With less than 100 miles to sail to the final finish line of the 55th La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec the 2024 title looks set to go down to the wire. After a brutal double crossing of the Channel yesterday, passing through a front off the English coast which saw gusts to 35-37kts and big seas, the exhausted leaders were doing all they could to keep up with the intense pace.
On the final evening of the three stage race the battle for the overall title still appears to be between Ireland’s Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan) and French ace Gaston Morvan (Région Bretagne-CMB Performance).
Holding a lead of 57 minutes over his French rival at the start of this 710 miles finale from Royan to La Turballe, Dolan was more than an hour behind when they passed Skerries Bank off Dartmouth very early this morning. But during the course of today he had pulled back to be within four miles of Morvan. And this evening as they pass the Raz de Sein Dolan is around 4.5 miles behind Morvan, equivalent to about 45 minutes at the speeds they are making, just less than 7 knots running downwind.
The winds are forecast to stay in to the finish line off La Turballe, which is on the Loire Atlantic Coast just to the NW of Saint Nazaire, expected to be around 10 kts from the NW although historically there is less overnight and in the early morning.
The leg winners are expected around 0400hrs-0500hrs local time.
Fifth in 2022 and fourth in 2023, now on his fourth La Soiltaire du Figaro Morvan, 27, has never won a stage on the race but right now has a fighting chance to surpass the record of his father Gildas who raced La Solitaire du Figaro for 19 years but never quite managed to win. Gildas was four times French offshore champion and racked up six stage wins and four podiums – third three times in a row from 1999 and second overall in 2008.
Dolan retains an equal chance of becoming the first international – non French - skipper to win La Solitaire since Laurent Bourgnon, the Swiss racer, did in 1988 when the race was still contested in half tonner yachts.
“I’m feeling a bit knackered right now, yesterday was a tough day. The wind came in from the cold front and I spent the day steering with a wind of 30 to 35 knots. I got a little break during the spell when we were close-hauled tack to the turn before the crossing back across the Channel.” Dolan reported this morning.
Morvan detailed around lunchtime, “I have never sailed like yesterday and last night solo on the Figaro BENETEAU 3. We had 30 knots of wind on the Channel crossing, it was just crazy! We had created a small break out front but for not much in fact. We will arrive at the Raz de Sein with an unfavourable current. If the wind eases, it will be complicated. I am not really looking at the classification, there are still a lot of things that can happen. The weather will decide what happens next. But there is a frustration of racing up with the right pack and then being caught by those behind. We now have to concentrate on the end of the course because the weather could still be tricky”.