Special envoy on board Express
The outcome of this 52nd edition of the Solitaire is near. They were all eagerly awaiting sunrise on day four of the race. Still progressing under spinnaker along the southern coast of Brittany, the fleet was well dispersed like a puzzle, with a maximum lateral gap of a dozen miles depending on the options. If Pierre Quiroga (
Skipper Macif 2019
), the leader of the general classification, marked Tom Laperche (
Bretagne CMB Performance
) by being the furthest offshore of the Glénan archipelago, the big news of this morning's classification saw the return of the three solo sailors having chose a more direct route from the Irish coast. Pierre Le Boucher (Guyot Environnement-Ruban Rose), Tom Dolan (
Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan
) and Xavier Macaire (
SNEF Group
). The latter having passed as close as possible to the tidal wave of Sein thus had the advantage over the goal.
Xavier Macaire, whose voice had not been heard for more than two days since
Express,
was rather reassured about his positioning:
“We still have a little wind, we are taking advantage because it should ease during the day. After the Fastnet, I wanted to be fairly close to the direct route, I favored the approach edges, while being well in phase with the wind shifts. I do not see where the competitors are, I have the impression that they have remained more centered. On the rankings, I saw that it gained a moment, that it sometimes lost and this morning it regains. But it's not over, even if I'm happy to be 2nd in the standings this morning. I'm pretty happy to be still good in the game. "
The sequence of events being still very vague, he was about to deliver the last fight: “
It is not easy to have a clear vision of what will happen today. The files are global info, so site and thermal effects should be guessed. A lot can be played out a few miles from the finish. I try to shift a little under the direct route in the idea of not getting too close to the earth and the soft. For now, it's sliding in a northerly wind with good speed. I took a little nap and I'm going to go back because the wind is stable and I would like to save some energy for the end of the race. It's going to be a great course today.
"
Gildas Mahé (
Breizh Cola
), the oldest of the race with his 46 years, was in the middle of the extremes. Not unhappy with his position at the end of the night:
“The main thing is that the swell has calmed down. We are still under spinnaker and we are investigating the descent towards Saint-Nazaire. The night was very busy, we found the algae and there is work. I did a lot of backspring to get them off the keel. Last night, the wind was a little unstable with sometimes 15 ° oscillation. So I was very much in the settings. We found our friends that we had lost three days ago, Xavier, Tom and Pierre. I don't have them at AIS but I can see their lights. This morning, we are on a tie line towards the goal. There is Macif 2019 downwind, Fabien Delahaye (Gilbert Group) and me in the middle, and Xavier closer to the coast. I'm still 90 miles from Saint-Nazaire, but I don't think we will arrive very soon. We'll see if there's a breeze.It's going to be another big day, full of twists and turns. "
Listening to the 9 a.m. weather forecast, when all were therefore heading further offshore, the 34 solo sailors knew that their progress could be disrupted during the day in areas of very weak winds depending on the influence of thermal breezes. . At the end of a marathon stage of 685 miles, the finish is estimated between 11 p.m. this Thursday and 2 a.m. on the line in front of Saint-Nazaire.
