Solitaire du Figaro preview

We look at the form and race favourite Michel Desjoyeaux tells us about his campaign for a fourth win

The moment has come - the 40th anniversary Solitaire du Figaro is due to set off tomorrow from Lorient.

Backed by Suzuki and the Figaro newspaper and sailed as ever in the 32ft Marc Lombard-designed Beneteau Figaro 2s, the effective world championship of solo offshore racing is in four legs this year, taking the boats from Lorient first to La Coruna in northwest Spain, then back to the Beneteau homeport of Saint Gilles Croix de Vie in western France, then up to Dingle in southern Ireland before finishing in Dieppe on the north coast of France - amounting to 1706 miles in total. The organisers have cleverly arranged it so that each of the legs is longer than the last, culminating in the 511 mile hike up the south coast of the UK around the Needles Fairway buoy before crossing the Channel to Dieppe. Legs are typically two and a bit or four days duration and for the solo skippers this of course means next to no sleep, eating on the fly and otherwise constantly helming, trimming or making sail changes. Even navigating is carried out on deck these days.

This year 52 competitors are entered, 15 of whom are first timers, showing that there remains as healthy an influx into the class as there ever has been.

Favourite for the race is certainly Michel Desjoyeaux, the most successful offshore racer of all time, being the only person to have won the Vendee Globe twice, as well as the Transat and the Route du Rhum back in his ORMA 60 trimaran days. This is Desjoyeaux’s 11th participation in the race (and he is by no means the most capped, Eric Drouglazet is on his 17th, while the perennial Jean-Pierre Mouren will be racing his 23rd!). Over the 19 year association with the race, 2007 saw him join the elite duo of Jean le Cam and Philippe Poupon, the only people ever to have won the event three times. Desjoyeaux’s previous wins were in 1998 and 1992. So could this year see Desjoyeaux enter the history books as the first person ever to win La Solitaire four times?

A cunning chap, Desjoyeaux generally plays down his hand, and told thedailysail that he has not managed to prepare for La Solitaire as much as he did when he won in 2007. Preparation-wise he has managed much the same as before the 2003 and 2005 races “which was not so bad in fact, but obviously this year, the level of the fleet is quite high, which is a good thing. I would have liked to have had such a high level of preparation as two years ago for this year, but my program was quite different this year.”

A distraction this year has been winning the Vendee Globe, that has seen him head off around Europe as a result and otherwise been occupied with his Foncia Open 60. He is to compete in the Transat Jacques Vabre later this year and will continue on the Open 60 into 2010 when he will see if he can win the Route du Rhum again, this time on one hull. “In 2007 two days a week when there was a training session I was doing a half day in the office in the morning, then I went sailing and then I went back to work for the second part of my working day at the office. This year it was much more simple because I didn’t sail at all! But then I sailed quite a lot this winter – so it should be okay!”



So while his competitors have been honing their skills on their Beneteau-built one designs, Desjoyeaux hasn’t competed in any races this year apart from two short ones last week with other members of the Figaro training group in his native Port la Foret.

The boat he is sailing is the same one he won in in 2007. “It is a very good boat, and it has given me good results since the beginning. I am happy because everyone thinks it is much faster than the others. I did win with it two years ago, but whenever someone else used it that was not the case! So it is not the boat. It is a one design boat.”

Thus the only thing he has changed this year has been the sails.

In terms of the life on board difficulties for the solo sailor, in particular potentially devasting sleep deprivation, Desjoyeaux is understandably something of a master at these. He reckons that on average he will get 2-3 hours a day (read much less than this in reality…), but this will of course be dependent upon the weather and where they are sailing. “The problem will be for the two last legs and especially for the last one because we will sail along your coast [south coast of the UK] for one and a half to two days and we might have light winds and we will spend a lot of time there and we won’t be able to sleep a lot. So that should be the main difficulty this year and as it is the end of the last leg, it is a good opportunity because it means that the results will be decided right at the end.”

In terms of helming Desjoyeaux says he will spend around 90% of the time on the helm, the same amount the autopilot steered Foncia during the Vendee Globe, he says. “I am ready not to have anything hot to eat, even if we have a galley on board. I don’t have time to use it, because it would mean I didn’t have anything else to do. In fact on this boat, the autopilot is more efficient than it was on the previous Figaro [the Beneteau Figaro 1] because the boat is more stable, even at high speed or under spinnaker. The problem is that the guys on the boats near you are faster when they are helming than when they are under pilot, so we have to spend a lot of time outside and when we want to eat it is not simple.”

The legs are short enough to get a reasonable forecast beforehand. While racing the skippers are not allowed to download GRIB files, but they can use the venerable technology of weatherfax, something Bracknell have long since ceased and which they get from the Northwood station now. “We start with GRIB files at the beginning then we don’t have any opportunity to refresh them after because we don’t have Iridium or 3G or anything. So we can only have the weatherfax,” says Desjoyeaux. So basically the game plan is worked out before the start and then the weatherfaxes are used to confirm the GRIBs, whether the weather features are behaving as the pre-start forecast predicted or not. “It is enough and it is the same for all competitors,” says Desjoyeaux.

They receive fleet position updates twice a day.

Who else is in the frame?

Aside from Desjoeayux other past winners taking part this year are Jeremie Beyou (2005), the former skipper of the ill-fated Open 60 Delta Dore; Charles Caudrelier (2004) as ever with his long term sponsor Bostik; Eric Drouglazet (2001); Armel le Cleac’h (2003), skipper of the Open 60 BritAir; while Nicolas Troussel returns to defend his title from last year, but also to see if he too can win La Solitaire for a third time as he is on his second win, having also claimed la Solitaire in 2006.

All these are certainly favourites, and as we can see, this year there is an unparalleled entry from the Open 60 fleet. In addition there are Generali skipper Yann Elies, he of the broken leg mid-Southern Ocean and the UK’s Jonny Malbon. Winning the Solitaire has always eluded Elies, despite being acknowledged as being one of the top skippers in the class, his best result being a 2nd in 2004.

But there are many others to watch out for. This includes Cercle Verte skipper Gildas Morvan, another ever green Figaro sailor for whom this will be his 14th race. Second in 2008, Morvan earlier this year won the class’ biennial transatlantic race, the Transat BPE and he is on fire at present. Kone Elevators’ Nicolas Berenger won last year’s Cap Istanbul race and was 7th in the Solitaire last year, while Suzuki Automobiles’ Thierry Chabagny, on his 9th participation, finished second in 2006.

On what lies in store for this first leg, Chabagny comments: “Last year the overall ranking was pretty much decided on this first crossing of the Bay of Biscay. I really suffered personally and have no intention of doing so again this year! The thermal breeze for the start will drop quite quickly so we should have a pretty light first night. Those ahead will be best set up to reach the front that is due to come over. We are going to have to watch out on the approach to La Coruña because if the wind becomes very light, which is highly likely, there could see some big time gaps build. To cover a mile you can take half an hour, but you can also take an hour…”

Other notables are BBox Bouygues Telecom’s Fred Duthil who has been on the podium of the last two races. Sadly absent from the race this year is Jeanne Gregoire (off having child) who’s shoes on the Banque Populaire Figaro are being filled by Gildas Mahe, who was 8th last year. Eric Tabarly’s nephew Erwan is back for his ninth go and in his last six participations has never been out of the top 10, his top result being a fourth place last year. MACIF skipper Gerald Veniard also has potential following his 7th place in 2007 and 3rd the previous year.

So already we count 13 potential winners…

Then there are also some strong former Mini sailors competing such as 2005 Mini Transat winner, Corentin Douguet, Adrien Hardy and 2007 favourite and Mini Transat leg one winner, Isabelle Joschke.

For Joschke this is her second participation in the Solitaire and she is the only woman competing this year: “At the end of the last season I felt that I had made a lot of progress and that I knew the boat well and had learn how to get good speed out of the boat so felt good all round,” she says. “My objective is to get back to that condition as quickly as possible because this year the races I have done do not have anything like the pace of the Figaro. I have only done races of two or three days…On the weather side of things, it is not going to be straightforward, generally speaking we are going to leave in not much wind, then we will get quite strong upwind conditions with southwesterly and then once again no wind for the finish. Strategically there will be a lot of calls to make. When it is not stable, strategy more than speed, can make a big difference.”

Of the 15 first timers, or ‘bizuths’ as they are known within the class, are Artemis’ Jonny Malbon, while Joseph Brault is another former Mini sailor who worked on the SOPRA ORMA 60, the skipper of which, Antoine Koch, is also competing in this year’s Solitaire. Fabien Delahaye is a former 470 sailor who graduated up to the Open 750 French sportsboat class and now into the Figaro, while Matthieu Girolet and Louis Duc are two more ex-Mini sailors, Duc having also competed in last year’s Artemis Transat in the Class 40 Groupe Royer.

Newbie Christophe Espagnon has an entirely different background as an Olympic Tornado sailor who came 11th in Beijing while Paul Meilhat is an ex-49er sailor and Vianney Jacquier is another former dinghy sailor also making the rather large leap to solo offshore racing.

It should be noted that while pretty much all the boats in the Solitaire are sponsored affairs, probably around a quarter of the fleet are amateurs with ‘real world’ jobs, the best example being Jean-Pierre Mouren, who returns year in year out for la Solitaire, but spends the rest of the time running a shipping company.

Leg one of La Solitaire du Figaro sets sail for La Coruna at 13:00 local time tomorrow (Thursday). On the first leg, the major points of passage to negotiate will be Groix Island, which needs to be left to port, where the influence of the passage and affects of the land can complicate sailing, then the Birvideaux platform before the 300 miles across the open Bay of Biscay to Cap Ortegal in Galicia. The final 30 miles along the Galician coastline will require special planning as the skippers tire and calculate how best to avoid the becalmed around the headlands leading to La Coruña; Candelaria point, the Fraiseira point, the famous Cape Prior and lastly Cape Priorino.

Meteo France predict light and variable wind conditions of between 10 and 15 knots from the North, northwest for the first night followed by the passage of a front from the South-west that could bring up to 25 knots and gusts of up to 35 on Friday night as the wind heads round to the Northwest. There will be “lots to play for and we could see quite big gaps build” comments Race Director, Jacques Caraës. We expect to see the first arrive in to La Coruña on Saturday night.” Concludes Caraës.

As ever the race is scored on cumulative elapsed time for the four legs.

Entry list:

	Competitor	Born	Lives	Boat	Previous no of SdeFs
1	BELLOIR Aymeric	1978	Erdeven	CAP 56	2
2	BERENGER Nicolas	1972	La Grande Motte	KONE ELEVATORS	6
3	BEYOU Jérémie	1976	Lorient	BERNARD PAOLI	9
4	BOUGARD Patrice	1955	Sautron	KOGANE	6
5	BOUILLARD  Didier	1964	Paris	MEDEVENT	2
6	BRAULT Joseph	1980	Concarneau	SAMSUNG Mobile	Bizuth
7	CAUDRELIER  BENAC Charles	1974	La Forêt Fouesnant	BOSTIK	7
8	CHABAGNY Thierry	1972	Nevez	SUZUKI AUTOMOBILES	8
9	DELAHAYE Fabien	1984	Caen	PORT DE CAEN OUISTREHAM	Bizuth
10	DESJOYEAUX Michel	1965	La Forêt Fouesnant	FONCIA	10
11	DOUGUET Corentin	1974	Riantec	E.LECLERC MOBILE	3
12	DROUGLAZET Eric	1967	Trégunc	LUISINA	16
13	DUC Louis	1983	Caen	CAEN NORMANDIE	Bizuth
14	DUTHIL Frédéric	1973	Larmor Plage	BBOX BOUYGUES TELECOM	5
15	ELIES Yann	1974	Saint-Brieuc	GENERALI	10
16	ESPAGNON  Christophe	1976	Le Bois Plage en Ré	GROUPE LEGRIS INDUSTRIES	Bizuth
17	GABART François	1983	La Forêt Fouesnant	ESPOIR REGION BRETAGNE	1
18	GIROLET Matthieu	1973	Roquebrune sur Argens	ENTREPRENDRE (Lafont Presse)	Bizuth
19	GODART-PHILIPPE Arnaud	1983	Camaret sur Mer	SENOBLE	Bizuth
20	GOUEZIGOUX Laurent	1981	Hillion	TRIER C'EST PRESERVER	2
21	HARDY  Adrien	1984	Indre	AGIR RECOUVREMENT	1
22	HOUERY Thibault	1970	St Contest	VIRIA LCN	Bizuth
23	JACQUIER Vianney	1987	Nevez	ALHYANGE ACOUSTIQUE	Bizuth
24	JOSCHKE Isabelle (Fr-Alle)	1977	Brech	SYNERGIE	1
25	JOSSIER Nicolas	1976	Granville	ESPRIT VOILE 50	1
26	KING Nigel  (GB)	1969	Lymington	NIGEL KING YACHTING	1
27	KOCH Antoine	1978	La Forêt Fouesnant	SOPRA GROUP	6
28	LE CLEAC'H Armel	1977	Gouesnach	BRIT AIR	7
29	LE FOLL Oswenn	1973	Etables sur Mer	COTES D'ARMOR	Bizuth
30	LE GAL Franck	1973	Port Louis	LENZE	5
31	LIVORY Yannig	1966	Ploemeur	CINT 56	Bizuth
32	LOISON Alexis	1984	Urville -Nacqueville	ALL MER INEO GDF SUEZ	3
33	LUNVEN Nicolas	1982	Vannes	CGPI	2
34	MAHE Gildas	1975	Quimper	BANQUE POPULAIRE	3
35	MALBON Jonny (GB)	1974	Cowes	ARTEMIS	Bizuth
36	MEILHAT Paul	1982	Brest	DOMINO'S PIZZA	Bizuth
37	MONNET Jean-Charles	1984	Putot en Bessin	49° NORD	2
38	MORVAN Gildas	1968	Landeda	CERCLE VERT	13
39	MOUREN Jean-Paul	1953	Marseille	M@RSEILLENTREPRISES	22
40	NICOL Jean-Pierre	1978	La Trinité sur Mer	GAVOTTES	2
41	PELLECUER Laurent	1974	Montpellier	ARNOLFINI.FR	12
42	PERON Eric	1981	Pont l'Abbé	SKIPPER MACIF	2
43	RATEAU Christophe	1960	Suresnes	SUADEO DECISIONNEL	Bizuth
44	ROUXEL Thomas	1982	Brest	DEFI MOUSQUETAIRES	3
45	SAMUEL Jérome	1972	Paris	OPERA EN PLEIN AIR	Bizuth
46	TABARLY Erwan	1974	Fouesnant	ATHEMA	8
47	TANNYERES Louis Maurice	1958	Saint Laurent du Var	NANNI DIESEL	Bizuth
48	TOULORGE Alexandre	1978	Caen	AUDITION SANTE	6
49	TREUSSART Ronan	1982	Saint  Brieuc	BLACK HAWK	3
50	TRIPON Armel	1975	Nantes	GEDIMAT	5
51	TROUSSEL Nicolas	1974	Plougasnou	CREDIT MUTUEL DE BRETAGNE	9
52	VENIARD Gérald	1970	La Rochelle	MACIF	5