Possible whitewash ahead for Gildas Morvan

Cercle Verte skippers lead, as one boat suffers a collision on leg two of the Solitaire du Figaro

Gildas Morvan ( Cercle Vert) continues to lead 48 hours into the second leg of La Solitaire du Figaro race in 15 knots of southwesterly wind and big seas and is just over 200 miles from the finish. The leaders are expected to round Ushant from 2200 this evening,

“We all have wind, some 15 knots so we are moving and the sea is quite rough so being knocked around a bit and then sadly, we have no sun," Morvan described the conditions." There is less traffic and then with the AIS you can at least forewarn when it is foggy. A fishing boat was heading straight for me last night, but then we managed to avoid each other with the flash of torchlights. I managed to get 20 minute naps so have recovered a bit and all is well. There is a little weather front coming up which means it should be quite fast along the Channel. Can’t see anyone else around and focus on my navigation, helming and the seaweed that could get caught up. It feels a bit like a transatlantic race at times and miss having someone close by at times to check performance, but then I am not going to turn round to go and find someone!”

The big news of the day has been the dismasting of Franck Le Gal's Lenze in the early hours of the morning. Jean-Paul Mouren ( M@rseillEntreprises) was able to relay the unfortunate news of Lenze’s dismasting to the Race Office boat in the early hours of the morning: A cargo ship collided with Lenze in the middle of the Bay of Biscay, 275 miles west of La Rochelle. Due to the impact, Lenze dismasted, but safe and sound her skipper was able to cut away the rig and is heading towards his yacht's homeport of La Trinité-sur-Mer. “We have been able to reach Franck Le Gal on the VHF - he is obviously upset about having to abandon the race, but he sounds well and he has the situation under control. He no longer has the mast, but has kept the boom and spinnaker pole in order to be able to build a jury rig,” explained Patrick Eliès from the Race Security boat.

The skippers have all been doubly vigilant while they have been crossing the Bay of Biscay, busy with all its maritime traffic. It should be emphasised that the boats have substantial electronics on board to prevent collisions such as AIS Automatic Identification System and Activ’Echo, an active radar transponder. However despite this equipment collisions can still arise.

Eric D’Hooghe ( FMC Recyclage-Thompson Recyclage) has also announced that he will abandon the race on this leg due to technical problems. D’Hooghe is heading to Brest to repair his boat and will do his best to get to Cherbourg in time for the start of the third leg next Friday.

Chasing the leader Gildas Morvan are 11 boats are within just two miles of each other. Nicolas Berenger ( KONE Ascenseurs), Gérald Veniard ( Macif), Gildas Mahé ( Le Comptoir Immobilier), Erwan Tabarly ( Athema), Christopher Pratt ( DCNS 97), continue to swap places as they gybe and hustle for the best angle of approach to Ushant. As Gérald Veniard puts it: “There are ten skippers bunched close together chasing down Gildas and, like on a cycle race, we face two major hills climbs: the Ushant and the raz Blanchard.

"We all know the Breton coastline well and what is going to be tough is that Gildas is going to get round it at the right time before it turns, while we will get there later and it is going to complicate things” adds Vincent Biarnes ( Côtes d’Armor) lying in 29th place, 20 miles astern of the leader.

British sailor, Andy Greenwood on Imtech, has gradually inched his way up the fleet and lies in 36th place ahead of Liz Wardley on Sojasun and fellow rookie sailor Adrien Hardy on Agir Recouvrement. 203.6 miles remained at 15:30 today to reach the finish in Cherbourg-Octeville and although it is too early to predict the ETA with two headlands to round and strong tides and currents to contend with, the first can be expected to arrive from 17:00 local time tomorrow on what Erwan Tabarly ( Athema) predicts to be “a coastal race from tonight onwards.”

Other skippers described what's happening:

Gérald Véniard ( Macif) “The Green Giant (Morvan) is getting a way, he is doing a “Troussel” on us! I have a cargo ship behind…last night was quite stressful up to the point where Franck had his accident. Navigation wise, there are a few options to take, and we are still a hundred or so miles from the right turn so have a few gybes to go yet. There are ten of use bunched quite close together chasing Gildas (Morvan) down.”

Vincent Biarnes ( Côtes d’Armor): “Not managed to sleep much, there was a lot of cargo traffic, which meant having to be really vigilant so am going to try and get some rest now. Up until now everything was played out in the run up to Finisterre when I opted for a course close to the Spanish coastline, which unfortunately did not pay off. Quite large caps were built and have continued to build. Gildas now has 20 miles on me and we still have a further 300 to go on which to try and catch up. “We all know the Breton coastline well and what is going to be tough is that Gildas is going to get round it at the right time before it turns, whilst we will get there later and it is going to complicate things. I think that we are still going to loose miles and then going to have to fight our way out around thee. Despite all this, the morale is good and the race has been fun, downwind, no sun but then at least it is not too rough. 50 or so dolphins came to pay a visit, which was really nice…”

Nicolas Bérenger ( Koné Ascenseurs)
“Like a good Mediterranean, I have put my sunglasses on, to at least make believe that there is some sun, but it is raining so it is really Britanny! I am making good headway under spinnaker and would have like a little more wind, but am not complaining. The minute you leave the helm the boat slows down. You do see some of the spinnakers around me performing better than others…It is really getting interesting now. It is as of tonight that it is all going to happen. I have not worked out how I am going to approach it yet, it is going to depend on what time I get to the headland.”