Solitaire du Figaro: a question of choice of route

On board Express

The complex was announced, the random itou.

The truth of the morning no longer being that of the afternoon, Loïs Berrehar (Bretagne CMB Performance), very alert since the departure from Dunkirk on Saturday at 4 p.m., saw his superb fade a little while the first 24 hours of racing had struck.

Nothing rare for him, the classification at a time T freezing the fleet compared to the finish not giving the route chosen by all.

Having opted for a path along the coast during his Channel knitting, the 26-year-old skipper, second in the first stage, was however wondering about his little comrades located in the North, while the wind began to play the daughters of the 'air.

“The start was rather tonic along the coasts between Dunkirk and Calais, at night in addition, with a lot of tacking upwind.

So quite strategic.

Now, we are in the air.

We have passed Fécamp and the Alabaster coast and we are entering the bay of the Seine.

It's a different atmosphere.

I'm happy with what I did from the start because I think I'm still in the lead.

But the fleet was split in two and we will know who was right in the ranking broadcast on VHF at 4 pm by the race director.

The main thing is to be focused on the section that will lead us to Cotentin and Raz Blanchard.

Everything in its time."

Slalom between packages of seaweed, net poles and other trap buoys

The 33 sea workers still in the race have from the start slalom between bundles of seaweed, net poles and other trap buoys.

Seaweed in a dish of indigestible spaghetti clinging viciously to the appendages.

Number of competitors asking the clerk of the course for authorization to back up with the engine in order to be able to free them.

If that is not enough, you have to dive as Élodie Bonafous (Bretagne CMB Océane) had to do in the first light of day.

Relegating her to the back of the class.

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decided to cross the stretch of water to join the northern separatists located about twenty miles away, spraying the Italian pasta with its powerful engine in a boiled way.

Disturbing the debriefing of a group of northern gannets.

Soft petrol as they say.

The sea presents a few ridiculous fine lines when sails appear which wander under the almost upright sun.

First met, Éric Péron (French Touch).

The ranking has just fallen.

He wishes to be on the safe side.

Next important passage, the tip of Cotentin

“I'm a little offshore, in an intermediate race, and I feel like it's not bad.

Now I don't know where the others are because I can't see them anymore.

There are some who have probably made a lot of headway downwind, and then there is Yann who is up there.

The wind is picking up, that sticks to Météo Consult's forecast.

The wind will give way as we go and we will go under spinnaker shortly.

The questions are for tomorrow morning.

For now, I'm sticking to my strategy so as not to make bad plans with people I don't see.

I am the wind and we'll see.

I hope to be on the safe side. ”

The Yann in question was obviously Yann Éliès (Queguiner Matériaux-Leucémie Espoir), who, with Alan Roberts (Seacat Services) and Marc Mallaret (CER Occitanie), were the northernmost of the plateau.

Next important passage, the tip of Cotentin towards which all the competitors will converge.

It will give a little idea of ​​those who made the right choices.

16h ranking of the top ten

     24. Armel Le Cléac'h (Banque Populaire) at 9.41

     33. Élodie Bonafous (Bretagne CMB Océane) at 12.10

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