2023-08-27 16:34:00
The 54th edition of the single-handed sailing race set off from Caen (Calvados) with Ireland as its destination.
By HR with AFP Departure from Caen for the 32 sailors of the Solitaire du Figaro. © LOU BENOIST / AFP Published on 08/27/2023 at 4:34 p.m.
Tom Laperche will soon know his successor. Thirty-two sailors set off this Sunday August 27 from Caen (Calvados) to reach Ireland at the end of this first stage, during its 54th edition of the famous sailing race, the Solitaire du Figaro.
After a parade on the Caen canal towards the sea on Saturday morning, the start was given at 1:02 p.m. off Ouistreham (Calvados). ” I am ready. Everything is on board the boat, I have plenty of good things to eat, I have the weather forecast and clear ideas,” explained Élodie Bonafous (Queguiner La Vie en rose) before leaving.
The competitors took to the sea under an overcast sky in a west-northwesterly wind of 15 to 20 knots, with gusts of up to 25 knots and got straight into the heart of the matter with a first course coast to the Saint-Marcouf islands.
610 miles for the first stage
For this first stage, estimated at 610 miles, the boats will then have to make a double crossing of the Channel before reaching Kinsale in Ireland, where they are expected on Thursday.
For this historic race created more than half a century ago, the sailors all have an identical boat, a Figaro Bénéteau 3, a 10.85 m long monohull fitted with foils, these appendages which allow them to take off from the surface of the water.
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Most of the young sailing talents have taken the start of this Solitaire, seen by aspiring offshore sailors as an obligatory crossing point before a lifetime of voyages around the world and stormy transatlantic races.
Gaston Morvan (CMB Bretagne – Performance), Guillaume Pirouelle (Normandy Region) and Corentin Horeau (Banque Populaire) are the favorites at the start. “There is no point in putting pressure on yourself now. I will try to do my race without looking too much at others, as I have been doing since the start of the season and to stay on my course, whether I am considered a favorite or not, ”said Horeau.
Ten competitors, or almost a third of the fleet, are rookies this year – sailors setting off for their first Solitaire – and there are five women at the start.
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