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Solitaire du Figaro fleet reaches Brest

Following Armel Le Cleac'h second leg win so a determined Francisco Lobato (ROFF/TEMPO-TEAM) finished sixth overall and is the first rookie, getting also a special prize awarded by Bénéteau, and regaining morale after his disappointing first leg.

“I’m really satisfied, tired but happy as I reached my target," said Lobato. "For the first time in the Solitaire I’ve always been in the leading group. The hardest part was at the beginning where I could not get any rest, had to helm all the time and I was pretty exhausted, I found it difficult to get into the race’s rhythm. I slept for hours total, I guess. I’m still on a learning curve, grasp something new everyday, especially from the “experts” and that’s why is so important for me to be here. I still make small mistakes and in this class you pay for each of them dearly. The final part was brilliant as I could make up ground to the leaders.”

Despite losing some ground on the final stretch to Brest, Italian Pietro D’Alì finished 16th place, while other non-French skippers were Swiss Bernard Stamm (Cheminée Poujoulat) in 23rd and Isabelle Joschke (Synergie) in 27th.

“I did a good race, all in all," said d'Ali. "I’ve recovered well from the OCS at the start, was fast and could stay in the front of the fleet, among the top ten. We had fairly hard conditions, some bad squalls. During one I was sailing with the spinnaker in Eric Drouglazet’s company when the wind gusted suddenly to maybe 40 knots, the boat went 90° off course and I had to rush forward to take down the spinnaker and hoist the genoa, in the process the boat was lying on one side… we got pretty wet and lost some ground. You can’t afford any of that in the Figaro. My race was all right up to the Groix, then I tried to “make a coup” and get closer to the podium.”

A fatigued Jonny Malbon finally crossed the finish line in last place at 12.36 on Friday. Reaching the pontoon, he was warmly welcomed by several of his competitors, by the public and the media, where, despite being visibly worn out he gave a very lucid account of what happened to him, explaining that just two hours after the start form Gijon his pilot failed and he had to steer for the following three days, without being able to sleep, rest, eat or drink. Physically and mentally exhausted he also suffered from allucinations.

Jonny Malbon (Artemis) last placed in Brest said: “Just after the start in Gijon the autopilot started misbehaving. I went on the process of checking everything, the terminals, the connections, the link to the instruments but the thing was dead. I tried to continue as best as I could with no pilot, it was horrible. The scariest thing for me was changing from the genoa to the solent in big, big seas in 35 knots, it was horrendous, not very much fun… I’m just absolutely exhausted, it feels horrible, I’m happy to be here but being flat last is not good. I haven’t slept at all, or better I must have been asleep but I didn’t realize. I haven’t been down below at all, haven’t eaten very much. I’ve crashed tacks so many times and gibed involuntarily trying to use the pilot. I’m happy to be here and I hope we can fix the problem and get on with leg three. It’s quite strange actually and it may sound like I’m crazy but I had hallucinations, all sorts of things: the waves take funny shapes, the boats and lights merge, they all merge into one and the look like cars… The worst time was when the weather got worse, Tuesday I guess, and we were having 35 knots in the evening. I spent all day thinking I don’t want to change the sail because it’s not windy enough. I waited and waited and changing the genoa in about 28 knots is really frightening…the waves are huge and at that point I wish I had done it sooner. To do that I turned the boat into the wind and the tiller was not operating, that was ok to go forward and change the sail or put a reef. I’m very, very tired and I’m upset that I lost a leg, I just can wipe leg 2, it’s gone and that’s going to affect me overall. Sad because I started well I was with the rest of the fleet on the right side of the course. I’ve virtually lost the race, I’m flat last with no chance to recover. The next two legs are just about me doing my best…”