Staying a few miles offshore has offered a welcome dividend for Irish skipper Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan) as he leads the second stage of the 55th La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec after the first night at sea.
Dolan was one of the first to negotiate the cold front which came through in the early hours of the morning and with that getting into the stronger N’ly winds which see him reaching at just over 10 knots this morning. He is computed to be just less than a mile ahead of Alexis Thomas (Wings of the Ocean) at around 1100hrs this Monday morning.
After the calm of the start and into the night, the 36 solo sailors had to put on their foul weather gear for the arrival of the front. Less active than announced this front still generated winds of 15 to 20 knots, 25 in the gusts, all accompanied by a good rain. At the 7:00 am check-in this morning, Alexis Thomas (Wings of the Ocean), Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa – Kingspan) and Charlotte Yven (Skipper Macif 2023) made up the leading trio and were sailing under gennaker on the direct route, while at the back the last competitors had only just tacked.
All seem to have had the idea of taking this transition head-on as early as possible to be able to cross it as efficiently as possible and get out of it just as quickly.
At 7:00 a.m Thomas had a 15.6 mile lead over race leader Basile Bourgnon (Edenred), 17th and 24.6 over Camille Bertel (Cap Ingelec), 36th. The entire fleet is now sailing on a tack approaching Isla Sisarga Grande, which the sailors should reach in the afternoon, if this pace continues.
They said:
Alexis Thomas (Wings of the Ocean): "The wind at the start, ahead of the front, was a bit complicated. We had to go and find this cold front by pulling the helm. We had to cut it as perpendicularly as possible. Now that it is behind, we have had a big shift to the right, which allows us to head under gennaker towards the islands. First we had a thickening of the cloud mass, then heavy rain and this sudden shift. In 10 minutes, we had 40 degrees of shift to the right. It's nice to be up at the front of the pack.”
Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa – Kingspan): "We have about twenty knots of wind, but with a lot of rain. I'm happy to have managed to do what I wanted in terms of positioning. I managed to gain well in the west to reach the front. I didn't think it would start like that and so quickly. I'm happy with what I did. There are still a lot of things that will happen, the road is long. The wind will gradually ease and lift we will be able to hoist the spinnaker. I'm taking advantage of this tack to rest a little, the boat is moving forward on its own. I'm in great shape to attack this day"
Charlotte Yven (Skipper Macif 2023): "I'm at the helm on a tack that feels good compared to this somewhat slow start to the race. The front passed not long ago and now, it's going well under gennaker, there's water everywhere on deck. We had to position ourselves almost from the start of the course, it was very interesting. We had to have this front passage in our heads to deal with it. I think I did well. I think it's the first time I've had such a good start to a stage. I have four boats on the AIS, there are a lot more behind",