The fourth and decisive leg of 2010 La Solitaire du Figaro will start from Kinsale tomorrow at 13.00. The 44 skippers will have to deal with the last 435 miles to Cherbourg and weather conditions are expected to be fairly tough, for a fast passage to the finish. Armel Le Cleac'h is still solidly in the lead but his competitors will surely play their cards right to be on the highest step of the podium.

Rule one: good manoeuvres and no breakages. The long stopover in quiet and friendly Kinsale is nearly over, after resting, enjoying the scenery, the hospitality or some golfing or fishing, the skippers get ready to leave for the last lap to Cherbourg.

To leave Ireland, the competitors will once more have to sail along the Irish cost to reach the famous Fastnet lighthouse 45 miles away, leaving it to port side. As opposed to the third leg, the 250-mile leap across the Celtic Sea will see the fleet leave the Scilly isles and the imposing lighthouse of Bishop Rock to port side. The skippers will have to negotiate the cross currents common to the English Channel for more than 100 miles, their waypoint set precisely on the cardinal buoy West Lizen Ven north of the île Vierge. After this mark, to be left on port side, the fleet will set off for 140 miles towards the Channel Islands. But this time, only the île d'Aurigny will be left offshore.

Like it happened for their way up to Kinsale, overtaking the islands of Guernsey, Herm and Jersey will require all the skipper's fine strategy. Later on, there could be some good options or tactical chances nearer to the Cotentin coastline.

The Raz Blanchard could open up the game over the last miles to the finish in Cherbourg-Octeville, will host the grand finale of La Solitaire du Figaro. As tradition the 44 skippers will meet late afternoon for the briefing, to get the last details on the weather they will encounter and routing to deal with the 435 miles that separate them from Cherbourg and the final verdict on who will win the 2010 edition.The fight looks fiercer than ever: if Armel Le Cleac'h (Britair) can count on a solid lead on his two immediate competitors, François Gabart (Skipper Macif 2010) and Tomas Rouxel (Credit Mutuel de Bretagne) nonetheless he will have to watch out for at least ten sailors who can well play a master stroke and obliterate their disadvantage. Same can be said for the "bizuth", the newcomers category, where Anthony Marchand (Espoir Region Bretagne) has slightly more than 18 minutes on Yoann Richomme (DLBC) and 56 minutes on Swiss Bernard Stamm. Easy to predict very close, tactical, racing for them.

According to the weather forecast by Météo France's expert Sylvain Mondon, after having rounded the Fastnet on their way to Lizen Ven, the fleet may encounter, and have to tackle with accordingly, two different meteorological outlooks: one with lighter northwesterly winds blowing at around 15/20 knots and one with stiffer breezes topping 25 with gusts over 30 knots. Maximum focus and eyes wide open together with faultless manoeuvring will be needed, since a badly conducted gibe or a broken spinnaker may involve significant time gaps on the finish line, loosing or getting many positions in the general ranking. As confirmed by Race Director Jacques Caraes: "It will be physical, very tiring and skippers will have to steer a lot. No mistakes allowed there.

The leg will be probably faster than expected and we could finally have a finish in daylight."As a matter of fact the leaders could well reach Cherbourg, where the Solitaire comes back for the seventh time in its history, Wednesday around midday or Thursday at the latest should the wind be lighter. The approach to Cherbourg will be nonetheless a tricky one because of the strong tidal flows and currents that could be as strong as 3.5 to 4.5 knots. Quotes form the skippers:Romain Attanasio (Saveol) "We'll sail fast, under spinnaker and it looks like there won't be light airs. There is not a big tide coefficient so we don't expect an awful lot of current at the raz Blanchard. Yet, we will have to play with a cold front. I had a similar experience and it was a pretty busy time: people going into the low and others who trail behind and at the finish it was... 20 miles. This leg does not worry me more than the others, there will be much spinnaker downwind sailing and I feel at ease with that. I'm not afraid but I know that it will be necessary to be in front from the start. The risks? Breaking a spinnaker would mean disaster." Gildas Morvan (Cercle Vert)"It will be a fast one, there's wind the route is straight.

Not much to think about, it will be breezy, a low to deal with and it looks like we won't sleep too much, it's not going to be very relaxing, that's for sure. Helming and manoeuvring... I like the idea. You can get or loose time easily, the main thing is not to break anything, to gibe well, watch out for the cargos' route, because we will get to the finish in a dash under spinnaker..." Anthony Marchand (Challenge Espoir Région Bretagne) "I did my navigation session earlier, I'm downloading the latest weather grib files to make some simulations. I've had three bad starts and I know I can't have another one... after that is fast downwind, there will be wind but not so much. If it's downwind, even in 25 knots, on a Figaro you don't really realize.

It's one of those legs that may seem easy because you're going straight to the target but then the small lateral gaps when you get to a waypoint can make a difference. I have the impression that there is more difference among us on windy legs, at least this is what I feel. I'm less stressed than I was at the beginning, when I felt like going to a new school not knowing if the schoolmates would be nice. At the end the teachers are nice and the mates too..." Jonny Malbon (Artemis)"Kinsale is a beautiful place with very friendly people and we've been pretty lucky with the weather. Ready to go now, for me I've got to have a good leg cause although being quite close in the last leg it was pretty disappointing to be right down at the back of the fleet. Given the level of the fleet, you just make one mistake and it's difficult to get back in. So, I've got to focus, I've got nothing to loose just go full power and try to do my best, be in a good position and a good result in Cherbourg. Fingers crossed the weather looks ok, we should see some good speed downwind and fleet racing. We won't be having much sleep because you have to be more on form with the boat."

Preparing for La Solitaire du Figaro here