Almost exactly a year after we set off on the Around Ireland World Record blast with the Figaro 3 RL Sailing from Dun Laoghaire last year reports Pamela Lee of Greystones, I joined forces again with Cat Hunt to undertake a key campaign project with her newly-acquired Figaro 3. Our objective this year was very different from the Round Ireland Circuit, but we kicked off the reunion with a nice blustery, blistery, bouncy ride out from the Solent over to France.

I had travelled out to the UK to assist Cat in bringing her newly commissioned Figaro 3 Racing By Gardens to France for the Figaro 3 Championship in the Spi Ouest Regatta at La Trinite sur Mer, ahead of her training for her 2022 La Solitaire du Figaro campaign. We skipped across the channel in 30+ knots and then hopped our way down the Brittany coast from Roscoff and Lorient to La Trinité sur Mer, taking cover from the series of powerful fronts passing over at the time. It was a timely opportunity to reminisce on the fantastic achievement of last year, which was supported by so many of the Irish sailing community to whom we’ll always be grateful, and to reflect on how much we have both learned and progressed as sailors in a year.

The summer lasts longer in the inner reaches of the Bay of Biscay

This year our project again linked up with The Magenta Project in an effort to encourage and facilitate greater female participation in the sport, but it took on quite a different format, competing in the French Figaro Nationals as part of the Spi Ouest- France Regatta. 

The regatta had well over three hundred boats racing on the water each day, across twenty-five different fleets.

The Nationals - as part of the event - avoided the usual Figaro, offshore, shorthanded racing style, and instead it was four crew to a boat, with a series of windward-leeward inshore races. Certainly it was a different skill set from the usual, but the format provided plenty of opportunity to practice manoeuvres and close-quarter tactics, as well as giving the Class the opportunity to introduce new sailors in a welcoming and fun manner.

This was something that we took on whole-heartedly, and invited two non-Figaro sailors from the Magenta Project to join the Racing by Gardens team for the event. Our additional crew members were Portuguese/American sailor Leah Sweet, and Spanish Sailor Aina Bauza.

Tough Learning curve…..it was the first opportunity to compete boat-for-boat with a fleet of Figaro 3s, but the pace was ferocious with more than a dozen superstars racing.

They’re both well-accomplished sailors in their own right, with Leah in the thick of the TP52 circuit and Aina a previous Laser Olympic campaigner and now Mini 6.50 sailor. It was all given an extra edge through being the first time that Cat would be lining up with her new Figaro 3 in a Class fleet, having spent the summer racing and training in the Solent in IRC double-handed classes with boats of other types.

The all-up weight of Racing by Gardens’ crew was less than half that of some of the leading boats

A number of factors such as those dominated the outcome, including the remarkably high-level of top sailors packed into the rest of the Figaro fleet, sometimes with four super-stars in one boat including the likes of Armel L’Cleach (4 time Solitaire champion and Vendee Globe winner), Pierre Leboucher, Clarisse Cremer, Alan Roberts……well, the list just goes on and on.

It meant racing was challenging and unforgiving in every way. That said, our newly formed team worked hard together, pushed through all the tough patches, pulled off some great starts (blocking out Armel himself in one – a high point), started to improve boat speed day on day, and most of all, we had a whole lot of fun!

Racing a Figaro 3 is always a battle to transform the foil from a hindrance into an advantage……..……and sometimes it seems to be working better than others

Our manoeuvres were on point, particularly considering we had only half the combined bodyweight of the majority of the fleet, and we learnt a lot about getting a newly commissioned Figaro closer in line with a long-standing and highly-tuned fleet of boats. Unfortunately, we didn’t pull off any amazing results, but as usual, every opportunity to sail is an opportunity to learn – I’m looking forward to looking back again in a year’s time to see how we have improved from here.

Spi-Ouest is a fantastic regatta and I recommend any interested Irish sailors to make the trip over for next year. I’m very grateful for my teammates who joined me on the water, for the chance to fly the Magenta flag and for the support of Cat’s sponsor Gardens of Eden and Ross Farrow for the support.