Why stretch your wet finger to the sky when you can check the weather forecast? Navigator Benoit Tuduri, winner of the last stage of the Solitaire du Figaro on Thursday in Piriac-sur-Mer (Loire-Atlantique), was excluded from the race on Saturday for having cheated using a mobile, announced the organizers.
The skipper of Capso – En Cavale “admitted that he had brought a second phone on board allowing him to benefit from an Internet connection, which absolutely contravenes all the rules of the race”, explained George Priol, judge of the Federation French Sailing (FFVoile).
Downloading weather data
According to the organizers, this 29-year-old Northerner used the phone “to download weather files”, which gave him an advantage over his competitors during a race “where sailors fight on equal terms on one-design boats”. “I made a serious mistake, I cheated on step three. I had the possibility of having a virtual SIM card on board allowing me to have weather files which reinforced my strategy,” wrote Tuduri in a statement sent to AFP.
“I don’t know what came over me… I put pressure on myself to achieve results (…) I draw all the consequences from this mistake (…) I am deeply sorry,” he added. The cheat was discovered following a check of the sailboats’ on-board computers. Benoit Tuduri, who was participating in his first Solitaire du Figaro, finished at the top of the “Bizuths” ranking at the end of the three stages of the famous race.
A second sailor disqualified
The skipper also crossed the finish line of the 1st stage in the lead at the beginning of September in Kinsale, but he then received a 30-minute penalty for having violated a packing rule (arrangement of weights on board the boat). The race jury was preparing to send a report to the FFVoile on Saturday, which could take sanctions up to the suspension of the skipper’s license.
Navigator Pierre Daniellot (Team Vendée Formation) was also disqualified from the last two stages of the race for having downloaded weather files, the organizers wrote in a press release. The two sailors were due to take the start of the double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre together aboard a Class40 at the end of next month.
With the exclusion of Benoit Tuduri, it is the sailor Victor Le Pape (Bretagne Region – CMB Espoir) who wins the “Bizuths” classification. The overall podium of this 54th Solitaire du Figaro, won Thursday by Corentin Horeau (Banque Populaire), does not change.
