Having paddled with the tides since last Monday along the brand new pontoons installed on the Quai de la Fosse, in Nantes, the participants in the 53rd edition of the queen of single-handed races have dreamed of a feat.
With the irrepressible desire to finally let go of their proud Figaro Beneteau 3. In the meantime, after a descent of the Loire in parade started Saturday from 12 p.m. to reach Saint-Nazaire, the departure Sunday at 3:40 p.m. in front of Saint -Michel-Chef-Chef will always and again be their only obsession.
The first 644-mile leg from Loire-Atlantique, bound for Port-la-Forêt, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, via a course brand off the coast of Wales, will be an appetizer to give them a idea of the immensity of the task they will have to accomplish until 8 September.
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Solitaire du Figaro: a podium of experience and promise
The 34 participants (including 5 women, 10 foreigners and 9 rookies), after normally only three days of rest, will indeed set off for a new big piece.
Direction Royan, which hosts the Solitaire du Figaro for the first time.
Before setting foot at the mouth of the Gironde, they must, throughout the 635 theoretical miles proposed, salute the Eddystone lighthouse, in front of Devon, the Channel Islands and the Chaussée de Sein.
Another course where endurance and lucidity will be the key words.
If the hierarchy of the provisional classification of the French Elite offshore racing championship is then respected at the end of this journey, where the rocks will be sneaky pitfalls, the tenors will still have something to tremble with.
Tom Laperche (Bretagne Region CMB Performance), Loïs Berrehar and Erwan Le Draoulec, from the Macif team, Guillaume Pirouelle (Normandy Region) or even Corentin Horeau (Mutuelle Bleue), know that victory in the general classification will always be a wish. pious.
On the final stretch, the vagaries of the weather, a radical option that can offer a hold-up to a daring competitor will perhaps be justices of the peace that can send their hopes to the cemetery of the pretentious.
The history of Solitaire, since its creation in 1970, has repeatedly demonstrated this.
There is no point in running, you have to arrive at the right time.
Outsiders, such as the Englishman Alan Roberts (Seacat Services), the Irishman Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan), or the volunteer Élodie Bonafous (Quéguiner-La Vie en Rose), who can win the much desired timpani.
In 2003 Armel Le Cléac'h had won the bet for thirteen small seconds to the detriment of Alain Gautier.
What to make them all dream
The third 700-mile leg - a double crossing of the Bay of Biscay from Royan towards Saint-Nazaire, via a course mark in front of La Coruña, Spain - looks terrible indeed.
It will make the luckiest or the most persevering exult, and the others cry, whatever their level, the Solitaire du Figaro being often ungrateful for its participants.
The time bonuses - five minutes, three minutes and one minute respectively for the first three at the intermediate marks - will be a drop in the bucket.
But let us remember that in 2003 Armel Le Cléac'h had won the bet for thirteen small seconds to the detriment of Alain Gautier.
Something to make them all dream.