“This is a good one, a good one !” Exclaims a smiling Desjoyeaux punching the air as he crosses the finish line this morning. This is Michel’s 6th leg win on a Solitaire (in Ireland twice and in Gijon 3 times), a race that he has been title-holder of twice before ; in 1992 and again in 1998. This win will hold a special place for Michel as it marks the first win in France for the ultimate sailor that ha won all the major solo races including the Vendée Globe, the Route du Rhum Route du Rhum #RouteDuRhum and the Transat The Transat #thetransat #ostar .

Just 50 seconds later, in a battle right up to the finish line in the Rade de Brest Brest #brest , Frederic Duthil (Distionxion) crossed the line to take second place. “I put everything I had into it and am just completely drained,” he declared upon arrival. As a result, Duthil continues to lie ahead in the overall time rankings after the second leg with a 13 minute advantage over Michel Desjoyeaux.

Gildas Mahé (Le Comptoir Immobilier) completes the podium with a third place on the leg finishing just 2 minutes and 30 seconds behind the winner of the day in his hometown of Brest Brest #brest .

The first ten boats finished within 30 minutes of each other ; among these, Christophe Lebas (Lola La Piscine Assemblée) in 4th place the after a great performance lies just 4 minutes behind Foncia. Nicolas Bérenger (Koné Ascenseurs), come in 5th and 6 minutes behind followed by another local sailor from Brest, Gildas Morvan (Cercle Vert), Thierry Chabagny (Brossard), 7th and 9 minutes Gérald Véniard (Scutum), Eric Drouglazet (Luisina) and Thomas Rouxel (Défi Mousquetaires), make up the first ten in at Brest. The first rookie to finish is Vincent Biarnes (Côtes d’Armor) in 16th place.

They said…

James Bird – GFI Group – 39th on the second leg : “Coming in at the Fastnet in 27th place and then seeing your position fall back to 39th is not nice. I managed to be ahead of Scutum on the run up to the Fastnet, so was pleased with the boat and then just behind Lola when rounding. I followed Lola out West but decided to gybe back ; looking back I could have followed him for longer. I broke the kite halyard at the racon and then with the position repot got into a bit of grump, so had a cup of tea and went to bed for an hour ! By the time I put my head through the hatch I could see Nigelkingyachting.com straight ahead and just went for him.
 The boat speed was good as I could keep up with the fast boats but I just could not seem to choose the right direction as well as they could ! I did manage to sleep a bit, but everytime you do you just see someone gets ahead.
 I managed to wrap the spinnaker round the forestay coming round the fastnet which cost me time as it took two hours to untangle.”

Nigel King (Nigel King Yachting) – 40th at finish in Brest : “I have never worked to hard to go so slow in my whole life ! There have had some technical issues on this leg. Last night I had no electrics all the way from the Racon mark to the finish. The start was a bun fight and although I had made up my mind to take the right side, there were just lots of boats. I managed to climb up the fleet and made some massive gains going into shore along the south coast of Ireland. Then suddenly at the Rock, boats that were behind just came round and passed me. Driving became tough yesterday as it was pulling and even the autopilot could not hold for long if I went below to do something. I just would seem to have the slowest boat of the fleet !”

Paul ? Riain (City Jet) – 46th to finish in Brest at 08h57 this morning : “I hit two windless holes and managed to be pushed off the South Coast of Ireland which just put right to the back of the fleet. I did manage to catch up on a couple of them on the run south. The better guys know how to sail their boats better downwind, so there is no surprise.
 I was knackered even before the start, which I knew the day before. I did not raise my genoa on the 1st night to avoid the spinnaker wrapping round the forestay, which ended up happening after a couple of hours. I did a bit of driving just to try and pick the guys off but otherwise the auto helm worked well.
 It has all been a good experience and if I had it not been a race ; I would have really enjoyed the sailing ! Next time I hear that the wind does not come in from the West in Ireland, I will beg to differ, it did come in this time ! Le Mans is over and the Paris-Dakar is next…Now I need to just get some rest and use these days to prepare for the next race with out distractions.”

From Sabina MOLLART-ROGERSON