In the early hours of Sunday 16th June, Artemis Offshore Academy Rookies Jack Bouttell (Artemis 77) and Ed Hill (Artemis 37) and Graduates Sam Goodchild (Shelterbox – Disaster Relief), Nick Cherry (Magma Structures) and Henry Bomby (RockFish) concluded the penultimate 436 mile Leg 3 of the 1,938 mile Solitaire du Figaro – from Gijon (Spain) to Roscoff (France) via Ile d’Yeu. At 1103BST Morgan Lagraviere took line honors after 2 days, 12 hours, 3 minutes and 55 seconds at sea, finishing the race some 24 hours ahead of schedule, followed by Nicolas Lunven and Xavier Macaire in third.
Credit : Artemis Offshore Academy/B.Carlin
In what is becoming 2013 Solitaire du Figaro fashion, Sam was the first British skipper to arrive in Roscoff in 14th, followed by Nick in 27th and Jack in 28th. Jack also picked up his second Rookie class win of the race after Leg 3, extending his overall lead on the Rookie division by 3 hours and 5 minutes and puts Jack in a strong position to take the Rookie win going into the final leg – if he pulls it off, he will be the first British sailor to ever claim the Rookie title in the history of the race. His closest rival, Claire Pruvot suffered a big disappointment when she was forced to head to land with a broken spreader. RockFish skipper Henry was the fourth Brit over the line to finish 31st, with Rookie Ed Hill not too far behind in 33rd, Ed also claiming the final spot on the Leg 3 Rookie podium despite problems with his autopilot.
“This is the second leg in a row where the forecast hasn’t been what it was supposed to be, it was surprising,” revealed Ed on the dock, going into Leg 3 ready for a long and light leg, to find a moderate breeze and a bruising 30 knots the other side of Ile d’Yeu. “The first day of racing was brilliant and I slept quite a lot, but as soon as the pilot failed (at Belle Ile) I haven’t had any sleep at all, just running downstairs to check the nav is difficult enough with the boat spearing out. I’m pretty knackered.”
The general consensus in Roscoff this morning was that the penultimate leg has been the toughest yet, with the area of high pressure expected to dictate the race never materialising, throwing all pre-meditated strategy out of the window and instead a particularly tough upwind stint from Ile d’Yeu to the finish line put pressure on the tired bodies and boats. Both overall race leader Yann Elies and Rookie Claire Pruvot, who sat just 5 minutes behind Jack in the Rookie division, fell victim to the strong winds and choppy seas off the northern French coastline, causing damage to Claire’s spreader and breaking Yann’s forestay, pushing him down the rankings into third overall after Leg 3.
“I found this leg pretty hard,” said a tired and delirious Nick, after one final tussle to the line with Jack and J.P Nicol, finishing between them both in 27th. “I didn’t have the weather situation clear in my head, so I was making decisions and going back on them, zigzagging across behind the fleet on the first leg and then I was a bit slow on the beat up here.
Last night it got quite breezy although I’m struggling, it is a little bit of a haze now. I need to collect my thoughts. It was pretty fresh when we came around Ile d’Yeu and then it picked up a bit. I am more tired than the other two legs, that’s for sure. I’m not talking a lot of sense!”
Nick was not the only tired skipper on the dock this morning with Sam, who after Leg 3 sits 10th overall in the overall rankings ahead of Armel Le Cleac’h and Michel Desjoyeaux, now looking forward to vital rest and recovery during the longest stop over of the race so far: “The Leg was a lot quicker than we thought it was going to be, but it was still pretty hard and probably the hardest of three so far. Finishing a day earlier means we’ve now got four days to recover in Roscoff before the next leg. After having three legs back to back (1270 miles), this longer rest period will give us more time to think about the final leg and what it actually means.” Sam is on track to score the best ever overall result for a British sailor, if the final leg goes well for him.
Sam, Nick, Jack, Ed and Henry set off on the fourth and final leg of the Solitaire du Figaro on Thursday 20th June, racing 514 miles from Roscoff (France) to Dieppe (France) to the final finish line.
They said:
Sam Goodchild
“It was a lot quicker than we thought it was going to be, but it was still pretty hard and probably the hardest of the three legs so far – mainly because there wasn’t really the opportunity to get much sleep. I’m pretty tired, a lot more tired than I was in the first two legs, but still pretty happy – 14th , you can’t complain about that.”
“One of my problems during the race was speed. I was 10th around Ile d’Yeu, but I just seemed to struggle with speed during this leg, I don’t know why. At least whenever I put my jib up I’m struggling, whenever I’m reaching or upwind and I’m not really sure what it is. It’s a bit annoying, but something to work on.”
Nick Cherry
“Generally I found this leg pretty hard. I didn’t have the weather situation clear in my head, so I was making decisions and going back on them, zigzagging across behind the fleet on the first leg and then I was a bit slow on the beat up here. But the end was good, me, Jack and J.P Nicol had a nice little tussle coming into the finish.”
“Last night it got quite breezy although I’m struggling, it is a little bit of a haze now, I need to collect my thoughts. It was pretty fresh when we came around Ile d’Yeu and then it picked up a bit. I am more tired than the other two legs, that’s for sure. I’m not talking a lot of sense!”
Jack Bouttell
“My race was fine. It was quite a lot different to what the forecast said. It was meant to be a complete drifter, but it was quite windy the whole way around. I was a bit slow on the first night, which didn’t help for the rest of the race really, but I kept plodding away.”
“There were no shut downs, whereas the two legs before were as some point a complete drift-off, so it was quite nice and a nice change from all that. There also weren’t too many tactical options. It was all just a straight line. The only tactical thing was the beat after Ile d’Yeu, up past Belle Ile where there was a big split in the fleet. Apart from that, it was all pretty straight forward.”
“It’s good to be on dry land again.“
Henry Bomby
“There wasn’t the big high pressure that we thought we might get stuck in and have to go around. In fact you could go straight through the middle of it if you wanted which is what some people did, and I didn’t. So I ended up going around the outside and I was 12 miles behind the leaders by Ile d’Yeu which was pretty painful. So that hurt, my strategy didn’t pay off. I should have bailed a bit earlier along with Yann [Elies] and Armel [le Cleac’h] who got wise to it quicker than I did. But you live and learn.
“I slept a bit on the first night, not so much on the second night because we were upwind in quite rough conditions, and you couldn’t put the pilot on so we were driving all night. Then with these really early finishes you don’t sleep because you have the approach into land and lots going on, so you don’t sleep for that last bit either. So I anticipated that and got some sleep in the afternoon.”
Ed Hill
“It was a classic Figaro leg where some of the guys had extreme pace, and I wasn’t one of them. I didn’t get a great start, but got back into it and overtook all the other Rookies and was looking pretty good up to Ile d’Yeu and then I did a pretty bad headsail change, lost a few places there and let Jack get back in front of me, which was a bit disappointing and then the pilot failed. So I spent the last 150 miles basically having to hand steer. I have got a spare one, but it’s not very good if you want to go anywhere… so that was entertaining, gybing without a pilot.”
“I am pretty knackered. The first day was brilliant and I slept quite a lot, but after the pilot failed I haven’t had any sleep at all, just running downstairs to check the nav is difficult enough with the boat spearing out. I had some weed on the rudder by the Chenal de Four and I was trying to get the weed off and the boat broached out and I was trapped to leeward with the boat careering off towards the rocks – so it has been tough to do anything apart from steering.”
Solitaire du Figaro Leg 3 results
1. Morgan Lagraviere/VENDEE/2 days, 12 hours, 3 minutes and 55 seconds
2. Nicolas Lunven/GENERALI/2 days, 12 hours, 22 minutes and 5 seconds
3. Xavier Macaire/SKIPPER L’HERAULT/2 days, 12 hours, 23 minutes and 10 seconds
4. Fabien Delahaye/SKIPPER MACIF 2012/2 days, 12 hours, 23 minutes and 53 seconds
5. Michel Desjoyeaux/TBS/2 days, 12 hours, 24 minutes and 25 seconds
6. Yoann Richmomme/DLBC/2 days, 12 hours, 28 minutes and 2 seconds
7. Adrien Hardy/AGIR RECOUVREMENT/2 days, 12 hours, 28 minutes and 53 seconds
8. Frédéric Duthil/SEPULMIC/2 days, 12 hours, 30 minutes and 29 seconds
9. Gildas Morvan/Cercle Vert/2 days, 12 hours, 31 minutes and 45 seconds
10. Jeremie Beyou/MAITRE COQ/2 days, 12 hours, 37 minutes and 19 seconds
14. Sam Goodchild/SHELTERBOX – DISASTER RELIEF/ 2 days, 12 hours, 59 minutes and 18 seconds
27. Nick Cherry/MAGMA STRUCTURES/ 2 days, 15 hours, 32 minutes and 37 seconds
28. *Jack Bouttell/ARTEMIS 77/2 days, 15 hours, 34 minutes and 31 seconds
31. Henry Bomby/ROCKFISH/2 days, 15 hours, 48 minutes and 56 seconds
33. *Ed Hill/ARTEMIS 37/2 days, 16 hours, 15 minutes and 23 seconds
36. *David Kenefick/FULL IRISH/2 days, 17 hours, 45 minutes and 23 seconds
From : Artemis Offshore Academy
