Yesterday marked the end of the Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro 2005 for SKANDIA skipper, Sam Davies – three weeks, racing over 1600 miles, in this solo marathon between France, Spain and Ireland. Positioned as the world championship of solo offshore racing it demands everything from the solo sailor, not least endurance and stamina as the skippers cope with little to no sleep when racing.

At 1805 BST yesterday evening, SKANDIA crossed the finish line of the fourth and final leg in 23rd place - 4 hours, 20 minutes and 19 seconds after the winner, Jérémie Beyou on Delta Dore. Unfortunately, 23d place has dominated Davies’ performance throughout this event, finishing in 23rd place in legs one, two and four with her best result of 10th place on leg 3. This has left Davies in 22nd place in the overall rankings, 6 hours, 24 minutes and 13 seconds behind Beyou with a cumulative time of 255 hours, 13 minutes and 33 seconds. It is not the performance Davies would have hoped for going into this event - her third consecutive participation – with high hopes of a top ten overall position. However, things did not go her way and started badly with a collision at the start of the first leg that badly damaged SKANDIA. Undoubtedly, this affected her performance and Davies never really recovered her stride. Her 10th place in leg 3, the longest leg, boosted her confidence but it was too little, too late.

All praise goes to the 29-year-old winner, Jeremie Beyou, who after nine attempts has finally won his personal ‘grail’. Beyou started sailing in the Figaro class aged 19 and his persistence has final paid off a decade later. Beyou pipped solo legend, Michel Desjoyeaux on Geant, to the post who had to accept 2nd overall with Kito de Pavant on Groupe Bel in 3rd. Both Desjoyeaux and de Pavant have won the Solitaire event before.

Looking at the overall standings for 2005, Davies, who trains at the specialist school of Port le Foret in France, is not far from some other race favourites in the middle of the fleet who were also expecting to excel: Armel Le Cleac’h (Foncia-TBS) winner of the 2003 Solitaire du Figaro, finished just 10 minutes ahead of Sam in 20th place and Oliver Krauss (Espoir Credit Agricole) who came 3rd in the final leg, finished 18th overall, only 17 minutes ahead of Sam. It can take years to get to the top of the Figaro ladder as Beyou has just so aptly proved, and as the class increases in popularity with both sailors and sponsors, the experts keep pushing the performance level ever higher. For Davies, in her third year of competition, getting to the ‘top of the class’ is proving to be a long and winding road…

SAM’S SOLITAIRE AFFLELOU LE FIGARO 2005
23rd – 23rd – 10th – 23rd : 22nd overall

LEG 1: Perros Guirec to Gexto-Bilbao, Spain (390miles)
SKANDIA 23rd, 53mins behind winner CERCLE VERT (Gildas Morvan)
After colliding with rocks less than 2 hours after the start, Davies struggled to settle in to the race - damage was done both to Davies’ mental state and the boat. After 390 miles of solo offshore racing, the 45 competing skippers arrived within seconds of each other. Although crossing the line in 26th, Davies later won her protest against Jorg Riechers (GermanyToo) who didn’t allow her sufficient water to clear the rocks. Davies was awarded 5 minutes of time, moving her Leg 1 finish position up three places to 23rd.

LEG 2: Getxo-Bilbao, Spain to La Rochelle (368 miles)
SKANDIA 23rd, 1hr 21mins 18secs behind winner NANNI DIESEL (Pietro D’Ali)
The shore team worked hard for two days and two nights to get SKANDIA to the start line. Davies got off to a flying start, rounding the final inshore race mark in 2nd place before heading across the Bay of Biscay. SKANDIA skipper, Sam Davies kept in contact with the leading pack holding a top ten place for the first 24 hours of the race. In a highly competitive fleet, Davies had a real fight on her hands but one wrong decision saw her tumble down the rankings to finish in 23rd place, 1 hour and 21 minutes 18 seconds behind Italian newcomer, Pietro D’Ali on Nanni Diesel.

LEG 3: La Rochelle to Cork (Crosshaven), Ireland (456 miles)
SKANDIA 10th, 49mins 2secs behind winner CLIPTOL SPORT (Laurent Pellecuer)
Davies starting the longest leg of the event well rested and feeling positive knowing that endurance is one of her strong points. Leg three was a predominantly upwind race, SKANDIA’s favourite, with wet and windy conditions finishing with a downwind run direct to Cork. Davies sailed a clever and conservative race and managed to not drop below eleventh position for the entire leg. SKANDIA scored her best result of the event, finishing 10th and moved up five places in the overall rankings to 17th.

LEG 4: Cork, Ireland to Port Bourgenay Talmont-Saint-Hilaire, France (496 miles)
SKANDIA 23nd, 4hours 20min 19secs behind winner DELTA DORE (Jérémie Beyou)
Sam celebrated her 31st birthday on start day but celebrations were short-lived. Storms force winds forced the Race Committee to shorten the leg from 496 to 428 miles, removing the Fastnet Rock race mark. For two days and two nights, the fleet were close-reaching through strong winds, rain and big seas on a straight-line course to the finish. With no major manoeuvres or tactical decisions to make, this leg was all about endurance and getting the best boat speeds in these storm force conditions. After starting at the back of the fleet, Davies sailed a good fast race in the difficult conditions and moved SKANDIA up 12 places during the first night. On the second and last night, a cold front provided the leading boats faster boat speeds - averaging 10 knots – as SKANDIA and the other boats mid-fleet were too far back to enjoy these conditions and increased the gap to 30 miles. There were no opportunities to gain on time as the wind decreased on the final downwind run to the finish off Port Bourgenay. SKANDIA crossed the line in 23rd place.

SKANDIA’S SOLITAIRE RESULTS TO DATE

2003: (Sam’s first participation in the event, competing in both the overall and rookie class)
Leg finishes: 25th (4rd rookie) - 29th (3rd rookie) - 27th (2nd rookie) - 7th (1st rookie)
Overall: 19th & 2nd rookie

2004:
Leg finishes: 6th - 14th - 26th - 13th
Overall: 19th

2005:
Leg finishes: 23rd - 23rd - 10th - 22nd
Overall: 22nd

OVERALL POSITIONS AFTER FOUR LEGS (BEFORE JURY)

1. BEYOU Jérémie / DELTA DORE 248h 49mins 20secs
2. DESJOYEAUX Michel / GEANT +1h20′54″
3.DE PAVANT Kito / GROUPE BEL +1h58′41″
4. MORVAN Gildas / CERCLE VERT +2h17′9″
5. ELIES Yann / GROUPE GENERALI ASSURANCES +2h24′22″
6. PELLECUER Laurent / CLIPTOL SPORT +2h29′45″
7. DUTHIL Frédéric / BROSSARD +2h35′53″
8. D’ALI Pietro / NANNI DIESEL +3h5′12″
9. TABARLY Erwan / THALES +3h13′3″
10. CAUDRELIER Charles / BOSTIK +3h18′57″
–
22. DAVIES Sam / SKANDIA +6h24′13″

Share or bookmark this story: