Beyou the victor

First four boats home within 35 seconds at La Solitaire du Figaro's final leg concludes

Today at 10:49:01 GMT Jérémie Beyou crossed the line winning the fourth and final leg from Les Sables d’Olonne to Dieppe. BPI’s skipper covered the 437 miles in 72 hours, 37 minutes and 01 seconds. However it was one of the closest finish ever for the race, with four boats flying past the line in a little more than 30 seconds.

Second place went to Paul Meilhat on Macif 2011 12 seconds behind, third to Fabien Delahaye on Port de Caen Ouistreham, 28 seconds after Beyou and fourth to Erwan Tabarly on Nacarat 35 seconds from the leader.

By getting into Dieppe in first, and also scoring his third consecutive leg victory, BPI’s skipper Jérémie Beyou is the overall winner of the 2011 Solitaire du Figaro. Beyou victory is very similar to that last year of a fellow ex-IMOCA 60 skipper (at the time), Armel Le Cleac'h.

First Briton was Phil Sharp on The Spirit of Independence in 20th, while Conrad Humphreys on DMS finished in 30th at 13:26:28 and Sam Goodchild on Artemis was 33rd.

More follows...