It was a fast night of sailing for Skandia and the other 44 Figaro Beneteau boats in the second leg of the 1,710-mile Solitaire du Figaro. As forecasted the wind strengthened to 20 knots, almost doubling the average boat speeds to 10 knots, allowing the fleet to enjoy fast reaching conditions, as they made their way towards the next race mark at the Birviedeux Lighthouse off the island of Belle-Ile, which they rounded this morning.

Skandia moved up the rankings overnight placing Davies in 20th place, 1.6 miles ahead one of the race favourite Yann Elies (Groupe Generali Assurances) in 22nd and two miles adrift of Michel Desjoyeaux.

Italian Pietro D’Ali (Nanni Diesel) lost his lead during the night to Fred Duthil (Brossard) who at 1500 BST was leading by 0.6 miles. The four leading boats have pulled away from the rest of the fleet and according to support boats on the water, the two leaders Brossard and Nann Diesel have created a gap of about three miles between themselves and Charles Caudrelier (Bostik) in third and Erwan Tabarly (Thales) in fourth.

The next leg – Leg 3 – starts on Wednesday 17 August from La Rochelle to Cork (Crosshaven), Ireland (456 miles).

OVERALL POSITIONS AFTER LEG 1

1. MORVAN Gildas / CERCLE VERT finish time: 47h49’34”

2. BEYOU Jérémie / DELTA DORE 1’47”

3. PELLECUER Laurent / CLIPTOL SPORT 2’4″

4. ELIES Yann / GROUPE GENERALI ASSURANCES 4’39”

5. de PAVANT Kito / GROUPE BEL 5’17”

6. DESJOYEAUX Michel / GEANT 7’58”

7. CHABAGNY Thierry / LEBRE BERMUDES 10’37”

8. D’ALI Pietro / NANNI DIESEL 11’27”

9. VENIARD Gérald / SCUTUM 11’48”

10. VITTET Dominic / ATAO AUDIO SYSTEM 12’1″

26. DAVIES Sam / SKANDIA 53’46”