With a low pressure front approaching, you had to be in the best position. Alexis Thomas, Tom Dolan and Charlotte Yven are thus leading the pack happily.
Special envoy on board Express
After starting the second leg from Gijón at the speed of gastropods, the 36 competitors in this Solitaire du Figaro 2024 had only one obsession in mind. Finding the opportunity to best pass an announced front, which was set to shake them up in the second part of the night. Woe to those who had missed their start. Reading the ranking from the race direction boat was even clear for them as the pitch black and incessant rain enveloped their hunched shoulders. The gaps were significant.
The pleasure of being at the forefront
A trio had managed to pull their breeches. Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan) in the lead. The Irishman knew it, he had just carried the first banderilla: “There’s 20 knots of wind across the boat and it’s quite wet. Everything went exactly as planned. I managed to get to the west to hit the wind first. I gently pulled towards the north-east to get to windward of the fleet. I didn’t think it was going to go so much, it’s good. But the road is still long, there will still be buffers, windless areas, things to get through. The wind will gradually ease and it will start to give way and we will put bigger and bigger sails up front. I’m in good shape. I took advantage of the reaching leg to take a few naps after the sleepless night of the light wind where we had to stay focused to avoid the boat stopping.”
Less than a mile away, Alexis Thomas (Wings of the Ocean) had the same cheerful voice: “We set off in a somewhat complicated wind ahead of the cold front. We had to go and find it by pulling the helm to port because it was coming down from the northwest, and cut it as perpendicularly as possible. There, at 6 o’clock, that’s it, we passed it with a big shift to the right which allowed us to rush under gennaker towards the next waypoint. It had started with a thickening of the cloud mass, followed by heavy rain, then a sudden shift to the right. Quite radical for about ten minutes. With wind behind the front. It’s always nice to be at the forefront, especially since it should stretch out ahead. For the others, getting back to the mark could be complicated. But the road is still long. Currently we have 20 knots of wind with gusts of 25 and a fairly flat sea because the swell hasn’t had time to settle in yet. It’s not unpleasant.”
“It’s good for morale”
Charlotte Yven (Skipper Macif 2023) was also delighted with the good move: “It’s a tack that feels really good after our slow start to the race. We had to be well positioned to have the best possible trajectory to approach the front. In that respect, I don’t think I did too badly. Things changed not long ago as we approached the front. We’re heading west with the gennaker in the air and water all over the deck. On the AIS I can see four boats. The others have gained a bit of distance. I’m really pleased to find myself in the leading group. It’s one of the first times I’ve had such a good start to a leg. It’s good for morale. We’re going to have a few short hours on this rather fast tack. After that, the wind will ease and pick up. In 3 to 4 hours we’ll perhaps hoist a spinnaker and head towards the Sisargas Islands to go around.”
Islands that the first will round around 4 p.m. this Monday.
Behind the leaders of the ball, it is undoubtedly the grimace soup. The 4eMartin Le Pape (Demain), is 6 miles behind. Loïs Berrehar (Skipper Macif 2022), the winner of the first stage, is 8 miles behind. Basile Bourgnon (Edenred), the leader of the general classification after the first stage, is relegated to the Devil Vauvert, more than 14 miles behind.
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