Morvan wins but Troussel extends his lead

An update from the Solitaire du Figaro with all the boats now into Cherbourg

While Gildas Morvan and his Cercle Vert are the worthy winner of the second leg of the Solitaire du Figaro, Nicolas Troussel ( Financo) has managed to further extend his lead in the accumulated overall time. However behind him, the second and third positions have changed after leg 2; Gildas Morvan has knocked Christian Bos out of second and is 6 hours and 18 minutes behind, with Erwan Tabarly ( Athema) taking third from Frederic Duthil ( Distinxion Automobiles), 7 hours and 33 minutes from the leader. All three skippers are hugely experienced and can count 29 participations between them in what is widely acknowledged as the toughest race on the Figaro circuit.

Troussel described his leg to Cherbourg: "I chose to go close to Finisterre, which did not really pay off in the end. There was the option to go there, I had the wind, but then I found myself fighting against the tide, which neutralised any advantage I had. The pressure was actually further north and not west as initially expected. Then close to Ushant I decided at the last minute to round further offshore, which was a mistake because I ended up doing more miles for nothing.” In the Bay of Biscay “I did not have any problems with the traffic, managed to get an average one hour sleep per day in ten minute naps.” For the last part I played close to shore near the rocks along the Cotentin coastline, then along the bank, which produces some strange waves, one actually wiped over the stern of the boat flooding the cabin! Then it was a gybing game passed the rocks to avoid the worst of the current. To do this I actually spent most of the time stuck to the maxi.”

The big loser from this second leg was Christian Bos ( Région Midi Pyrenées) who finished 43rd relegating him to 32nd overall, effectively losing a further eight hours to the leader. The big time that leader Troussel has secured gives little room for the remaining 47 competitors to make a come back on the last leg. The fight for second and third spots on the podium however, will be fierce. The top and most experienced, up to 16th placed Italian Pietro D’Alì ( McLouis) are within four hours of each other and all eyeing the remaining podium spots. The usual suspects are all there: Frederic Duthil, Christopher Pratt, Jeanne Grégoire, Nicolas Bérenger… and so the list goes on. Interestingly this year, the leads are very extensive, each year a win comes down to a matter of minutes or seconds (Armel le Cleac’h famously beat Alain Gautier by just 13 seconds in 2003), however this year we can look at it in terms of hours.

It is a reverse situation for the rookie sailors. The competition in terms of time difference is much closer, both François Gabart ( Espoir Région Bretagne) and Adrien Hardy ( Agir Recouvrement) finished within 4 minutes of each other on the first leg and just 5 on the second. The race from Vigo to Cherbourg was tough on the fleet of rookies, Maiko Szekely ( Région Basse Normandie) secured the top spot, but was 28th into port followed by Briton Andy Greenwood on Imtech. The current standings show François Gabart holding a 9 minute, 33 second lead over Adrien Hardy and a 2 hour 35 minute and 53 second lead over Andy Greenwood. The game is open in this class and the third decisive leg will produce the Bénéteau Rookie winner of this, the 39th edition of La Solitaire du Figaro.

The third and final leg will settle this and produce the 39th Solitaire du Figaro champion. Next up is the 825 mile leg from Cherbourg, Normandy to l’Aber Wrac’h, Brittany, with one major mark to round - the Isle of Man up in the middle of the Irish Sea. The start is on Friday 8 August at 14:00 local French time.

Sojasun skipper Liz Wardley said : "It has been a funny race so far this year. The legs are longer, which is cool, but then you do not have the weather information so you can’t get any GRIB files. It is like you are put out to do offshore racing but do not have the tools to do it. Then the other thing is that you do not have the positions of the others in the race. You end up leaving at the start with a strategy and plan that you work to but then the weather changes and it is no longer applicable. It is great to have longer legs but then to do it well you need to get more weather information. There is little point playing tactics when your weather is no longer current after 24 hours.It is always cool to race solo though, just not with such limited information. On the last leg I missed a ship by 10 metres, suddenly I had to luff up and it was quite a close call. I suffered a bit of damage to my spinnaker pole - it snapped round the forestay, so I managed to fix a brace but then the second time it broke, I had to cut part of the end off and it was one thing I did need for the long spinnaker reach across the Bay of Biscay. That was my little Mc Gyver moment!

"The overall rankings are finished for me and right now I am concentrating on the last leg and going to enjoy it. The last one, you just have to see as a whole separate race in its own. It is going to be a tricky one.”