The 22-strong Figaro fleet is now at the Port of Porquerolles (South of France), for their penultimate day of the racing in the Generali Solo. The two-week event concludes with three days of inshore racing, the first of which took place at the end of last week.

The top of the leaderboard is dominated by the Figaro specialists who have been honing their skills in this highly competitive class for many years – Jéremie Beyou tops the table, followed by Erwan Tabarly in second and Gildas Morvan in third. Yann Elies, who won this event last year, has struggled and is lying in 11th overall.

British Skandia skipper, Sam Davies, currently lies in 16th place overall with four inshore races remaining. Davies’s best results of three fifth places and one podium finish in third, have been over-shadowed by some poor results due to her share of bad luck sailing in the fickle Mediterranean conditions and her proactive decision to use this event as a final training session before the Solitaire du Figaro.

Her worst result, finishing at the back of the fleet in the final offshore race on Wednesday, dropped her a few places in the overall rankings. Commenting Davies said: “I got off to a good start but then I had to decide whether to go right or left of the fleet. The wind was coming from the right so I took the right hand side. Then, suddenly there was a 45-degree windshift round to the left and I ended up at the back. I tried to get back but by that time I was too far behind. There were no manoeuvres or sail changes – just a simple straight line course so it was hard to make ground up after that.”

The two inshore races of last week did not reap an improvement in her position but as Davies explains, she purposely set out to meet her training objectives at the sacrifice of posting good results. A difficult choice but, hopefully, one that will set her in good stead for the main event of the Figaro season that starts on the 5 August.
Davies concluded: “This race was one of my hardest in my Figaro to date. It has been a difficult Generali, all in all. I always came here to learn, take risks that conservative me doesn’t normally do, and not necessarily get a good result as a consequence. But I never realised how hard it is for someone naturally competitive to sacrifice results for anything else!

“I had two great starts, which is my objective here – to improve my normally terrible starts. My second objective for the day was to try to ‘live’ in difficult places up the first beat – close to people who manage to sail high and fast! That was harder, but I improved from the first race to the second and feel more confident. But in doing that I wasn’t so ‘into’ the race, which was frustrating. And coupled with an autopilot that had a mind of its own, a slight fear of hitting the rocks (after my ‘grounding’ earlier in the regatta), and a difficult spinnaker to trim, it made my result a bit average (to say the least).

“On top of that, I have been experimenting with very soft rig settings, which is great in the really light stuff, but in the sea breeze (10-14 knots) I discovered that I need some more tension than that.

“The good thing is that it is still fun, and I can’t wait to get the boat back in the water in the north to start to practice for the Solitaire.”

Overall Rankings (after 12 races)

1. DELTA DORE / BEYOU Jéremie / 86pts

2. THALES / TABARLY Erwan / 89pts

3. CERCLE VERT / MORVAN Gildas / 92pts

4. ESPOIR CREDIT AGRICOLE / KRAUSS Oliver / 121pts

5. BANQUE POPULAIRE / GREGOIRE Jeanne / 134pts

6. MALONGO / DROUGLAZET Eric / 135pts

7. GROUPE BEL / DE PAVANT Kito / 145pts

8. NANNI DIESEL / D’ALI Pietro 149pts

9. PASSEPORT FFVOILE : j’apprends à respecter… / PRATT Christopher 149pts

10. CLIPTOL SPORT / PELLECUER Laurent / 152pts

16. SKANDIA / DAVIES Samantha / 204pts

Race 10 – offshore leg 5 (Beaulieu sur mer-Porquerolles)

1. THALES / TABARLY Erwan

2. DELTA DORE / BEYOU Jéremie

3. BROSSARD / DUTHIL Frédéric

4. PASSEPORT FFVOILE : j’apprends à respecter… / PRATT Christopher

5. NANNI DIESEL / D’ALI Pietro

22. SKANDIA / DAVIES Samantha

Race 11 – inshore (coastal, Porquerolles)

1. DELTA DORE / BEYOU Jéremie

2. THALES / TABARLY Erwan

3. MALONGO / DROUGLAZET Eric

4. BANQUE POPULAIRE / GREGOIRE Jeanne

5. DEFI SANTE VOILE / PETIT Benoît

22. SKANDIA / DAVIES Samantha

Race 12 – inshore (windward/leeward, Porquerolles)

1. BROSSARD / DUTHIL Frédéric

2. CERCLE VERT / MORVAN Gildas

3. DELTA DORE / BEYOU JéremieTOTAL / EMIG Marc

4. MARSEILLE ENTREPRISES / MOUREN Jean-Paul

5. DEFI SANTE VOILE / PETIT Benoît

19. SKANDIA / DAVIES Samantha