Summary of the race
39 skippers, including only one former winner (Nicolas Lunven on Generali in 2009), 11 rookies, 5 womenâeuros¦ This 47th edition of La Solitaire Bompard Le Figaro was very open at the start in Deauville. A good ten sailors could have won, five showed themselves to be above the rest and only one won. Out of the 1427 miles actually sailed, it was Yoann Richomme (Skipper Macif 2014) who won in a hard-fought finish, with only five minutes separating him from the 2nd place finisher e of the podium, Charlie Dalin (Skipper Macif 2015).
Ideas for the next edition
Already this year, the 47 e edition had already undergone some changes, such as a change of name to "Solitaire Bompard Le Figaro", new stage formats and a new pit stop in La Rochelle. Eric Bompard and Mathieu Sarrot take stock of this successful edition and look forward to the 48th edition e edition.
"In five years of racing the Solitaire, we have never had such a close finish. Five minutes after three weeks of racing, we can congratulate the sailors who have kept the suspense alive until the end. My second satisfaction comes from the choice of the host cities, a fundamental aspect of the success of the race. Deauville, Cowes, Paimpol and La Rochelle gave us a remarkable welcome, each in its own way [âeuros¦] Deciding on the future now requires a complete assessment of the event, which our teams will be working on. Our intuition is that this assessment will be very positive, a condition of our commitment. This will be an opportunity to rethink certain details on which we can still make progress in collaboration with OC Sport Pen Duick: size of the villages, organization of the prize-giving ceremonies, length of the stages, in particular at the start âeuros¦" explains Eric Bompard, President of Eric Bompard Cachemire.
"The sporting assessment is very positive. Some fears were legitimate at the beginning: the very short format of the course, the absence of big media names as in the past years, this final express stageâ?¦ Finally, this 47th edition required a lot of commitment from the skippers. Thierry Chabagny (Gedimat) summed it up perfectly by talking about the "first two stages of death" which wore down the fleet and generated a lot of gaps. It is also a Solitaire that has revealed many talents. The absence of the baobabs has illuminated a forest of very high level skippers! The Solitaire Bompard Le Figaro clearly remains a nursery of talent.â [âeuros¦]
The prospects for next year are good: successfully tested at the last stage this year, the Live video system will be developed . We want to go even further in this area to tell the story of the race from the inside, with the skippers. We don't know yet if the express format of the last leg will be a model. It worked well this year, but we need to discuss this point with our partners and the Figaro Bénéteau Class. What is certain, however, is that we will make sure to to inject a dose of open sea into the course, with a more offshore leg, favourable to options.
If our positioning in the media calendar deserves reflection for the even years we can already announce that the 48th edition of La Solitaire Bompard Le Figaro will take place next year in June. It will start from Bordeaux which has already hosted it twice in the recent past. Reconnecting with the dynamism of the teams and people of this great maritime city is a great promise." explains Mathieu Sarrot, Director of OC Sport Pen Duick events.
