Solitaire bound

This week Katie Miller heads to France to embark on her Figaro campaign

Britain looks set to have an unprecedented three entries in this year’s Solitaire du Figaro in Nigel King, Artemis' Jonny Malbon (who has been training in the south of France over the winter) and latest recruit, Katie Miller.

Sponsored by bluQube, Katie Miller, 22, has owned her 32ft Figaro Beneteau 2 for two years, having acquired from OC the boat Sam Davies once campaigned as Skandia. Last year she competed in the OSTAR finishing ninth and this year she will embark on her Figaro campaign proper, this week taking her boat down to St Gilles in France to begin training, an experience similar to leaving home for the first term of boarding school.

When we caught up with her last weekend, Miller said she has been busy over the last few days bringing her Figaro 2 back into class. This mostly involved changes to the electronics, replacing Raymarine kit with the class required NKE. “Sam [Davies] came down to the boat. She was in the UK, so I could ask her ‘what’s this bit for’? It was nice to have her cast her eye over it. She told me all the bits she took off when she sold the boat!”

Although it is close to the Beneteau factory where her Figaro 2 was constructed, St Gilles Croix de Vie is an unusual place to be basing oneself. However in recent years it has played host to La Solitaire and according to Miller the Figaro training base in La Rochelle (which Nigel King has used previously) is moving up there.

“There is supposed to be a new school opening there this year, but it is a bit slow to start off. There are a few guys down there who have said they’ll train together there before the Solitaire in July. Sam [Davies] was saying that in your first year it is better just to have a small fleet of two or three of you because you learn more rather than being in a massive fleet and trying to keep up.”

Last year Miller completed the OSTAR last year, coinciding nicely with finishing her degree – she got a 2.1 in the Yacht Production and Surveying course at Southampton Solent University. So she could be useful to Beneteau... However getting involved in Figaro training in France is like going back to school. From what she knows at this stage, the training in St Gilles sounds like it will not be as rigorous as it is in the ‘main’ Figaro training academy, the Pol Atlantique in Port la Foret where aside from on the water coaching there is a major shore-based curriculum along with daily fitness training.

“They are planning on having three or four weeks of ‘stage solo’ which is the solo training and they throw in a couple days of meteorology as well and then there are groups of three to four days which aren’t set, so you can go and do what you need to do - earn money, find sponsors, etc.”

In addition to the training, Miller’s main aim over these next weeks is to qualify for La Solitaire du Figaro which this year starts on 27 July and runs from Le Havre in northern France to Gijon, Spain, back up to Brest then on to Kinsale, Ireland before finishing back in Cherbourg-Octeville. To qualify this Miller has to complete, or ideally finish within 30% of the time of the winner, in three races. The first is imminent – the Solo Figaro Les Sables starting on 18 March. This has just been confirmed as still going ahead since the famous Vendee Globe pontoon in Les Sables d’Olonne was destroyed in a recent gale (it must have been some gale as the pontoon is 1-2 miles inland from the harbour entrance).

23-25 April there is the Solo Basse Normandie on the north coast of France from Christophe Auguin’s old haunt of Granville to Cherbourg, then the Solo portsdefrance.com from Concarneau on 2-9 May and the Quiberon Solo over 12-19 June.

“So there is at least one race each month leading up to the Solitaire. The only thing I can do is compete in every race there, regardless of whether it is a qualifying race or not, just to get up to standard,” she says, adding that she’ll return to the UK with her boat post Solitaire in order to fulfil her sailing commitments with sponsor. At present bluQube are backing her until the end of 2010 and then will review how it is going.

As to the ‘big one’, La Solitaire herself, this year there is record line-up of 73 entries pre-registered and of these 17 are in Miller’s position as ‘rookies’ – those competing in it for the first time.

“I have to remain realistic,” says Miller. “It is the first time I have competed against other Figaros even though I’ve had the boat for two years. I’m sure I have been sailing it below the optimum. I’d like to commit to the Figaro circuit for a few years to try and make the benchmark this year and try and improve next year and the year after.”

It sounds like Miller won’t have time to touch the ground when she arrives in France, but nonetheless the prospect of fully moving there on her own to train with a group of people she doesn’t know must be quite daunting? “Completely. It really is. In a spate of organisation I took my car down there and met everyone there in preparation. I went down with a couple of friends one of whom is a French speaker which made it easier. But I will get down there and get involved...”

There is also the no small matter of learning French which is also a priority. “I took German to A-level which was a mistake!”