In an amendment posted Friday evening Yann Chateau, Race Director of the Solitaire du Figaro Paprec and OC SPORT Pen Duick told the 32 skippers the second stage to the Bay of Morlaix.
Rather than go to the Isle of Man which lies in the north of the Irish Sea, because of forecast light winds, the course has been shortened. Two options are posted which reduce the planned 620 nautical miles course by either 120 or 60 miles, the objective being to provide a fair, even course and have the fleet into Roscoff on Thursday 7th September as planned.
Topsy turvy weather picture
“We find ourselves in a fairly exceptional weather situation. The Isle of Man and the Irish Sea are renowned for relatively active depressions. But we are seeing a very widespread anticyclonic ridge over the Celtic Sea and the Iroise Sea, while there are low pressure systems off the coast of Spain, which is quite rare in terms of weather. The routing times are very long with arrivals announced between Friday and Saturday which then don’t allow enough rest time for the skippers at the end of the race,” explains the Race Director.
The first, the most optimistic and closest to the original route will therefore take the racers to the Chicken Rock lighthouse located in the southwest of the Isle of Man. The second, if the Figaros would struggle too much would take them on a shorter route to the Odas M2 weather buoy north of Dublin Bay.
OC SPORT and Yann Chateau will make the final decision before the first mark of the course, South Arklow, located in the south of Dublin, looking to a finish on Thursday.