First test for Artemis Offshore Academy rookies

Solo Concarneau Tropheé Guy Cotten takes place mid-March

Three British rookie solo ocean racing sailors are preparing for their biggest test yet, the 350 mile non-stop, singlehanded Solo Concarneau Tropheé Guy Cotten that takes place along France's Brittany coast.

This will be the first of three build-up races to the 2016 Solitaire Bompard Le Figaro race that takes place in June.

The race starts from Concarneau on 17 March. It will feature a fleet of up 25 British and French skippers, who will take two or three days to complete the course along Brittany's rocky coast, complete with its challenging tidal gates, including the infamous Raz de Sein.

For aspiring British singlehanders, Hugh Brayshaw, Mary Rook and Will Harris, the Solo Concarneau is going to be the first big challenge of the racing section of the Academy progamme.

Harris, 22 from Surrey, is realistic about what he can achieve in this, his first major solo offshore race. So far he and his two fellow British rookies have only ever practiced racing for up 10 hours alone, so a minimum of 36 hours at sea is going to be a big step.

“Considering I am a rookie, I think getting round the course without any major mistakes will be my priority,” said Harris. “I want to make sure I am on top of my navigation and that I am looking after the boat. I hope that will put me up there in the rookie rankings. I won’t be trying to win so much as trying to make less losses than everyone else.”

Brayshaw, also 22 and from Warwickshire, is feeling reasonably confident after some good practice races but he knows that after 36 hours at sea he will be in new territory. “Last year it was a very windy race and there were a lot of interesting calls on whether to use a spinnaker or not,” he said. “These are big decisions and after two days on your own on the water, decision-making can become a little less than perfect. This first solo race will be a learning experience for me.”

Mary Rook, at 29 is the eldest of the three rookie sailors, and she will celebrate her birthday at sea during the race. “I think I’ll have to take at least a couple of bottles of gin to make it a little less painful,” joked Rook who grew up on a dairy farm in Somerset. Like Harris she is not aiming too high in what will be a tough test of mind and body.

“I would just like to finish it and feel like I had been involved in the race and actually take some tactical decisions rather than just going round the course. Some of the other rookies we’ll be racing against in the Figaro are taking part in the Solo Concarneau, so it’s a perfect way to check in against them, and see where we are,” she said.

The rookies will be joined on the start line by Academy alumni sailor Alan Roberts, who clinched the highest ever finish for a British sailor in the modern Figaro coming ninth last year. Nick Cherry returns to start his fifth Figaro season, racing Redshift in his first competitive outing since his fifth place in the Generali Solo race at the end of last season.

For 2016, the Solo Concarneau organisers have also invited double-handed entries, to accommodate sailors taking part in the two-handed Transat AG2R La Mondiale, which starts two weeks later from Concarneau on 3 April.

Taking advantage of this opportunity to race together are Sam Matson and last year’s Figaro Rookie Champion Robin Elsey. Andrew ‘Hammy’ Baker will also race two-handed in the Concarneau race with French sailor Nicolas Jossier who’s been coaching the Academy sailors this winter, and who’s boat Baker has chartered for the 2016 season.