This has never happened before: At La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec, a series of penalties were handed out on Friday. Most of them for breaching the class rules or sailing in restricted areas. Protests from the race organisers and jury decisions have now resulted in a completely different conclusion to stage one than was seen on the water yesterday.
First and foremost, the celebrated French rookie Benoît Tuduri ("Capso - En Cavale") received a 30-minute time penalty for unauthorised weights on the railing, where he had placed a blue bucket and a red canister, which could be seen in various photos. Stacking equipment on deck is not permitted in the Figaro class. This faux pas caused the 29-year-old from Montpellier to drop back to fourth place.
Podium sailor Julie Simon drops back to 17th place
"Douze" skipper Julie Simon was hit even harder. The fastest skipper in the field, who was celebrated as third in the Irish leg finish harbour at the lecture, dropped back to 17th place due to a 17-minute time penalty imposed on her for sailing in a prohibited zone. Other soloists also lost several places for this reason. No protests were lodged against the decisions.
The winner of the opening stage is now "Flying Irishman" Tom Dolan. The "Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan" skipper is the first Irishman to win a leg of La Solitaire du Figaro since his compatriot Damien Foxall in 1998. It was only ten years ago that the new Figaro leader Tom Dolan contested his first ever regatta. The Swiss Nils Palmieri ("TeamWork") and Robin Marais ("Ma Chance Moi aussi") have moved up to second and third place as a result of the decisions.
It's not the way I want to win a stage." Tom Dolan
Tom Dolan reacted cautiously to the news and said: "It feels strange at the moment, it takes time to realise and it's not the way I want to win a stage. I'm sorry for Benoît, but as a rookie I don't think he knew the rules." After a mixed season so far, Tom Dolan added: "This will give me a lot more confidence, but it won't affect how I approach or prepare for the next two stages."
One day after crossing the finish line and having slept well again, Sanni Beucke also took stock of her progress. The Olympic silver medallist in the 49erFX had switched to the offshore discipline at the start of 2022 and is contesting La Solitaire du Figaro for the second time. She crossed the finish line in 27th place out of 32 participants. Her ranking did not change as a result of the protests and jury decisions. Her interim results provide interesting insights into decision-making processes at sea:
Beucke's interim assessment: Intuitive sailing not in demand?
"Right now, I'm coming out of the leg with a somewhat sobering feeling. But I think that's only because I've realised for myself what the difference between offshore and Olympic sailing could be. It could be that I have to put aside a quality that I bring with me from Olympic sailing for offshore sailing. Which would make me a little sad.
Let me explain: when the third English Channel crossing on this first leg from France to Fastnet Rock, the tactics and strategy were such that you had to cross the Channel almost to the north in order to pick up a big right-hander over there and take it a long way. From the end it was clear that a high pressure area would come from the south and a low pressure area from the north. Which should bring another fresh breeze. But then came this mega left-hander, which was not on the cards. So a good, fresh wind, twelve knots with the gybe, which could take me straight to Fastnet Rock.
I can't fall off with such a fat left turn and head north when I've almost got a berm here." Sanni Beucke
Then I thought about it: Well, you have a plan, it's good, it gives you security, but if something is different, you do what's right at that moment. This intuition, this situational adaptation, that's what I love about Olympic sailing. I thought about it for a long time and thought, no, I can't fall off in such a big left-hander and head north when I've almost got a layline here. That can't be true.
Especially in view of the fact that the Celtic Sea was supposed to bring in another left at the end of the second half, I thought: I'm not just going to bluntly follow the plan, I'm going to change the strategy. So what makes me a bit sad is that I should have just followed the routing. I'll definitely discuss this with a few people tomorrow. But that's where the disillusionment comes from.
The mistakes were mainly of a strategic nature." Sanni Beucke
Apart from that, my speed on this stage was really, really good. I incorporated the rest periods well. Whenever there was no decision to be made, or when the boat was travelling fast on its own with autopilot, I was able to recover really well and also get some good food in. I had a good tactic. It's also a kind of tactic to manage fatigue at the right moment.
The mistakes were mainly of a strategic nature. One was the big mistake that I've already explained. And another: at the end of the first English Channel crossing there was another right turn. That was also announced. However, during the last telephone weather briefing with my meteorologist, I understood that he had said that the clockwise rotation no longer played a major role and could be ignored. I'll have to ask him again if that was a communication problem. If so, I paid dearly for it (smiles).
Once I couldn't find a barrel at night because it had drifted a few hundred metres due to the current." Sanni Beucke
I'm taking a lot of lessons with me for the next stages. For example, that I will be even more precise when communicating about the weather. That I will ask a bit more questions here on site to get an even better feel for offshore sailing: How important is intuition for offshore sailing? And to what extent can you simply follow the lines on the computer? That would be much easier.
And then little things like that: I once failed to find a buoy at night because it had simply drifted a few hundred metres away due to the strong current. I didn't realise that they could drift so much that you couldn't find them.
We had an incredible amount of current in some places. I lost a bit of speed because I think I was steering the wrong way. I thought maybe I could change the angle of the boat to the current a bit, but that turned out to be wrong. In other words, I learnt more about how to steer in really strong currents.
No rupture, no dramas, instead routine and effective problem solving
Apart from that, I'm really happy because I've established a certain routine, there were no breakages and no major dramas, as you would normally expect from a stage like this. I was always able to fix what broke within ten minutes. I had the spinnaker around the forestay once. But that was actually directly after sleeping. I had pulled up the spinnaker in a rush after getting up. Now I realise even more that you don't do important things straight away when you get up after sleeping. Not on the fourth day."
The second of three legs in the 54th La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec will take the field over 630 nautical miles from Kinsale to the Bay of Morlaix from 3 September.
The preview of stage 2:
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
