Upwind along the Breton coast

As the race only female skipper breaks a spreader

Yesterday evening at around 2000 UTC, the 40 strong Solitaire fleet was led around Ile d’Yeu by Morgan Lagraviere on Vendee. But rounding still within a mile of the former 49er sailor were Nicolas Lunven on Generali, Fred Duthil on Sepalumic, Xavier Macaire on Skipper Herault and Julien Villion on Seixo Habitat.

Positions at 0548 UTC 

Sam Goodchild on Shelterbox-Disaster Relief was still the star player among the British contingent rounding Ile d’Yeu in 10th place around 1.3 miles off the lead, in the company of solo offshore racing royalty such as Michel Desjoyeaux on TBS and Jeremie Beyou and Maitre CoQ.

45 minutes later the next Brits to pass the island were Nick Cherry on Magma Structures in 24th, with leading rookie sailor Jack Bouttell on Artemis 77 on his transom in 27th and with Ed Hill on Artemis 37 a further half mile back in 28th. Henry Bomby's Rockfish was holding 33rd just ahead of the only woman in this year’s Solitaire, Claire Pruvot on Port de Caen Ouistreham with David Kenefick on Full Irish in 38th rounding at 21:40 UTC.

Since then the wind has continued to veer into the west, putting the boats on a port tack fetch up the familiar waters of France’s Atlantic coast. At around 0600 UTC this morning as the bulk of the fleet was due south of Belle Ile as the wind further headed them, forcing the boats to put in a tack offshore before continuing on their way.

By tacking offshore further than some, Morgan Lagraviere has temporarily lost first place to Adrien Hardy on AGIR Recouvrement, with Fabien Delahaye on Skipper MACIF 2012 and Julien Villion alongside him. However these latter three boats are further inshore and will have to put in a losing tack out to the west in order to round Pointe de Penmarch. But the Bay of Concarneau are waters the Figaro fleet knows exceeding well, for the leading Figaro training centre in Port la Foret is based here. This is where Sam Goodchild and Henry Bomby have been working out of this spring.

At the 0548 UTC sched Goodchild had dropped back a little, down to 13th but still with the likes of Jeremie Beyou and overall race leader Yann Elies on Groupe Queguiner-Leucemie Espoir in his rear view mirror. Nick Cherry was holding 25th place having chosen to make his tack west short, shaving the western coast of Belle Ile. Jack Bouttell lost out tacking offshore for longer and he’s down to 31st, alarmingly with Claire Pruvot, his main rival in the overall rookie standings, now two miles ahead of him having stayed close to Belle Ile. Henry Bomby has followed a similar route to Bouttell.

Tired coming up to the end of their second day at sea, the competitors now have some of the trickiest sailing on this leg ahead of them. After Pointe de Penmarche they must pass the notorious Raz de Sein with its powerful currents and overfalls. They then continue on for the Chenal du Four between the island of Ouessant and the northwesternmost tip of France. Again this is a potentially treacherous rock strewn passage. Fortunately this coastline is bread and butter for Figaro sailors, an area with which they are all extremely familiar.

The forecast has the wind building to 20 knots but backing slightly into the west-southwest as they head up the coast before backing further into the southwest tonight making for a fast run into the finish.

Rig damage for Claire Pruvot

At 0835 local time today (Saturday), Claire Pruvot reported to the Race Director of La Solitaire du Figaro Eric Bompard cashmere that she was heading for Lorient, with a broken spreaderm.

The incident occurred as Pruvot, the only woman competing in this year’s Solitaire, was passing Belle Ile and, sadly, just after she had pulled into the lead of the rookie division with British rival Jack Bouttell having tacked offshore.

The spreader broke on the port side, threatening the integrity of Port de Caen Ouistreham’s rig. Pruvot tacked, dropped the sails and secured the mast using all her available halyards. She is currently motoring towards Lorient, where she was expected to arrive in Lorient at around 1400 local time. There she will attempt to make a ‘quick fix’ to the spreader, enabling her to leave as soon as possible for the finish of leg 3 in Roscoff.