still led by Laperche, the fleet begins its climb along the English coast
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The fleet of 34 sailors is approaching England.
on boardExpress
This Tuesday morning, the sun rose without opening an eyelid. Here and there, scattered across the stretch of water towards the Isles of Scilly, a few colored spinnakers brighten up the uniformly gray atmosphere. The Channel is to be rolled up for the first time on this 53e edition of Solitaire. Fortunately for the 34 entered, the knitting is not in order, a downwind rocking their progress towards the Bishop Rock lighthouse, the second mark of the course.
The beneficiaries of the time bonus (5.3 and 1 minute) from the Chaussée de Sein brand, Tom Laperche (Brittany Region CMB Performance), Irishman Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa – Kingspan) and Englishman Alan Roberts (Seacat Services) were still in the lead at the milkman’s hour.
Just over 4 miles from these dispatch riders, in 5e position in the provisional standings at 6 a.m., Achille Nebout (Amarris-Primeo Energy) was relatively confident: “I’m pretty happy with my start to the race. I’m under spinnaker, a little luffed, at a dozen knots. The sea is a bit messy and slows the boat down, it’s not that easy. But things are progressing quite well for the moment, even if the wind has eased since we passed the Ouessant rail, and I’m a little afraid that it will become very capricious again before the Scillys. I managed to rest a little yesterday on the long edge towards the Chaussée de Sein, but it started to sting a little after two nights. We will have to find a way to find slots to get some sleep. For the moment, at the AIS, I see the two Toms who are not far ahead, Corentin Horeau (Blue Mutual) and Lois Berrehar (Skipper Macif 2022) are also progressing upwind, and I have a good pack behind me. It’s still super tight!”
“The last somewhat rotten transition of the stage”
As he participates for the 6e time in the Solitaire du Figaro, Corentin Horeau was therefore at the forefront. But he was wondering about the rest of the scenario, the spinnaker then returned to its bag: “We haven’t seen the sun since the start on Sunday but it was announced like that. The drizzle has just fallen, like last year at the passage of Scilly. It should be better from tomorrow. We made good progress last night and here we have just slowed down in a soft zone. We got closer to the first but you have to be concentrated because the little friends are just behind and it should settle down a bit. The famous rubber band. It’s good, it’s going to make a new start…”
The passage in front of Bishop Rock was going to be decisive according to him: “With the course reduction announced by the race director last night (559 miles instead of the initial 644, editor’s note), we are currently in the last somewhat rotten transition of the stage. The new virtual course mark passed, the wind should be regular until the end towards Port-la-Forêt. This was confirmed by reading the Météo Consult bulletin broadcast at 9 a.m. by VHF. A more sustained wind should be established at the end of the afternoon on Tuesday.
Tom Laperche was going to take the lead at low speed and in the chop the first English mark on the tack around 10.45am. A few blue clouds finally appearing. The ascent to the virtual mark at Lundy Island, in Welsh waters, would then take place over 75 miles.
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