In the week before the start of the Solitaire Urgo le Figaro, we met Yann Elies on his Figaro 3 St Michel moored on the quays of Nantes.
It's your 19 e participation in the Solitaire du Figaro. Why after so long, do we keep coming back to it?
You're in need when you're not doing Solitaire. We're so desperate that I was already thinking about it on my Vendée Globe when I was sailing up the Atlantic in 2017. Every time, it's about questioning yourself. Without necessarily starting from scratch, it puts things back on track with the same boat for everyone. There are many young people coming in, full of talent with things to show and demonstrate.
It is a new challenge and a challenge. It prevents you from falling asleep, staying level and not taking the melon. Just because you finish second in the Route du Rhum does not mean you have more rights.
And most of all because I'm happy about it! I'm having a great time. I wouldn't come back if it was a ordeal every time. It's always a pleasure even if several times the after-sales period has been difficult to digest because it didn't go as planned, because the result is disappointing..
You are the one with the most experience of Solitaire, what is your story with this race?
It's a family matter. My first memories go back to when it was still called the Aurora. In 1979 my father won the Aurora by winning all 4 stages. I remember the cup that seemed huge to me, that everyone filled with champagne and drank. I remember a family stopover. We would come with my mother and brother to help clean the boat, do laundry and refuel. My father's rice pudding was prepared - he would leave with a pressure cooker of rice pudding and eat only that throughout the race. I remember my little brother who had peed one night in my father's sleeping bag - the right cotton sleeping bag with a goose feather. The nice gift!
My mother managed to get me on an accompanying boat and unfortunately my father had abandoned this race. I arrived at the port of call and my father was not there. I thought it was hard. I had endured the whole stage, I was seasick. I was a pussy and sick and I thought to myself, "I have to hold on because at the end my father will be there and I will be able to welcome him on the pontoon" and finally they come to tell me that he will not be there when they arrive.
And since you started this race, what has been your best memory?
The first very good memory was in 2001. This is the moment when I understand and I manage to implement what it takes to win a stage of the Solitaire: the mental levers that allow you to surpass yourself, to resist the cold, to resist hunger.
Then in 2002, I won the first stage for the birth of my son. I have the image in my head where I raise my arms and dedicate this victory to my son Titouan. I couldn't have been there at birth, it was at the stopover before the last stop in Spain. I couldn't go home and I thought the next step would be for him, so he would know why I wasn't there at birth. It was really a very strong moment. It was my first big win in the Solitaire at a time when I thought I would never get there, that I would be cursed like Gildas Morvan - a super figaro player but who never gets to win it. It was a deliverance.
And conversely, what was your worst memory? A moment when you wish you hadn't heard from La Figaro?
The first worst memory was my first stop in Figaro in 1997. I am 24 hours behind Franck Cammas whereas in the pre-season races I had performed: first Bizuth, all the time in the top 10. I thought I knew, that it was going to be easy. Now I understand that it was going to be complicated, that I wasn't ready at all. Huge slap!
What is your goal for this year?
I oscillate between saying to myself: "I have to win it" and "I have to have fun". It's going to be in between.
In 2017, when I came back after the Vendée Globe, it was a very tough edition. I was tired, I was not well. I fought against myself all along. I wasn't happy. I had decided to do it, it was my decision, but I wasn't happy to be there. I had been used to winning 2012, 2013, 2015 and I came back in 2017, thinking that it would be the same and not at all.
So, in order to have fun; making a podium - that would be great; winning it would be incredible, but it's going to be complicated. I took a big slap on the Solo Master Rooster; I do 21 e on the big step. It put me in my place. Before it was too easy, I was too sure of myself. It makes you doubt and requires you to work again.
How did you prepare and optimise this new boat in the short time you had before the Solitaire?
It was a sprint! All the way since we received the boat on January 18[Editor's note: just 4 months ago]. We focused on the technical preparation of the boat, seeing immediately the defects that could prevent us from finishing the race and performing. It's a big file we did with Damien - former figaro player. In a second step: discovery of the boat in duplicate with Damien and Samantha Davies who helped me and was very useful in understanding the boat. I think we're well prepared today.
But there is still a lot of room for improvement when you see what you were able to achieve with the Figaro 2 after 16 years of use. We realize that in 4 months we know 70%-80% of the boat's potential, but all that remains will take months or even years to discover. It's really nice to be able to participate in this discovery.
Can you tell us what you think of the Figaro 3? Are there any things in the Figaro 2 that you're going to regret?
The only thing I regret about the Figaro 2 is the stove. There wasn't much to eat already, now there's nothing left!
Otherwise everything is fine. The boat is not perfect, of course, but we've avoided the big problems even though we've passed close to disaster with this spreader story - I don't think we'll have any more problems on the solo.
Certainly on some details of finishes there are things to review. You can't have 50 boats on a median that you draw lots in December and they're all tip-top nickel. Only Bénéteau could ensure this production. It's industrial so there are things to review, but the boat is really nice. It is a good boat which is a good evolution for the Figaro class.
We may have gone a little too far in terms of technicality. We wanted it to be affordable for young people, so to see with young people what they think about it and whether they suffer from it.
There is a big physical gap on this new boat. I don't know how we're gonna handle this loner. It's not embarrassing to move towards more sport, but it must remain accessible to everyone.
What also changes compared to the Figaro 2 is that there is less space inside. It's like breaking the man. To get the sails in front, there are these 4 huge varangues to pass. As it is necessary to take them all out by the descent...
How do you organize your life on board? Do you take things that others don't have?
I have a chick I inherited from the 60-foot and I think he's really good. I unroll it on the bunk. It's quite comfortable and I sleep well. For the recovery he's not bad, especially for an old man like me.
It is a boat that always needs to have weight in the wind and to be matted to death. So you have to matoss and sleep in the same bunk. It is well positioned, you can see the screen, you are quickly outside.
What is the secret to winning a Solitaire du Figaro?
Be able to manage the physical and mental aspects of the 4 steps. Up to now, we have managed to do 1 or 2 stages with a lot of rest time. It is the one who will succeed in better managing this sequence of 4 steps that will take over. It wouldn't surprise me if the winner of this Solitaire didn't win a stage. It's important to go fast, to move your boat forward, but you have to do all this with a minimum loss of energy and effort. We add a dimension to the Figaro 2 where we knew we had to hurt ourselves, give it all. To hear all the other riders, they say that it's hard, we're not going to be able to do the 4 stages like that, we'll have to be able to sail less thoroughly, more reasonably, recover, not get into the red by absolutely wanting to win the stage because there are still 2 or 3 behind.
What is your diet on this type of race?
On this boat I feel like I'm losing 1 kg per day of sailing. Yet I eat. I have a cooler in which I put everything I can find for food in and I pick up. There is of course Saint Michel, seeds, cereal bars, raw vegetables and when I have time I take out the super jetboil, and I try to heat some water.
How do you feel a few days before departure? Serene?
Not serene, but I feel like I'm ready. We did a good job.
After this Solitaire, what will your program be?
I would like to find a partner to go on a 2024 Vendée Globe campaign. This will be my last Vendée Globe with high sporting ambitions. I would like to be able to set up a beautiful project. In the shorter term, I will be participating in the Transat Jacques Vabres. Win a 3 e would be great.
I'm not against doing a few more Figaro seasons, but I don't want to do that alone. There has to be something else, Jacques Vabres or Route du Rhum, or even Ultim as a crew member to vary.
