A short inshore race in front of Gijon, and off they go.... Before heading towards St Gilles Croix de Vie, the 36 solo sailors (Anthony Marchand has now officially withdrawn) will negotiate an inshore triangle of 8 miles which will roughly take an hour and a half before pointing their bows towards the French coast. The start gun was fired at 12.30pm today.
The sun is shining in the Spanish city of Gijon this morning, and the first Figaro will leave Marina Yates' docks at 10:15am before leading the fleet out to the starting zone. A light north-north-west wind is expected to accompany them throughout this coastal race. The first mark rounding will be just 1.5 miles off the start, putting the emphasis on slick boat-handling skills for the solo skippers. After a dog-leg, sailors will then sail downwind to Gijon's buoy, before tacking and heading to the East Cardinal of Los Amosucas, which will be used as a gate for the Radio France position rankings.
This inshore race of 8 miles is not just for show, with the Figarists key to gain an early advantage. A zone of high pressure offshore the Spanish coast will be the first main difficulty sailors will face on this second leg. Skippers who manage to get away from the Spanish coast in the lead will thus encounter the south-west wind first and be able to hoist spinnakers, potentially holding them until the Sein's waypoinSt.
Speaking yesterday Sam Goodchild (GBR, Artemis 23) yesterday commented on the expected conditions: “I think the first 12 or 18 hours of race will be difficult trying to escape with no wind off the coast of Spain and the high pressure, the after that the wind will be south-westerly for the whole race! I think there will be lots of activity with the clouds and small shifts. and playing those. Generally a lot more simple than the first leg, but then we're going round the Raz de Sein with 90% coefficient so it could be quite rough. It should be fun hopefully.
“I feel happy. I think I'm ready. I'll try to do better that in the first leg, but you can play games in your head all day and I'm trying not to. I just try to approach it like any other race, trying to sail fast and in the right way and try not to make silly mistakes. I'm a bit disappointed being 25th, so the pressure is coming from me and not from anyone else.”
From : La Solitaire
Credit : A.Courcoux
The sun is shining in the Spanish city of Gijon this morning, and the first Figaro will leave Marina Yates' docks at 10:15am before leading the fleet out to the starting zone. A light north-north-west wind is expected to accompany them throughout this coastal race. The first mark rounding will be just 1.5 miles off the start, putting the emphasis on slick boat-handling skills for the solo skippers. After a dog-leg, sailors will then sail downwind to Gijon's buoy, before tacking and heading to the East Cardinal of Los Amosucas, which will be used as a gate for the Radio France position rankings.
This inshore race of 8 miles is not just for show, with the Figarists key to gain an early advantage. A zone of high pressure offshore the Spanish coast will be the first main difficulty sailors will face on this second leg. Skippers who manage to get away from the Spanish coast in the lead will thus encounter the south-west wind first and be able to hoist spinnakers, potentially holding them until the Sein's waypoinSt.
Speaking yesterday Sam Goodchild (GBR, Artemis 23) yesterday commented on the expected conditions: “I think the first 12 or 18 hours of race will be difficult trying to escape with no wind off the coast of Spain and the high pressure, the after that the wind will be south-westerly for the whole race! I think there will be lots of activity with the clouds and small shifts. and playing those. Generally a lot more simple than the first leg, but then we're going round the Raz de Sein with 90% coefficient so it could be quite rough. It should be fun hopefully.
“I feel happy. I think I'm ready. I'll try to do better that in the first leg, but you can play games in your head all day and I'm trying not to. I just try to approach it like any other race, trying to sail fast and in the right way and try not to make silly mistakes. I'm a bit disappointed being 25th, so the pressure is coming from me and not from anyone else.”
From : La Solitaire
