55th La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec Leg 1 Day 3

55th La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec Leg 1 Day 3 © Alexis Courcoux

With less than 300 miles to sail to the finish line off Gijón in the NW of Spain Alexis Loison (Groupe REEL) continues to lead Stage 1 of the 55th La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec.

His lead has varied between half a mile and one mile through today. And late this afternoon he has been the first to tack to the southeast as the top solo racers prepare their strategy for a dying front which might be the decisive phase of the leg which started on Sunday from Le Havre. Following the retiral of the German Olympic silver medallist Sanni Beucke (This Race is Female) with damage to her D2 shroud there are now 35 solo skippers still in the race.

Loison was the first at Wolf Rock lighthouse at 00:19hrs last night, so winning the first Intermediate Sprint of the race, gaining a bonus of five-minute time which is subtracted from his elapsed time at the end of the leg.

In advance of Loison being first to tack, Race Director Yann Chateau explained, "The wind will ease and turn to the right. Choosing your point to tack carefully is therefore important because behind, they will make a long starboard tack to go down almost to the middle of the Bay of Biscay with wind that will continue to turn to the right until it turns north in the middle of Biscay. The we should see the first spinnakers appear tomorrow morning after a night close-hauled in an easing wind and a sea that will flatten out a little".

For now, the fleet should remain compact for a while yet. According to the latest ETAs, the boats could arrive in Gijón (Spain) this Thursday early afternoon.

Ireland's Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan) was ninth this afternoon only 2.6 miles behind Loison whilst Spain's Pep Costa is 15th.

Costa reported this afternoon, "The start of the race required a lot of work sailing upwind in windy conditions. I'm pleased about my race, even if I made a slight mistake in the English Channel. I managed to catch up a bit, and am fairly happy with what happened during the night since Wolf Rock. We are heading into an area of light winds, so we have quite a lot of work to do. I prefer to sail with the fleet close to other competitors. That means you don't take too many risks and you can check to see if your trimming is good. In any case, whether you are close or further away, it is stressful. I have a little idea in my mind about the weather coming up, but I know it's going to be complicated with light, variable winds. I'm fed up with being left on the outside since the start."

They said:

Martin Le Pape (DEMAIN), on this morning's call: "We had wind and have been close-hauled sailing. I think we'll be happy when we hoist the spinnakers. We have long tacks that are favourable for us to rest. There are no big options at the moment. I didn't want to stray too far from the fleet. My positioning just behind the race leader suits me very well. It's going to be decided in the Bay of Biscay. The gaps are very small. The passage of this ridge of high pressure will complicate the game. We have to project ourselves, find it and know how to cross it."

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