Gearing up for the Solitaire du Figaro

45 solo skippers sail set on Tuesday. Among them will be Artemis' Jonny Malbon

The big one is coming up next week – the annual Solitaire du Figaro, the effective world championship of singlehanded offshore racing starts next Tuesday, 27 July from Le Havre.

Raced as ever in the 10.1m long Figaro Beneteau 2 one designs, conceived for the purpose by Marc Lombard, the course this year is divided into four legs:

This year 45 boats are competing, similar to last year but down from the 70-80 strong fleets of the mid-1990s. The Figaro class is one in which skippers tend to participate in year in year out (something of a fixture in the event, Jean-Paul Mouren will be racing his 24^th Solitaire this year) with several skippers from the IMOCA or ORMA fleets dipping back into it including this year – Kito de Pavant, Armel Le Cleac’h, Yann Elies, Jeremie Beyou and the return after a long absence racing her ORMA trimaran, having babies and then skippering Dona Bertarelli’s D35 Ladycat of Karine Fauconnier.

The line-up this year includes five past winners of the Solitaire du Figaro – Armel le Cleac’h, Jeremie Beyou, Eric Drouglazet, Kito de Pavant andlast year’s winner Nicolas Lunven. Disappointingly there is no Nicolas Troussel this year, who won the Solitaire in 2006 and 2008.  

We reckon that there are about 10-15 skippers who are in the frame for winning, which makes it as competitive as an Olympic class.

This year there are some oddities to the fleet. Compared to the 16 ‘bizuths’ or Solitaire first timers last year (a relatively high number) there are just eight this year. Among them are some highly potent entries including Portugal’s Francesco Lobato, who readers may remember beat most of the Protos on leg one of the Mini Transat last year about his Pogo Series boat. There is also the talented ex-470 sailor Anthony Marchard, winner of the Challenge Espoir Region Bretagne, the competition to win a Figaro campaign, emulating what Artemis have planned for 2011 in the UK.

Level of international participation, although never strong in this seriously competitive event, is down to five, including ex-America’s Cup sailor from Italy Pietro d’Ali, who has previously won legs in this event, solo round the world legend from Switzerland Bernard Stamm and the sole British entry, Artemis’ Jonny Malbon.

Having skippered the Artemis Ocean Racing IMOCA 60 in the last Vendee Globe, Malbon has since turned to the Figaro where he has received a distinct baptism of fire over the last 12 months. His first Figaro event was the Solitaire last year when he finished a lowly 45^th but since then he has been undergoing a major training regime down at the Figaro training centre in La Grande Motte in the south of France.

“It has been pretty full on for the last couple of months,” says Malbon. “A month and a half ago we had Quiberon, which was a pretty big first championship race, pretty difficult and technical. Definitely I feel a lot more comfortable going into it this year than I did last year. For me, as a result I think it will be a lot more fun than the last one. I am certainly a lot more relaxed. I couldn’t switch off at all last year, because I was pretty green and I didn’t know anyone. My first proper race was 52 boats in the prologue, so from nothing to that,  which was pretty mental.”

Down in La Grand Motte, training has been in a week on, week off format and Malbon and his Artemis have been working alongside typically four or eight boats (smaller than the Port la Foret centre where they typically have 20+). Among those training alongside Malbon have been Italian Pietro d’Ali, Kito de Pavant, Marc Emig, Tour Voile winner Jean-Pierre Nicol and Mini-turned Figaro sailor, Francisco Lobato.

“It has been invaluable just to be sailing with each other, boat on boat stuff, because until you do that you have’ve got an idea of where you’re at or where you are going wrong,” says Malbon.

So how has he been getting on? “It is a mixed bag. I am much improved. Sometimes I’m as fast or faster, depending on the day. The thing I have to work on now is consistency. I know I have the boat speed and my manoeuvres are alright, but on a course like Quiberon which is mainly bananas, if you make one mistake on a regatta like that you can lose 10-12 places. So I don’t feel I am missing anything in terms of boat speed it is just putting it together into a rounded package and increasing the consistency.

“In Quiberon the overall result wasn’t that flash, I think I was 30^th out of 36 or something, but I got some 23s-25s and at some point on some of the races I was up at 18th. It is just learning to keep that position and hold on to the position you’ve got and that’s when the consistency comes into place. If you make one mistake, suddenly six boats have gone past. All the hard work you have done on the start and a good beat, you can lose it very quickly on one rushed drop or a tactical cock up on the side of the course to take. But I am enjoying it, the feeling that I am actually progressing. I just want to keep at it.”

Such is the competition in the Figaro, that unless you are an accomplished Olympic sailor or your name is Franck Cammas, Michel Desjoyeaux or Jean le Cam, the Figaro class and in particularly its pinnacle event has the ability to make even good sailors look average. Reading the biographies of the entries this year, a lot have passed through the Mini fleet and even past Mini Transat winners such as Armel Tripon or Corentin Douguet, or those who should have won such as Isabelle Joschke, typically get results in the mid-20s.

“I don’t think I appreciated that,” says Malbon of just how tough the Figaro class is. “You think ‘it is just a boat’, but everything you do leads to a loss or gain. The boats are identical – pretty much. And everything counts. What I love about it is if you have a bad day, you can’t blame the boat. Everything is as a result of what you have done.”

So a year into a Figaro campaign one perhaps cannot expect too much. We put it to Malbon that another three years and he’ll be up there. “Exactly! If you look at the amount of time the good guys have been in the class it takes that long to be up there consistency. Even Sam [Davies] was saying that it was only after three years she was capable of a top 10 or top 15 position.”

“Having done lots of long distance offshore racing I think I made a mistake in the first leg last year in the Solitaire that ‘I don’t need much sleep - I can do three days easy without sleep’, but you actually find that the good guys are getting sleep when they are comfortable with the boat and when the pilot is happy. And that is why they are able to keep on at that pace. I made a mistake in not looking after myself even on a three day leg last year.”

The training is also race-specific. Last year Malbon had weather information from Chris Tibbs before starts but that was about it. This year the situation is much improved. “We have been doing plenty of stuff together as a group down in La Grande Motte. There is a road book we have put together as a group as well, so the course has been analysed and we’ve looked at danger points. Lots of other schools do the same and it is something that I didn’t have last year. This time we have looked at the course in depth at the course before we have gone and we’ll sit down as a group before and look at options and I think that is really crucial.”

While the Solitaire race course is in familiar waters – the Channnel, Bay of Biscay, Celtic Sea – the route changes annually and this year the tactical first leg along the north coast of France, around the Cherbourg peninsula and past Ushant, negotiating the tides en route, will be a make or break period of the event.

“The course I think is more difficult this year,” admits Malbon. “There is a lot more playing around the northern coast, the Chenal du Four, Raz de Sein. In a little boat it is a lot harder to get along the coast from Le Havre to Cherbourg as well and it will be a lot more tactical playing in rocks and trying to get out of the tide, especially if it is light. And there is a lot more of that on this one.”

Malbon realises that he needs to up his game tactically too. “One of the things I did wrong last year as well - and I think that is the result of the sailing I have done previously - is that I didn’t stick to the fleet enough. Instead I stuck to my own game plan. It is really difficult to keep on the pace when you have lost sight of people. This year I am not going to blindly follow, I’ll have a game plan for sure, but I have got to keep in touch with other people so you can gauge boat speed much more easily.”

So stick with Kito de Pavant and Pietro d’Ali? “If I can play with them I’ll be very very happy!”

While the Solitaire du Figaro starts next Tuesday, the prologue event takes place off Le Havre this Sunday.