The penultimate leg of the Solitaire du Figaro finished last night in Kinsale with Adrien Hardy claiming the leg win in a time of 2 days, 6 hours, 8 minutes and 45 seconds, arriving just after 8.00pm. Jonny Malbon on Artemis finished just 1 hour, 19 minutes and 45 seconds later in 41st place. The third 349-mile leg of this arduous Solitaire proved challenging with strong winds, rain, less than seasonal temperatures and fog making it hard work for the solo skippers. Jonny undoubtedly found the leg hard work having not fully recovered from leg 2 when he was forced to hand-steer for nearly the entire leg due to a broken autopilot and did not sleep for three whole days! “I’m fine a bit tired but actually not feeling quite as tired as I probably should be! The boat is fine. I managed to get a big cut in my hand after picking up a fish hook in my spinnaker sheet which I didn’t see when I was cleaning it and it ripped through my hand. But that’s the only injury and the boat is in really good shape,” said Jonny as he stepped ashore in Kinsale.
On leaving Brest the 44-boat fleet raced north up the coast of France before crossing the English Channel and rounding Wolf Rock off the south-west tip of England: “It was hard in places, the start was great and tacking in the Raz de Brest was fantastic - not difficult but everyone was pushing it right up to the rocks. Then it got a bit more difficult and I had an accident when I got my spinnaker wrapped around the forestay in a gybe which was a bit frustrating. I lost a bit of time as I had to go off and sort it out but then I managed to get back with the fleet. The second day was harder, the weather was horrible – grey, miserable, strong, strong winds and visibility was really bad so I couldn’t really see anyone or see what sails they were using. I was hanging on to the genoa in 25, 28, 30 knots of wind which is too much. So it was quite a relief when that cleared and the front went through very quickly.”
The racing was close between the competitors with constant position changes as the sailors vied for their places: “The last day was really nice and I enjoyed it. At the end I went to the beach to try and find some wind and I was quite lucky as the breeze came from the beach so I had a much nicer angle than the people offshore.”
Finishing just over an hour after the leg winner is testament to Jonny’s training this winter and his improving race performance in this highly competitive class. He has consistently been able to stay with the main fleet compared to his previous participation last year. His autopilot set back on leg 2, after lying in 12th place at the start of the leg, cost him dearly as the overall rankings are calculated on cumulative time. Finishing nearly 10 hours after the leg 2 winner Armel Le Cleac’h, who still leads in the overall rankings, has put Jonny at the bottom of the leaderboard with one more leg to go.
The final leg of the 2010 Solitaire du Figaro leaves Kinsale on Monday, 16th August on the final 435-mile leg to Cherbourg.
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