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Quotes from the finishers :

Gildas Morvan (Cercle Vert) 1st in 2 days 11 hours 28 minutes and 28 seconds :
“Starting from Gijon, my goal was to put everything back in place after my bad first leg. I had to be attacking and to be aggressive enough as soon as crossing the starting line. This was the main idea. It was necessary to be ahead of the ridge to get out first of this high pressure area and reach the wind first. There is a morning I could not get out in front of Lunven and I did not quite understand why. I had a plastic bag on the keel which was impossible to remove. I had to haul down the spinnaker, go backwards and restarted behind him. After that, it was a great fight. I then managed to overtake him just before crossing the West of Sein and I knew it was a key point there. I knew that getting out in first position there would enable me to have the best current to until La Basse du Lis and then towards the Raz de Sein with the backing tide. There were a few shots to play by getting the current to Tevennec.
“I’m happy because I managed to lead over almost the whole race. I was aggressive when I needed to be and I did not give up. I was in good shape on the last day because I slept well before and I really did not want to miss that one. To stay focused on the settings : you had to be on it to avoid being overtaken. I managed to hold on to Nico Lunven, for me it’s fabulous. The goal is to win the third stage where there are plenty of manoeuvres to make, with currents to play in.”

Nicolas Lunven (Generali) 2^nd in 2 days, 11 hours, 31 minutes, 45 seconds :
“I’m really happy, but the hint of disappointment is that I did much of the Bay of Biscay as a leader. I tried to analyse this little slump and I cannot explain where Gildas passed me. I then managed to scrounge a little bit back but not enough to come back and overtake him. So I miss the leg victory down to one small mistake, but I am very, very happy to be second. It was a great stage, I had a lot of fun. I cannot wait to be in a good bed, I’m pretty tired. Between Groix and Belle Isle and I managed to rest a little but I have spent my whole time sailing the boat.”

Yann Eliès (Groupe Queguiner Journal des Entreprises) 3rd in 2 days, 11 hours, 38 minutes, 53 seconds :
“I’m happy with this third place because at one point the picture wasn’t looking so good, once we got out of the high in the Bay of Biscay. The leaders were 4-5 miles ahead with the possibility to increase that lead on the inshore, but I finished 7 minutes behind Nicolas Lunven and so it is not that bad. I still gain some time on my 1st leg-fellows. I’m glad it worked out like that.
“I’ll have to be more careful on the starting line. For now this is not my strong point and it could cause me some issues. I’ve managed to salvage it every time. It’s more complicated when you start to come back with a long speed run as compared to an inshore course where you have more opportunities. I slept well this afternoon. We had a long reaching leg where my backup autopilot helmed properly, so I arrive tonight pretty much rested.”

Fabien Delahaye (Skipper Macif 2012) 7th (23 mins, 55 secs) :
“It turned out to be all about speed and trajectory. After crossing the ridge in the Bay of Biscay there was a big choice to make before the west of Sein. There are some who lost a lot of places. Myself, I managed to come back there. After that, you had to be concentrated on boat speed. But the ranking was already decided.”

Jeanne Grégoire (Banque Populaire) 11th (30 mins, 49 secs) :
“I’m really happy. We had a lot of fun on the water and have very interesting sailing conditions. Well, it ‘s a bit grey and foggy and did not see much of the sun, but we have interesting weather, some tricky stuff. I made some mistakes but I was really happy, I enjoyed it. I was totally into it from the start. I was going to make a really beautiful leg but by staying in contact with Vendée (Lagraviere), I just lost sight of my basic strategy. I lost 10 ranks in the battle. At one point, I was disappointed, I cried telling myself I was worthless, and then I pulled myself together and said : ‘Now, you must overtake some boats : three at the end’.”

Morgan Lagravière (Vendée) 12th (31 mins, 45 secs) :
“A difficult leg overall. I made a lot of mistakes on my route and my positioning especially when crossing the ridge. It took more than others to come back on the main pack and to finish in a decent place. I managed to sleep well on the final part of the leg. Thus, I feel good but the boat has some troubles after my collision with Jean Pierre Nicol at the start. We have some work to do on it.”

Francisco Lobato (Roff) 17th (51 mins, 25 secs) :
“It was an intense leg and fatigue began to accumulate. The first part of the race, I think, was the only bit that mattered. You had to be in the east from the beginning as Yann and Gildas did.”

Sam Goodchild (Artemis 23) 23rd (1 hr, 16 mins, 23 secs) :
“It was very difficult, I lost a lot of miles at the beginning of the leg and then spent a lot of the leg trying to catch up, and struggling mentally and physically to catch up. In my head it was pretty difficult to try to get to grips with what was happening – in the Figaro you’re on your own, there’s no one else to talk to so I did a lot of fighting by myself, and then I had a nice little race with Nick and a few other guys came back in so it was ok, but generally very, very difficult.”

Nick Cherry (Artemis 77), 26th (1 hr, 17 mins, 25 secs) :
“For me it was kind of the opposite in that I started badly, then did ok in the middle, then lost a few places at the end, so it’s a bit of frustrating but I’m happy with the overall result, just. I was first rookie until the end when I let two of them past. It would’ve been good if I’d been first. I feel pretty tired, I’ve got a lot to think about from the leg, about where it went well and where it went badly, but I’m pleased to be in. I’m not happy at the moment but maybe I will be, there are a few things from the start – maybe a protest – and it’s always frustrating to lose places near the finish, but I’m happy.”

Thomas Normand (Financière de l’Echiquier) 28th (1 hr, 29 mins, 38 secs) :
“Actually I’m fairly divided. I had great times at sea and lots of fun. It was a great battle with the guys but I missed on two or three things. This is the daily life of rookies, we must learn. I gradually integrate the stuff. I will try to do better next Sunday for the third stage.”

Henry Bomby (Artemis 37) 36th :
“It seemed like quite a long way to get here in the end. But I’m definitely glad to be back onshore. I feel very tired, I feel like I’ve used a lot of energy to get here and so I’m looking forward to going to bed, and sorting the boat out tomorrow, and starting to look at the next leg tomorrow morning, but I’m pretty tired right now.
“I had a problem on the first night with my electronics, just as it got dark and we started to work our way out of the trough all my electronics failed, all my instruments went down and the pilot as well, so the boat broached because I was under pilot at the time. And then I called Gilles and asked for permission to speak to the other competitors to ask for advice and then a few of the French guys gave me a few things to try and eventually an hour and a half later found the problem and were able to take it out of the system. After that I managed to get going again but I was then back in the trough and had to work my way back out of it again before getting into the breeze so I’d lost a lot of time by then.
“People tell you it’s hard, but you can only imagine how hard until you do it. I think it’s just learning to overcome those things and making them smaller in reality, and just concentrating on the positives.”

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