On Saturday, May 30, after a week of festivities in Bordeaux, the 39 sailors competing in the Solitaire du Figaro left the city of the Grand Départ. They went to Pauillac, to run the Eric Bompard Cachemire Prologue before taking the start of the 1 re stage, this Sunday, May 31 at 5:00 pm. Competitors will set off from the Gironde estuary for the first stage, reaching Sanxenxo, Spain.
Xavier Macaire, winner of the opening Prologue on the Gironde
On Saturday, the sailors opened the ball with the traditional opening regatta, on the mode of a race against the clock, until the Aquitaine bridge, in the heart of downtown Bordeaux. And it was Xavier Macaire (Skipper Hérault) who was the fastest with a time of 38 min and 25 sec, ahead of Thierry Chabagny (Gedimat) and Jeremie Beyou (Maitre Coq), the defending winner of the event.
Going down the Gironde river to the Pointe de Grave
To begin with, the solo sailors will have to sail down the Gironde and juggle with the sandbanks, the channel buoys to be respected, the current or even the floating tree trunks. Concentration will be required if they do not want to run aground on a bank in the estuary, as a rookie did two years ago. This course of about 30 miles will take them out to sea.
"The beginning of this leg is the biggest difficulty. Leaving the estuary with a current, not necessarily a lot of wind and sandbanks, buoys to respect. The danger of running aground and missing a buoy is a figarist's nightmare. Once we have passed the southern pass of the Gironde, there will be a big relief! We will try to go west right away to look for a tilt. The routings make us go around the parish. I like this kind of stage. The more complicated it is, the more transitions there are, the happier I am" said Yann Eliès.
Once offshore, the sailors will have to quickly look for a wind shift to the west, which will then allow them to descend towards the direct route, i.e. Cape Finisterre. From Monday, the weather should change and the skippers will have to avoid a windless zone. Finally, on Tuesday, the wind will be back, and they will have to find windless areas again as they approach the Spanish coasts.
"The very first part of the leg will be extremely demanding in the estuary, but also on the approach to Cape Finisterre. The first difficulty will be not to miss any of the buoys on the way down the Gironde, there are about twenty to be respected, and the second, to manage to get out of the currents. The first night will be difficult because there will be a soft patch, and then a lot of sailing in the Bay of Biscay. We can expect the fleet to spread out over the water, which is quite rare. The arrival at Cape Finisterre should be tricky and during the last 125 miles along the Spanish coast, the skippers will have to play with the onshore breezes and the synoptic. I expect a leg where there will be gaps at the finish." explains Gilles Chiorri, race director.
Follow the race
For aficionados who could not reach Pauillac to follow the race from the banks of the Gironde estuary, the start will be broadcast live from 4:55 to 5:50 pm on France 3 Aquitaine, Bretagne, Haute-Normandie, Basse-Normandie, Pays de la Loire, Poitou Charente. The official website of the race will also broadcast the start live, but also daylimotion. On the radio side, France Bleu Gironde or France Info will follow closely the departure of this 1 re stage of the Solitaire du Figaro.
