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“I am proud to have endured”, were the first words of the Tom Laperche after almost 48 hours of regatta, which dominated during the last 130 miles of the route with start and finish at Le Sables d´Olonne and between the islands of Belle-Ile, Yeu and Ré and coastal routes. “This is an excellent first time for me. Winning a Figaro class regatta in my second year on the circuit is too good. Especially when I see the list of entries and starters who will be at the Solitaire du Figaro in September.”
The level of the sailors competing in the Figaro Bénéteau class regatta circuit is tremendously high. Its origins go back to 1990 when the organizers of the Le Solitaire du Figaro regatta decided that the new monotype for the coming years would be the Figaro Bénéteau designed by Groupe Finot and Jean Berret, with a length of 9.14 meters and 140 units. built. Which was replaced by the Figaro 2 by Marc Lombard in 2003, 10.15 meters long and 96 monotypes placed in the water; and in 2017 the current Figaro 3 appeared, 10.85 meters long and with lateral foils, designed by naval architects Lauriot-Prévost and Van Peteghem. A class through which 259 ocean patrons have passed and such as Jérémie Beyou, Pascal Bidégorry, Charles Cuadrelier, Thierry Chabagny, Clarisse Crémer, Charlie Dalin, Samantha Davies, Fabien Delahaye, Michel Desjoyeaux, Corentin Douguet, Frédéric Duthil, Yann eliés, Damian Foxall, Alain Gautier, Mike golding, Isabelle Joschke, Armel Le Cléac´h, Ian Lipinkis, Nicolas Lunven, Xavier Macaire, Gildas Mahé, Gildas Morvan,…; and that many of them are still in the gap.
The 17th edition of the Solo Maître CoQ Trophy has once again reactivated the activity of the Figaro class after the sail stoppage caused by COVID 19; A regatta regatta for the Figaro circuit and which featured the best figureists on the line, who will compete in the 51st La Solitaire du Figaro during the month of September.
Thirty solitaries lined up at the Les Sables d´Olonne exit last Thursday the 25th, little wind at the exit and 340 miles north-south, with the northernmost crossing point on the north of the island of Belle-Ile to end south at the starting point.
With a wind between 5 and 6 knots of intensity, the sailors measured their forces, with Achille Nebout with the “Be Green Ocean” being the first to command the fleet when they turned south of the island of Re after 10 hours of regatta, who He was chasing a compact group of five Figaro 3 moments before beginning the ascent towards Belle-Ile.
Across the island of Yeu it was Armel Le Cléac’h “Banque Populaire” that printed a strong regatta rhythm. Already over twenty hours of regatta, Le Cléac’h opted to sail along the seaboard to avoid running out of wind south of this island, sailing two knots faster than the group formed by Pierre Quiroga, Corentin Douguet, Tanguy Le Turquais and Phil Sharp; which they had to turn to the west to return to be in the group of head before being swallowed by the block of twelve Figaro 3 that were approaching quickly by stern.
It is 06:05 on Friday the 26th, 21 hours of regatta have passed and Armel Le Cléac’h takes first place when the fleet is 43 miles from reaching Belle-Ile and 140 miles from Les Sables d´Olonne, less half of the total of the 340 miles of the route. Six hours later the lead group is located in the extreme southeast of Belle-Ile and Le Cléac’h marches sixth after the “NF Habitat”, “Groupe SNEF”, “Bretagne CMB Espoir”, “Guyot Environnement” and the ” Skipper Macif 2019 ».
During the descent from Belle-Ile, the fleet had to head towards a buoy at sea and from there point to Les Sables d´Olonne, after passing through four tour buoys. In the arrival section, the spi were deployed taking the Figaro 3 at medium speeds aboard about ten knots. For Tom Laperche it was an anthological section: “Probably the most intense that I have ever done with spi. I even thought the ship’s mast was going to fall! The wind, very erratic throughout the test, rose to touch 30 knots. I admit that I squeeze my buttocks a little. “
Twenty-three years old, with only one season sailing in the Figaro Class, with a pack of heavily-rolled sailors at the stern; It seems normal for Laperche to shake his entire body. In each of the last buoys that had to turn towards the arrival he could feel the breath of his pursuers on the nape of his neck. Xavier Macaire, the sailor who won the last edition of the Solo Maître CoQ, who has been on the Figaro professional circuit for more than nine years, pressured him; as well as six other solitaires such as Corentin Douguet, Pierre Leboucher, Loïs Berrehar and Pierre Quiroga. But who was to snatch the victory was Sam Goodchild with the “Leyton”, the British flew down the leeward group of the chasing group to more than 14 knots trying to sneak before the finish line, he was about to get it, but Tom Laperche contained the attacks winning for just 20 seconds.
Once again it is shown that the sailors competing in the Figaro Class print an extremely demanding competition rhythm. As data, and seeing the arrival times in the general classification, the first nine crossed the arrival with a difference of ten minutes; and between the first and the eighteenth there was an hour.
For Armel Le Cléac’h, winner of the last Vendée Globe edition, an excellent winner in 2010; It was clear to me that this edition of the Solo Maître CoQ would be highly contested. He himself declared that he had come to fight for the head: “As expected, the tour was intense and the weather conditions varied at each crossing point, both in wind intensity and direction. I have slept very little, short periods of twenty minutes two or three times a night. We are still learning in terms of configuration and speed. The Solo Maître CoQ will allow to take stock and identify the work to be done in the coming weeks. The next regatta will be the Drhream Cup, on an interesting route between Cherbourg and La Trinité-sur-Mer, which will allow us to navigate in the areas that we will find during the next Solitaire du Figaro ”.
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