Samantha Davies on board her Figaro Skandia, finished in 11th place out of the 34 entries in the first offshore leg of the Generali Solo in the Mediterranean, in the early hours of this morning. Predictably the 10 top slots were filled with the regular experienced sailors of Yann Elies (presently ranked first in overall event), Eric Drouglazet and Gildas Morvan but for Davies and Skandia it’s a strong start to the solo season.

From the outset the fleet was split between the north and south. The southerly boats gained stronger winds and maintained better speeds through the night, but the winners were those in the northerly pack that gained the all-important wind shift first.

Davies commented from Port Camargue; “Overall I am really pleased with my position and with the performance of the Skandia. It was a race about sail changes as the wind kept varying from between 7 – 40 knots and was totally inconsistent. My arms are very tired this morning but I managed to keep the boat going fast in the very different conditions. Sometimes my sail changes may have been a little slower as I am smaller but I had luck on my side and I managed to overtake three to four boats in the lighter breezes coming into the finish this morning.

“I lost the batten on my genoa in 35-40knots of wind last night and as I didn’t have a spare I cut one down from my spinaker bag – all this in the space of about five minutes from needing and not needing the genoa!,” she concluded.

Overall top 20 Ranking, 15th June 2004 (After 2 races)

1 GROUPE GENERALI ASSURANCES, ELIES Yann 9

2 MALONGO, DROUGLAZET Eric 14

3 THALES, TABARLY Erwan 16

4 ALL MER, DUTHIL Frédéric 16

5 CERCLE VERT, MORVAN Gildas 18

6 BOOZY AND THE KIKOUYOUS, DE PAVANT Kito 19

7 DELTA DORE, BEYOU Jéremie 20

8 CLIPTOL SPORT, PELLECUER Laurent 23

9 BOSTIK FINDLEY, CAUDRELIER-BENAC Charles 33

10 ESPOIR CREDIT AGRICOLE, KRAUSS Oliver 35

11 L’ESPRIT D’EQUIPE, PEAN Lionel 36

12 SKANDIA, DAVIES Samantha 36

13 DEFI SANTE VOILE, PETIT Benoît 39

14 BANQUE POPULAIRE, BIDEGORRY Pascal 40

15 PORT TREBEURDEN, ATTANASIO Romain 43

16 GROUPE SCE, TROUSSEL Nicolas 44

17 CONNIVENCE, PERON Eric 48

18 TOTAL, EMIG Marc 52

19 CHAUSS-EUROPE, NELIAS Jean-Luc 59

20 AG2R PREVOYANCE, JACQ Rodolphe 61

Remaining race schedule:

Wednesday, 16th June Port Camargue – Inshore racing followed by leg to La Grande Motte

Thursday,17th June La Grande Motte – Inshore racing

Friday, 18th June La Grande Motte/Beaulieu sur Mer (c. 190miles)

Saturday, 19th June Arrival Beaulieu sur Mer

Sunday, 20th June Beaulieu sur Mer – Inshore racing

Monday, 21st June Beaulieu / Porquerolles (c. 110miles)

Tuesday, 22nd June Arrival in Porquerolles

Wednesday, 23rd June Porquerolles – Inshore racing

Thursday,24th June Porquerolles / Hyères

Friday, 25th June Porquerolles – Inshore racing

Saturday, 26th June Porquerolles – Inshore racing, close of regatta