Conditions abate

As Figaro competitors cross the Celtic Sea on leg 3 to Dingle

It is relief all round, for the competitors taking part in La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro's third leg from France to Dingle in Southern Ireland, as conditions have abated a little after a night of tough conditions that saw a strong nothewesterly breeze gusting up to 30 knots and two metre waves, that was uncomfortable to say the least. For some of the rookie sailors, it is a true baptism of fire, sailing at night for the first time in these conditions, very cold, wet and rough. It was a night where some stuck to the tiller, braving the elements while others left it to the autopilot, taking shelter in minimal comfort below. Any manoeuvres carried out either above deck or below become all the more perilous when the boat is regularly shaking and crashing down onto the waves.

The fleet, lying 165.8 miles from the finish at 2pm for the leader, has today entered the Celtic Sea having passed the Scilly Isles early this morning. The boats are positioned, for the main part, east of the rhumb line.

Conditions are now more comfortable, the wind having dropped to 12-15 knots allowing skippers to swap solent sails for genoas. “The sea is better than it was last night and the conditions are improving," commented Erwan Israel, the rookie skipper who is leading the fleet on Delta Dore at the latest report. " I have just put my genoa up after a really tough night. I had never experienced these conditions sailing singlehanded before. It is the cold more than anything that makes it hard staying on deck for more than 30 minutes at a time. I ended up spending most of the night below. I must say I got a bit down when we passed Ushant last night only to see we had another 250 miles of upwind sailing to do.”

Among the group furthest east, Delta Dore holds a narrow 0.1 mile lead over Gildas Morvan on Cercle Vert with a group of about 15 boats following within about four miles. Slightly further west, yesterday's leader Jeanne Grégoire ( Banque Populaire) in third is just 0.4 miles behind alongside Gerald Veniard ( Scutum). Thierry Chabagny ( Littoral) leads a third group slightly southwest of the leaders and is in 31st place with Alexis Loison ( Région Basse Normandie) close behind.

Finally two lone sailors have opted for the west; Liz Wardley ( Sojasun) and Jean-François Pellet ( Lubexel) doggedly continue on their western option, making up progressive ground on the leaders.

The next 24 hours will see a change in conditions. “Today, the wind will veer to the west, maybe even south west,” predicts Sylvain Mondon from Météo France, then from about 6pm the wind should come in from the northwest once again”. So, favourable for those to the wWest to start with…then those to the east after…Fred Duthil ( Brossard) confirms this: “Last night I decided to move further west and its is not going too badly, we will have to see though because they have announced it veering west and then north west tonight…”

The margins among the leaders are minimal and the battle for the best position, be it east or be it west on the approach to Ireland, has begun.

The VHF chat session from the competitors:

Fred Duthil (Brossard): "I tuned the autopilot well and so managed to spend most of the night below deck. I slept lots and feel great. I had a little incident last night when heating up some food. I put it in some hot water and went out to do something, forgetting to take it off the heat, so suddenly it just exploded in the cabin. There is just tomato sauce all over the place!”

Yann Eliès (Groupe Generali assurances): “It is upwind, wet and not funny. We are heading for Ireland where it is all going to come down to on the south coast. I changed my headsail for the genoa this morning. It was really tough last night. I can say that, reassuringly, it was not easy. I stuck it out to tune and trim the boat and the only time I had a nap, I missed a wind shift which Fred Duthill and the others made the most of. Even though I have experienced these sorts of times, you quickly forget them when you find yourself in them again.”

Gérald Veniard (Scutum): “Apart from the fact that it was my birthday yesterday, there has not been anything pleasant about this trip. You spend your time on all fours; it is not all that fun when you have to change your genoa or your headsail. I am cold and as soon as I can run with the autopilot, I stay below. To keep my spirits going I try and think about the green hills of Ireland.”

Marc Emig (A.ST Groupe):
“It was wet, but now it is beginning to dry up. I handled last night quite well, so am happy. I did hit my face, I was jumping quite a few waves and it was getting quite hairy, and I just could not keep a hold of the tiller. In the end I just decided to go below deck.”

Laurent Gouezigoux (Côtes d’Armor): “I lost some ground overnight. My solent came out of it’s groove and then ripped, so have lost quite a bit of time and face quite a few miles of upwind sailing. I put my lifeline on when I go up on deck. It is the first time I have sailed single handed in these conditions. Apart from the minor technical problems which are stopping me from concentrating on my strategy, it is not going all that badly”.

Sam Davies (Roxy): “Going really well, it has been a bit of wet night but not too bad because the autopilots are going quite well and I have managed to get some sleep. I just changed sails back the genoa now and trying to do everything as fast as possible to catch up with the leaders. It was not too bad last night, not too windy in the end and not too rough at the end. I have got AIS, so I can see all the ships, so it is a lot less scary in terms of crossing the shipping lane. I am happy as long as the weather does what is forecast to do, and you can never be sure about that but I seem to be with some good people around me. I am in good shape, but hungry, it is nearly lunchtime so it’s tabouleh with a coca cola some fruits.”

Positions at 1400GMT

Pos	Skipper	Boat	Lat	Long	Crs	Spd	DTF/L
1	ISRAEL Erwan	Delta Dore	50 28' 98' N	7 17' 58' W	328 °	6.8	165.8 nm
2	MORVAN Gildas	Cercle Vert	50 30' 06' N	7 16' 20' W	331 °	7	0.1 nm
3	GREGOIRE Jeanne	Banque Populaire	50 21' 12' N	7 24' 84' W	329 °	7	0.4 nm
4	VENIARD Gérald	Scutum	50 30' 66' N	7 14' 94' W	332 °	6.7	0.4 nm
5	TROUSSEL Nicolas	Financo	50 14' 04' N	7 26' 28' W	335 °	7.1	0.6 nm
6	DUTHIL Frédéric	Brossard	50 18' 12' N	7 27' 36' W	342 °	6.8	0.8 nm
7	DOUGUET Corentin	E.Leclerc - Bouygues Télécom	50 26' 46' N	7 16' 86' W	324 °	6.5	1.6 nm
8	de PAVANT Kito	Groupe Bel	50 29' 10' N	7 14' 04' W	333 °	6.9	1.7 nm
9	LE CLEAC'H Armel	Brit Air	50 18' 00' N	7 25' 02' W	339 °	6.9	2.1 nm
10	DROUGLAZET Eric	PIXmania.com	50 24' 90' N	7 16' 44' W	330 °	6.8	2.6 nm
11	DAVIES Samantha	Roxy	50 27' 30' N	7 14' 46' W	325 °	6.9	2.7 nm
12	PELLECUER Laurent	Cliptol Sport	50 25' 20' N	7 16' 02' W	326 °	6.7	2.7 nm
13	SVILARICH Etienne	Sogeti	50 26' 40' N	7 14' 82' W	324 °	6.7	2.7 nm
14	MAHE Gildas	Le Comptoir Immobilier	50 25' 32' N	7 15' 36' W	328 °	6.7	3 nm
15	TABARLY Erwan	Iceberg Finance	50 19' 74' N	7 21' 00' W	332 °	6.6	3.1 nm
16	CAUDRELIER Charles	Bostik	50 16' 08' N	7 24' 18' W	340 °	7.2	3.6 nm
17	d'ALI Pietro	Nanni Diesel	50 15' 72' N	7 24' 24' W	339 °	6.9	3.8 nm
18	ELIES Yann	Groupe Generali assurances	50 17' 10' N	7 22' 80' W	278 °	4.5	3.8 nm
19	PRATT Christopher	Espoir Crédit Agricole	50 25' 38' N	7 13' 98' W	332 °	6.8	4 nm
20	DICK Jean-Pierre	Virbac-Paprec	50 24' 96' N	7 13' 74' W	329 °	6.8	4.2 nm
21	TRIPON Armel	Gedimat	50 25' 80' N	7 12' 42' W	326 °	6.8	4.3 nm
22	TREUSSART Ronan	Groupe Céléos	50 25' 80' N	7 12' 78' W	328 °	6.8	4.3 nm
23	EMIG Marc	A.ST Groupe	50 19' 92' N	7 18' 12' W	328 °	6.8	4.5 nm
24	BERENGER Nicolas	KONE Ascenseurs	50 13' 68' N	7 24' 90' W	332 °	6.8	4.7 nm
25	PERON Eric	Cigo	50 22' 26' N	7 09' 36' W	330 °	6.7	4.9 nm
26	SEGUIN Damien	AltéAd Region Pays de la Loire	50 04' 26' N	7 35' 88' W	323 °	7.3	5.4 nm
27	MOUREN Jean-Paul	M@rseillEntreprises	50 11' 22' N	7 20' 58' W	330 °	6.5	5.6 nm
28	TOULORGE Alexandre	Starkey	50 17' 04' N	7 18' 66' W	334 °	6.7	5.9 nm
29	KRAUSS Oliver	AXA Plaisance	50 16' 38' N	7 18' 96' W	328 °	5.9	6.2 nm
30	LE GAL Franck	Lenze	50 18' 60' N	7 15' 72' W	336 °	7.2	6.5 nm
31	CHABAGNY Thierry	Littoral	50 08' 64' N	7 27' 84' W	327 °	6.5	6.7 nm
32	LOISON Alexis	Région Basse-Normandie	50 07' 56' N	7 27' 30' W	333 °	6.9	7.4 nm
33	AUBERT Jérome	La Normandise	50 07' 68' N	7 25' 38' W	327 °	6.6	8.2 nm
34	DEFERT Eric	Suzuki Autombiles	50 10' 08' N	7 21' 18' W	316 °	5.4	8.9 nm
35	ROUXEL Thomas	Défi Santé Nutrition	50 06' 54' N	7 26' 10' W	322 °	5.7	8.9 nm
36	LEBAS Christophe	Armor Lux	50 05' 82' N	7 24' 60' W	337 °	6.1	9.9 nm
37	NAGY Robert	Theolia	50 04' 98' N	7 25' 56' W	304 °	4.2	10 nm
38	WARDLEY Liz	Sojasun	49 44' 52' N	7 55' 80' W	309 °	6.5	11.2 nm
39	DA CRUZ Antonio Pedro	Baïko	50 11' 64' N	7 11' 40' W	326 °	6.7	12.8 nm
40	GOUEZIGOUX Laurent	Côtes d'Armor	50 03' 24' N	7 22' 14' W	249 °	5.5	12.9 nm
41	PELLET Jean-François	Lubexcel	49 45' 12' N	7 48' 90' W	320 °	7.4	13.5 nm
42	VACHETTE Vincent	SCO Saveur et Vie	49 59' 58' N	7 24' 72' W	329 °	8.3	14.1 nm
43	LE MIERE Grégoire	Man Of All Seasons	49 57' 48' N	7 21' 90' W	325 °	6.7	16.6 nm
44	LE BAUT Jimmy	Port-Olona	49 54' 48' N	7 19' 32' W	340 °	6.4	20 nm