º	10.9	0.9 nm
5	Morvan Gildas	Cercle Vert	49 28' 06' N	6 58' 23' W	139 º	10.6	1.1 nm
6	Berenger Nicolas	KONE Ascenseurs	49 28' 87' N	6 58' 08' W	141 º	10.9	1.6 nm
7	Duthil Frédéric	Distinxion	49 30' 26' N	6 55' 84' W	141 º	10.9	1.8 nm
8	Rouxel Thomas	Défi Mousquetaires	49 29' 20' N	6 58' 62' W	141 º	10.7	2.1 nm
9	Treussart Ronan	Groupe Celeos	49 30' 69' N	6 55' 98' W	141 º	10.8	2.2 nm
10	Veniard Gérald	Scutum	49 29' 85' N	6 58' 99' W	141 º	10.9	2.8 nm
11	Nagy Robert	Théolia	49 37' 62' N	7 11' 40' W	139 º	10.5	3.4 nm
12	Pellecuer Laurent	Cliptol Sport	49 30' 66' N	6 59' 74' W	133 º	11.1	3.7 nm
13	Drouglazet Eric	Luisina	49 31' 08' N	6 59' 31' W	141 º	10.8	3.8 nm
14	Douguet Corentin	E. Leclerc / Bouygues Telecom	49 32' 09' N	6 57' 55' W	141 º	10.8	3.9 nm
15	Le Gal Franck	Lenze	49 31' 07' N	6 59' 69' W	142 º	10.7	4 nm
16	de Broc Bertrand	Les Mousquetaires	49 32' 10' N	6 57' 90' W	142 º	10.7	4.1 nm
17	Biarnes Vincent	Côtes d'Armor	49 31' 19' N	6 59' 99' W	143 º	10.8	4.2 nm
18	Troussel Nicolas	Financo	49 32' 58' N	6 58' 10' W	141 º	10.7	4.5 nm
19	Wardley Liz	Sojasun	49 33' 22' N	6 58' 57' W	141 º	10.5	5.2 nm
20	Emig Marc	A.ST Groupe	49 32' 52' N	7 01' 60' W	138 º	10.5	5.9 nm
21	Lepesqueux Marc	Rapid' Flore - Caen-La-Mer	49 34' 14' N	7 11' 40' W	138 º	10.7	5.9 nm
22	Rivet Frédéric	Novotel Caen	49 31' 94' N	7 02' 97' W	140 º	10.3	6 nm
23	D’Ali Pietro	Kappa	49 33' 93' N	6 59' 27' W	142 º	10.9	6.1 nm
24	Mouren Jean-Paul	M@rseillEntreprises	49 33' 91' N	6 59' 46' W	142 º	10.5	6.1 nm
25	Belloir Aymeric	CAP 56	49 32' 09' N	7 03' 78' W	139 º	10.1	6.5 nm
26	Pratt Christopher	Espoir Crédit Agricole	49 33' 82' N	7 00' 88' W	144 º	10.3	6.6 nm
27	Duprey du Vorsent Thierry	Domaine du Mont d'Arbois	49 33' 81' N	7 00' 81' W	144 º	10.2	6.6 nm
28	Tripon Armel	Gedimat	49 28' 71' N	7 10' 18' W	140 º	10.2	6.8 nm
29	Lunven Nicolas	Bostik	49 34' 71' N	6 59' 72' W	145 º	10.3	6.9 nm
30	Bos Christian	Belle Ile en Mer	49 33' 33' N	7 02' 89' W	141 º	10	7.1 nm
31	Grégoire Jeanne	Banque Populaire	49 34' 35' N	7 03' 29' W	151 º	9.3	8 nm
32	Nigon Erik	AXA Atout Coeur Pour AIDES	49 31' 42' N	7 11' 71' W	139 º	10.6	9.4 nm
33	King Nigel	Nigel King Yachting	49 35' 58' N	7 04' 83' W	141 º	10	9.6 nm
34	Loison Alexis	ALL MER Inéo Suez	49 38' 03' N	7 02' 37' W	145 º	10.4	10.5 nm
35	Le Miere Grégoire	Basse-Normandie / OTCex Group	49 31' 92' N	7 14' 62' W	141 º	10	11.1 nm
36	Svilarich Etienne	Grain de Soleil	49 30' 05' N	7 18' 41' W	140 º	9.8	11.5 nm
37	Defert Eric	Suzuki Automobiles	49 32' 03' N	7 16' 76' W	144 º	9.8	12.1 nm
38	Bouillard Didier	MEDevent	49 39' 02' N	7 04' 37' W	140 º	10.5	12.1 nm
39	Bird James	GFI Group	49 34' 12' N	7 14' 26' W	137 º	10.3	12.5 nm
40	Bougard Patrice	Kogane	49 33' 80' N	7 16' 13' W	136 º	10.4	13.1 nm
41	Nabart Laurent	Corsica	49 40' 74' N	7 27' 06' W	137 º	9.8	13.2 nm
42	Le Nabour Quentin	Votre Nom pour Le Figaro	49 34' 44' N	7 16' 88' W	135 º	10.2	13.9 nm
43	Nicol Jean-Pierre	Gavottes	49 36' 12' N	7 19' 83' W	135 º	10.3	16.4 nm
44	Monnet Jean-Charles	Degrémont Suez Source de Talents	49 36' 70' N	7 18' 92' W	144 º	9.8	16.5 nm
45	O’Rian Paul	City Jet	49 38' 32' N	7 17' 67' W	136 º	10.2	17.1 nm
46	Thiercelin Marc	Siemens	49 29' 42' N	7 31' 69' W	137 º	9.5	17.5 nm
47	Da Cruz Antonio-Pedro	Baïko	49 33' 71' N	7 26' 12' W	133 º	10.2	17.6 nm
48	Bulot Jean-François	Crédit Mutuel de Normandie - Ville de Caen	49 49' 24' N	7 12' 63' W	139 º	9.2	23.5 nm
49	Le Baut Jimmy	Port Olona - Arrimer	49 42' 14' N	7 30' 27' W	136 º	9.6	25.5 nm
50	Le Meitour Jean-Philippe	Construction DORSO	49 51' 34' N	7 31' 25' W	143 º	7.8	32.6 nm

The 50 sailors competing on leg two of La Solitaire Afflelou le Figaro have this afternoon covered more than half the distance to the finish in Brest - just 130 miles remain with an ETA expected of between 0600 and 0900 tomorrow morning for the first arrivals. The early morning turning of the tide around Ushant, a light and fluctuating breeze along with the land effects will all come into play over the course of the final 58 miles from the Racon mark off Ushant, along to St. Mathieu and then to the finish line in front of Brest itself.

The fleet of 50 Solitaire competitors have been racing downwind since last night in a steady 15-20 knots and a steady swell. This long spinnaker run south, while exhilarating, has been taxing on the solo sailors who have been averaging 10 knots of boat speed. Gildas Morvan on Cercle Vert reported "clocking up a 16 knot surf” and Jeanne Grégoire on Banque Populaire showed a 14 knot instant boat speed this morning. Today the wind is forecast to back further north, then northeast over the course of the afternoon before decreasing to 10 to 15 knots this evening.

Michel Desjoyeaux on Foncia has moved back into the lead on the last position report but is chased by Gildas Mahé ( Le Comptoir Immobilier) just 0.3 miles behind and Thierry Chabagny ( Brossard) 0.9 miles astern. Christophe Lebas ( Lola la piscine assemblée), is positioned slightly south of the leader and has moved into third place just 0.8 miles behind with Gildas Morvan (Cercle Vert) in his wake.

Morvan commented: "The conditions are nice, I have managed to sleep 20 minutes, which is great so we are on and moving! I have been driving non-stop since the Fastnet, with lots to do. I am going to try and stop doing things and grab something to eat now. Going to Brest should be nice as it is there that I got the boat ready. I did a surf at 16 knots so sometimes it is going great but the wind should drop a bit soon…”

Although the line to the mark is straight, sailors have applied a different strategy to their approach. Marc Thiercelin ( Siemens) has taken the most extreme westerly option, which leaves more than a 20 mile lateral gap between him and Jean-François Bulot ( Crédit Mutuel de Normadie – Ville de Caen).

The competitors have been positioning themselves to get what they think is the best from the wind shift to the NNE. Those who made the move further east early on are on the direct heading for the Racon mark - among them are Distixion and Groupe Céléos. Sylvain Mondon at Météo France reckons the boats will see 12-15 knots around the tip of Brittany. The tide turns against the fleet at 7am tomorrow, which could give the trailing boats a chance to catch up on the close of the race leaving everything to play for right to the end.

Liz Wardley on Sojasun commented: "I had a really good race from the start down to the Fastnet rock; it was quite busy with lots of manoeuvres and then I did quite well after under spinnaker. I think I went a little too far east, so now I have boats passing me, but it is okay. I had no rest at the start but once I put the spinnaker up I managed some sleep, but only one hour I think. I am still next to Financo and now Contin Douguet and Bertand de Broc are just in front of me.

"It has been a very fun day going down on spinnaker on big waves. I am just a little bit worried about later when the wind drops and we have big waves, which are difficult to sail in. I have not even looked at the charts since the beginning. I had all my strategy in my head before I went so had everything planned before. Later I will go down and check the charts."

Nigel King on ( Nigel King Yachting) reported: "I am not doing to well; I am very frustrated and am struggling for boat speed and seem to be losing out the boats around me. I think I have a small steering problem, which is making it pretty hard to drive the boat at the moment. I am feeling okay having managed a few 10-minute naps here and there. It is just hard trying to work out why I am going so slow.

"It was a good passage, (at the Fastnet) which I think I rounded in about 19th place, so okay, which was a good recovery after a poor start. Since then it has slowly been backwards. I can see boats on the horizon, but can’t identify them. Otherwise everything is fine and am just about to have some lunch!"

Eric Drouglazet ( Luisina) said: "Only problems on board Luisina, just problems. I managed to rip my spinnaker on the spreaders during the squalls and have a big hole in it…I have tried to fix it as best I can, but it is looking very fragile. Then I went and got a fishing net caught in the keel forcing me to go for a dice, so the Nicolas Bérenger called the security boat because he was worried I was ahead to the wind. I got quite a shock beneath the water when the net got caught round my waist, so all in all not very reassuring at 3 in the morning. When Koné called I was under the water. I must have lost three miles and it is hard when you see how tough it is to win just 100 metres…but then I am happy to be at sea anyway because we have got some exceptional conditions and had a beautiful course along the south coast of Ireland, where you can see just how hostile the rocks are! We will get in tomorrow morning which is great because with the big race ahead, having two or three days on land is not bad."