The Figaro fleet started leg 3 of the Tour de Bretagne at 2100 hrs on Tuesday night from Perros Guirec. And after a close battle throughout the night between Cercle Vert, Bostik Findley and Delta Dore, Crealine sailed by Armel Le Cleach and Nicolas Troussel managed to snatch the lead and cross the finish line at Brest in first place, one minute ahead of Cercle Vert.

For Sam Davis and Emma Westmacott aboard Skandia things didn’t go quite so well to plan crossing the line in 23rd place overall. But it’s not all doom and gloom for Team Skandia who at least know where they went wrong and have a plan to improve things on the next leg. Davies commented on their tactical error which happened in the early hours of the morning just round the north-west tip of the French coast: “The wind had dropped to 14 knots and we were against the tide again. We had to go inshore again and that is where we made our mistake as we didn’t go in far enough to get out of the tide – we wanted to sail the shortest distance to the bouy and thought we were laying the mark but those who went furthest inshore came out best.”

But it’s not just tactics, it’s all about time on water learning about the boat. “It is still taking us too long to get the boat up to speed after a mark rounding,” added Davies. “On average it is taking us 10 minutes to get the set up right but we are learning constantly.”

The fourth leg, the short 69-miler from Brest to Port La Forêt, started this morning.

Results (after three legs)

1st Charles CAUDRELIER-BENAC / Pascal BIDEGORRY – BOSTIK FINDLEY (6-2-3=11)

2nd Gildas MORVAN / Bertrand PACE – CERCLE VERT (11-1-2=14)

3rd Benoit PETIT / Tangi MAHE / DEFI SANTE VOILE (3-6-5=14)

4th Jeremie BEYOU / Gilles CHIORRI – DELTA DORE (4-4-7=15)

5th Erwan TABARLY / Philippe VICARIOT – THALES (1-8-8=17)

6th Yann ELIES / Loick PEYRON – GROUPE GENERALI ASSURANCES (5-7-6=18)

7th Eric DROUGLAZET / Hans BOUSCHOLTE – DAVID OLIVIER (10-3-10=23)

8th Thierry CHABAGNY / Corentin DOUGUET – PETIT NAVIRE (7-5-11=23)

9th Ronan GUERIN / Yves PAJOT – CAMUS IMMOBILIER (2-19-4=25)

10th Bruno JOURDAIN / Jean-Marie DAURIUS – D’AUCY (9-12-9=30)

25th Sam DAVIES / Emma WESTMACOTT – SKANDIA (21-25-23=69)