The longest game of snakes and ladders ever played

British Rookie Sam Matson holds on to his 14th position © Artemis Offshore Academy

On Thursday 26th June in Les Sables d'Olonne, eight exhausted and mentally frayed British Solitaire du Figaro skippers hit the docks after almost four days and four nights of racing – their longest leg yet. The penultimate leg spanning 505 miles soon became a race of two halves and of two fleets, as a series of major park ups due to light airs saw the Solitaire skippers climbing ladders and dramatically sliding down snakes up and down the Leg 3 leaderboard. Throw into the mix a roasting hot and uncomfortable June sun, light and unpredictable breeze and a 40 mile gap between the leading boats and the back of the fleet and you've got the toughest 2014 Solitaire du Figaro leg so far.

Racing the first half of the course from Roscoff through notorious French passages the Chanel du Four and Raz de Sein, Sam Goodchild (Team Plymouth) spectacularly worked his way up from 10th to first, leading the fleet for almost 10 hours on the approach to Belle Île. A park up of the fleet at the island due to a lack of breeze caused major turbulence on the overall leaderboard on the second day of racing. However, Sam held on and came out of the other side still in contention with the top five boats until in the early hours of Tuesday 24th June – an exciting time for his supporters and sponsors. Sam's time with the Figaro veterans was unfortunately cut short as the fleet compressed again half way out into the Bay of Biscay, seeing Sam and half the fleet (including all of the British skippers) stuck in a hole, while 15 Figaros led by Yann Elies made a break for it, finding the lightest of breeze. From then on, the gap continued to widen in a "rich getting richer" scenario.

"I feel like I sailed my best leg, and got my worst result," said Sam Goodchild on the docks. "I had a dream race to Belle Île and I could not have asked for much more up to that point. Then suddenly I was 200-metres from the boats that got wind. I felt like I could almost touch it, but it just never ever reached my sails. I then spent a lot of the race in 19th, but no-one in our half of the fleet was up, everyone was down with the ever increasing gap between the first and second fleet divisions – there wasn't even really any radio chat."

Watch Sam Goodchild's Leg 3 finishing interview here

Racing on across the Bay of Biscay, down to the ODAS weather buoy and back inshore to the final BXA buoy at the mouth of the Gironde River, Sam and 2014 Artemis Offshore Academy Rookie Rich Mason occupied 19th and 20th place. Sailing an excellent race despite the physically draining conditions and mentally exhausting circumstances, Sam and Rich led the British fleet into the final morning of racing, before a cruel twist of fate held them fast in their tracks: "All the weather forecasts said that the 55-mile home straight to Les Sables d'Olonne would be a straight sail on the rhumb line, but in the end it wasn't." Rich reported. "After four days of hard sailing, making sure that every little manoeuvre and boat length counted, we to fell into a hole that wasn't forecast and we didn't foresee."

Stuck in no wind inshore at Île de Ré, Sam and Rich could nothing but sit tight and watch the back of the fleet sail past them, seeing Sam finish 29th and Rich 31st: "It's truly heartbreaking to have 80 hours of hard work unraveled by 80 minutes of bad luck."

Watch Rich's short and sweet finishing interview here

For the other six British Solitaire du Figaro competitors, the final shut down at Île de Ré came as the opportunity they'd been hoping for. Closing the gap between the two halves of the fleet, the skippers who had been suffering at the back had the chance to reconnect, avoiding the park up by sailing further offshore. GAC Pindar's Jack Bouttell cleverly assessed the situation and made an "offshore punt" that paid off, seeing the 2013 winning Rookie sail into port 19th in the leg overall: "We had a great finish to the race after another park up at Île de Ré. It was quite frustrating at the time, but it bought the whole fleet closer together again and after that I found myself pushing as though we were on the first leg, on the first windward beat again. In the end it was quite a fun finish, but the race was long and mentally very tough. We had really challenging conditions throughout."

Watch first Brit home Jack's Leg 3 interview here

Artemis Rookie Sam Matson was next over the finish line just after Jack, finishing 20th in the leg and maintaining his superb 14th position in the overall rankings: "The race was very mentally demanding. Trying to keep in the right mind set in the uncomfortable conditions and think positively was very hard, especially when you're hearing you're 20 odd miles behind the leader," Sam explained, struck down by illness on the first day of racing. "After drifting along in that heat for three days, to get back into it was unbelievable and to finish where I did was amazing."

French Rookie Gwenolé Gahinet had an excellent race, finishing 13th in the leg and sailing himself into the overall Rookie 1st place. However, with Sam Matson just 32 minutes and 25 seconds behind him with one leg to go, it's still all to play for: "In this race there were moments when Gwenole was 20 miles ahead of me, but today he's finished just an hour ahead – so it's potentially still doable. My aim is to get on the Rookie podium and that's still up for grabs. First place? Why not."

Watch Sam Matson's Leg 3 interview here

Ed Hill (Macmillan Cancer Support) was next over the line in 21st, with Rookie Alan Roberts (Artemis 23) 27th, Nick Cherry (REDSHIFT) 28th and Henry Bomby (RED) 29th. The eight British solo skippers will have one final chance to push their names up the overall leaderboard, starting the fourth and final Solitaire du Figaro leg from Les Sables d'Olonne to Cherbourg-Octeville on Sunday 29th June.

For updates on the Brits as they prepare take on the final 490 mile leg, visit www.artemisoffshoreacademy.com

They said...

Jack Bouttell, GAC Pindar:

"It was a very long leg, and for me it was a race of two halves. I seemed to be going quite well up until Belle Ile where there was the first major park up which saw boats actually going backwards on to one another."

"For me the massive low point of the race was when the front half of the fleet broke away from the rest of us – I thought they were never to be seen again. After that point I just kept plugging away and got my head back into the race with the boats around me."

"The boats at the front just sailed to far inshore and they lost the breeze, and then the new breeze came from offshore so I just took a bit of an offshore punt and it paid off. It was just really tough conditions throughout."

"I'm mentally pretty tired, it was a mentally rather than physically demanding race, as there was lot of light winds and it was about just trying to keep the boat going. A very low point in the race for me was when the front boats sailed away and you just couldn't see them anymore and you just think, well that's the end of that. I just never gave up and it all came good in the end."

"I'm happy with 19th, inside the top 20. I think now on the third leg I'm getting into it more and managing to put a race together a bit better. It's better late than never I guess, but we've still got one more leg to go and hopefully I can get back into it a bit overall."

Sam Matson, Artemis 21:

"The first night of racing I had a really sore throat, and from them on it developed into serious man flu. I was drifting across the bay of Biscay, trying to stay in the shade while going no where in 30 degree heat. It was absolutely roasting out there, you just couldn't get away from it either – there was just no shade or no air. Leg 3 was really tough."

"It was an interesting last morning out on the course. The guys at the front of the fleet who went around the BXA buoy early went inshore and just parked up. They tried to sail the rhumb line and there was just no breeze there, which gave the second half of the fleet a chance to catch up. I was just about to go to sleep at this point, but luckily my alarms on my computer went off and I was able to catch a front that filled in from offshore and gain back some places."

"Considering I was dragging my heels around most of the course, my end result is amazing. After drifting along in that heat for three days, to get back into was unbelievable. Rounding the ODAS buoy on Wednesday night I ended up parked up an watching the fleet sail around me. It was such a low point of the race, I just didn't know how to get myself out of that situation and I thought that there was just going to be a straight line into the finish and my race was done."

"The race was very mentally demanding. Trying to keep in the right mind set in the uncomfortable conditions and think positively was very hard, especially when you're hearing you're 20 odd miles behind the leader. Everyone was pretty annoyed and pretty upset out there, you could hear it all the time on the radio. I just tried to stay positive and hope that there might be another break to catch before the end."

Nick Cherry, REDSHIFT:

"The start was good for me, but I managed to ruin that by nearly losing my shoe on the spreader leg – that would have been a long four days without that. I was in a comfortable mid-fleet position on the first day, but after the shut down at Belle Ile I was the second to last person to get out of that which put me on the back foot. It felt like everyone was just sailing away from me, I don't know if it was because I was slower or the wind was better further away. I got a bit lucky after BXA when everyone had parked up next to Ile de Ré and I ended up coming out of the leg better than I thought I would."

"It was an interesting leg. It was long and it was tough, but it was fun. Once the front lot had sailed off I realised the race would just be between the second half of us, so rather than let the fact that they'd sailed off without us affect me I just gone on with sailing as best as I could in the second bunch."

Ed Hill, Macmillan Cancer Support:

"I'm feeling pretty tired actually, it was a long old race and pretty tough. Out on the course it was the same old story, the winners caught the breeze and left everyone else behind. However this time, it wasn't just a couple of boats who got left behind."

"I ok with my position, I fought my way into 22nd on the way into the ODAS buoy and I managed to maintain that and not get screwed as some people did on the way past Ile de Ré with the big shut down. I felt sorry for the guys there who got stuffed. My result is a big improvement from where I've been in the last two legs."

"It was really hot, really sweaty and I ran out of water yesterday. It was really uncomfortable conditions coupled with a pretty intense race that didn't allow for much sleep. Add to that that the weather forecasts we were getting from the committee boat where constantly wrong. It was pretty frustrating as when you planned to sleep you couldn't because the forecast wasn't what you thought it was."

Alan Roberts, Artemis 23:

"It was a really tough one. It was really light conditions and there were a lot of shut downs in the breeze which meant a lot of big positions changes. It was really hard to keep the boat moving in the light breeze and you had to be on the helm the whole time. I think one night I only moved 10 miles. It was hard, but it was also fun. You were on the go the whole time and there were lots of different factors that have contributed to the end result, so it was an interesting race – the longest game of snakes and ladders I've ever played."

"This was mentally pretty hard. Knowing what was going on with the weather combined with the distance between the second fleet and the first was hard going."

Rich Mason, Artemis 77:

"It was a long one. It was four nights and really really hard going. It's pretty hard to have done four days of hard sailing, making sure that every little manoeuvre and boat length count to then fall into a hole that you haven't seen and watch the whole fleet sail past you and finish last – that was pretty hard. All the weather forecasts said that the 55-mile home straight to Les Sables d'Olonne would be a straight sail on the rhumb line and in the end it wasn't that."

"I'm really happy with my performance in the leg. I sailed really well to get myself in to the mix for the majority of the race, I was 5th at one point, but that's the name of the game isn't it. Oh well, on to the next one."

Henry Bomby, RED:

"It was such a long leg. When I was coming in I really had to think where it was we had left from. There were so many different elements to the leg. At the start I was not aggressive enough to win the pin. Then I sailed well through the first night and then was super slow in the morning. I had three lots of weed on my keel and for two hours I refused to do a back down until everyone had sailed past me and then I did the back down to get it off. So the lesson is to do that straight away. I had a chance to get back into it at Belle Isle but trusted a weather forecast which by that time I had worked out it was complete rubbish and yet I still put faith in it. I was thinking why am I going this way. The wind was just so variable the thing to do was just go course made good each shift, that was what everyone else did, on each change take the course closest to the mark. By the second night I was extremely tired. The whole shut down this morning I had a chance to bale out early and did not take it. Nicholas Jossier bailed out first and got to 14th and I was ahead of him. He tacked off to clear out of my dirty air, he went west and then carried on and I think so the AIS showing the boats shut down by the coast, and he was doing eight knots the whole way and from 32nd at the last mark he went to 14th. Mine is not a great result really. But when you get these shut downs in Biscay that is what is going to happen."

Sam Goodchild, Team Plymouth:

"I sailed my best leg – I feel – and got my worst result. I had a dream race to Belle Ile and I could not have asked for much more to there. And then I was 200 metres from the boats that got wind. I felt like I could almost touch it but it just never ever reached my sails. I was a little bit slow there, a couple of guys sailed past me, but not that much past me. They just got a little bit past me until I found my feet and then I was keeping up with them. If I had been able to get up to speed quicker maybe I would have been able to stay with them. I spent most of the Leg then in 19th which was OK but the whole Bay of Biscay bit was just dull, incredibly dull, miles away from anyone and anything. There was no one in our part of the fleet was up, everyone was down on the radio chat. We all left Belle Isle within two miles and twelve hours later we were spread over 30 miles. It was just from the breeze that picked up some people and not others. By this morning I was still quite happy with my race, I felt like I had not made any big mistakes – that little one at Belle Isle was pretty expensive. And this morning everyone came around the mark and pointed the finish, footing, and came back from behind and the whole fleet did 180 degrees. I feel bad for Alain Gautier and Anthony Marchand who were just ahead of me and they then sat for two hours. There is nothing they could have done. I was disappointed to have been 19th and so it feels worse where I did finish, but I still think it was one of the best legs I have sailed and yet with the worst result. It was the longest leg I have done. I did not manage my water very well, I drank 12 litres in the first 24 hours and then eight litres in the next three days. I slept enough. Even compared to my eighth last year I feel like I sailed better, the result is disappointing."