When he crossed the finish line off Lorient, Brittany at 16:03:48hrs UTC today (Saturday 9th December) to win the inaugural 3,500 miles Retour à La Base, this afternoon French skipper Yoann Richomme marked himself as a sailor worth watching on next year’s Vendée Globe solo non-stop race around the world.

Imoca Paprec Arkea skipper Yoann Richomme taking 1st place on the Retour à la Base in Lorient, France, on December 09, 2023. (photo by Anne Beaugé / Retour à La Base)

Despite this new single-handed Transatlantic race from Martinique to France being Richomme’s first-ever solo sail on his recently launched IMOCA Paprec Arkéa, the 40-year-old has led the 32-strong field for more than five days.

His elapsed time for the course is 9 days 3 minutes 48 seconds. His average speed on the theoretical course is 16.19kts; he actually sailed 4256.68nms at an average of 19.7kts.

Returning to his home port and met on the dock by all his family and close friends was clearly a special moment in his career of Richomme so far,

”Is the cinema closed tonight or something?’ he quipped.

But he reflected on his passage across the finish line, and the win:

“It was amazing doing the finishing photos; so much emotion came to the surface in those three minutes; it shows you how hard that race was to live. It is such a big moment in your head.”

A meticulous perfectionist who lives for the challenge of preparing and optimising his boats - fully utilising his background as a Southampton-trained naval architect and his engineering nous – Richomme’s first solo IMOCA race win neatly caps the second place he and Yann Eliès scored on the double handed outbound race to Martinique, the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre.

When the assembled media asserted that his second in the TJV and this solo win made him the favourite to win the Vendée Globe, he responded, laughing, “It is you who set me as a favourite; it is not me! It is only the boat that is! 2,1 is good, though, I am so proud for the team. It has been hard, and I have to think of Thomas, who should have been in the battle but who has damage.”

He paid tribute to Thomas Ruyant, who won the Transat Jacques Vabre with Morgan Lagraviere but who has struggled with technical problems on this solo race.

And asked what his immediate plans were he responded, “Party! It has been two years I have been on this project in my head or practically and the last nine months have been full on, nothing but this, so it is payback time. It has been tough, sorting out the problems with it being a new, young boat.”

Clearly he believes he as the boat to do well on future races including the Vendee Globe:

“It is not really a strategic win this is a victory for the boat, an exceptional design which we can push further, it is a great design,well adapted. But for example on the climb from Martinique it was not the best,there are boats better than us. But for the big winds, the big seas it is great.”

He continued, “I was tired in Martinique but I left very motivated, up for the fight. But I really found my good rhythm and stuck to it. I made sure I did not get in the red because that is a no go. The boat will punish you. It would just be al kinds of hell. You had to stick to your rhythm, in the day you have to do your navigation and weather, fix the boat and make sure you sleep.”

Richomme could not find funding to compete on the 2020-2021 Vendée Globe but, left ashore, he immersed himself in the minutiae of the race and streamed his own popular weather focused commentary and analysis show. But now, in winning the first of the three single-handed Transatlantic races to be contested before the legendary solo race round the world starts early next November, Richomme can be considered among the favourites to win.

Armed with a new Koch-Finot Conq design which has proven a step ahead in fast downwind and reaching conditions, Richomme has largely been able to modulate his attack in recent days and finished just over 110 miles ahead of Jéremie Beyou (Charal)

Since leaving Martinique on Thursday, 30th November, on the 1000 miles climb north, Richomme was in the lead group. But, when negotiating the north westerly fringes of the Azores anticyclone it was a neatly executed tack to the north east for a few hours which offered him more wind and a better course angle, allowing him to climb away from the fleet progressively.

While this might be a maiden solo IMOCA race victory, Richomme has twice won the very competitive Class 40 on the Route du Rhum solo Transatlantic from Saint Malo to Guadeloupe (2018 and 2020) – both times showcasing his ability to push harder and faster for longer than his rivals. He is a two-time winner of La Solitaire du Figaro, the annual French multi-stage solo offshore race, in 2016 and 2019.

It was in only this February that Paprec Arkéa, a sistership to Thomas Ruyant’s IMOCA, For People, was launched. Nine months later with just three training events, where she impressed everyone with her futuristic appearance and speeds, the 60-foot boat set off in the double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre for her first transatlantic crossing, with the highly experienced Yann Eliès alongside Richomme. They managed an incredible second place, in itself a great success. But in the Paprec Arkéa team, the main goal was to follow up with success on the Retour à La Base which is designed to give the skippers solo experience in tough December conditions, fast reaching and sailing downwind in big winds and seas akin to those expected next year in the Southern Ocean.

Richomme’s race

Before the start when it was pointed out that he had never been alone aboard Paprec Arkéa it did now seem to worry Richomme. Indeed it raised a chuckle. He is very much used to delivering projects against the clock, sometimes with limited budgets and boats that have only recently been launched. In that respect nothing seems to scare him, underlining his sheer determination and talent. Unshakeable he already achieved a victory of sorts even before the start of this return race. On the outbound race with Eliès his boat suffered some amount of damage. But the boat was put back in shape by the shore team with ten days of work carried out in Martinique. That success – against the clock - spurred Richomme on.

From the very first few hours of the race Richomme gave it his all, weaving his way around the South of Martinique to get in a good position when the fleet started to head North. He was in the top five, which was in fact the goal he set himself before the start. But the skipper was not going to leave it there and kept believing. As they rounded the area of high pressure to tackle the low-pressure systems moving in from the Eastern seaboard of the United States, he decided to go a bit further north and grabbed the lead in the race on 4th December. He stayed first until the finish, continuing to stay in the North before turning right to head East towards the Azores, where he consolidated, descending to place himself in front of his rivals. Then, it was straight ahead to head for home and Lorient at full speed, where victory would be his.

For all that he makes it look so and remains down to earth and good-humoured, nothing was simple, and no one was spared problems and difficulties.

Sleep management to begin with, which was a major problem in a large part of the race: “I find it hard to sleep… I try to lie down to get some rest with or without a podcast,” he explained earlier this week. “Perhaps I do get a little sleep at times, but I can’t say I have noticed.”

In any case throughout the race, Richomme has shown what he was capable, achieving his first prestigious victory in the IMOCA class, his third in a solo transatlantic race. It means, too, that he can now look forward to next season.

2024 is an unprecedented, crazy solo ocean racing year with spring and summer’s The Transat CIC, New York-Vendée to be raced before the pinnacle Vendée Globe. Richomme will certainly be fighting to be on all three podiums.

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With a lead of some 88 miles and about 400 miles to the finish line, it could be imagined that Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkéa) might ease back on the accelerator and consolidate to the Lorient finish line of the Retour à La Base, but the French skipper remains the fastest of the top 10 skippers. Making over 20kts late this afternoon, he can imagine being finished by 1600hrs local time Saturday, landing his first big IMOCA race win ever, a great conclusion to his first proper solo outing.

Briton Sam Goodchild is still pushing hard in third place but has a margin of 36 miles to close down on second-placed Jéremie Beyou (Charal). There is no doubt the French-based Goodchild will do all he can if the opportunity arises, but for him, getting ‘home to the barn’ safely and banking a good third place will be deeply satisfying.

“It is going fairly well this afternoon.” Goodchild said on his daily voice message report, “I am keeping an eye on what’s happening around me, but I don’t want to get too carried away. I am just trying to do what I told myself a few days ago….’ sail your own race…sail to Lorient as fast as you can, but don’t get wound up by the people around you,’ so I am trying to stick to that philosophy. It is quite rough weather; it is pretty windy. We had 35 earlier with five-metre waves, so it is a bit full-on. If we weren’t racing, it would be fine, but we want to go fast, and so it is about finding the right way to do that without breaking too much. So far, so good. We have the Southern Ocean sails out so happy to give them an airing, you don’t get that chance very often. I think it will be downwind all the way to the finish with a gybe coming up tomorrow morning. We are heading across Biscay and then into the finish sometime between Saturday and Sunday. It is hard to estimate when because there is such a big sea state the performance of the boat can quickly improve or deteriorate depending on what happens with the sea state.”

Goodchild should finish during Saturday night or Sunday morning, models suggest Beyou will be a couple or three hours earlier.

Otherwise, the battle for fourth to tenth positions is wide open. Louis Burton (Bureau Vallée) seems to be profiting from being in the north, though his gains are more likely to come between now and the finish, seeming to be able to sail a better angle towards the finish. Germany’s Boris Herrmann (Malizia Seaexplorer) still holds fourth but has the hard-driving Damien Seguin (Groupe Apicil) and Briton Sam Davies (Initiatives Coeur) within reach behind. Nico Lunven (Holcim PRB) reported a key on board failure…his alarm system. In eighth, he reported that he slept for six hours because his alarm battery failed, and he is kicking himself for losing position to the south! He may, of course, now attack as he is better rested.

For 17th placed Kojiro Shiraishi (DMG MORI Global One) dental pain is debilitating and he admits he is very fatigued, racing in gusts over 40 knots. Louis Duc (Fives Group – Lantana Environnement) has a torn sail and plans to sail into the lee of San Miguel in the Azores to repair, which could well open the door for the ‘Crazy Kiwi’ Conrad Colman (Mail Boxes ETC), who looks like he might become second daggerboard boat.

The winner of the Retour a La Base is forecasted to cross the Lorient finish line on Saturday afternoon. It is looking increasingly likely to be a maiden solo IMOCA race triumph for longtime race leader Yoann Richomme on the new blue and red Koch-Finot Conq designed Paprec Arkea.

But while the top three - Richomme, second-placed Jeremie Beyou on Charal and Brit Sam Goodchild on For the Planet - are now well clear of fourth-placed Boris Herrmann (Malizia Sea explorer) - there are intense, close races going on all the way through the fleet.

Indeed, the most 'solo' of solo racers is veteran Jean Le Cam (Tout commence en Finistere-Armor Lux), who started from Martinique yesterday on his new IMOCA and faces a tough crossing with a lot of upwind sailing.

But this level of intensity and sustained high speeds come at a physical cost, and today, still with two to five days of racing left, many skippers were talking about their level of fatigue. On the new, fast foiling IMOCAs even short periods of deep, restorative sleep are hard to snatch.

Hermann noted today, "I feel super tired. When I turn the handles (on the pedestal winch) I have no energy. I am worried that if a big gust comes I would not manage to furl the big sail. I am sure with the adrenalin I would be OK... but..."

Race Tracker

With more than 2200 nautical miles still to sail and at least two more low-pressure systems due before a timely finish into Lorient expected Saturday, there is still a long, long way to go on the Retour à La Base solo Transatlantic from Martinique to France.

But as Thomas ‘The Rocket’ Ruyant (For The People) scythed his way into third place today - setting a new solo 24-hour distance record - the top three finishers now hold the podium positions on the outward, two-handed Transat Jacques Vabre. Second into Martinique Yoann Richomme leads, Briton Sam Goodchild, third on the way out, is holding second.

Outbound Ruyant proved quickest downwind in the trade winds, and with his new Koch-Finot Conq design, he has just claimed a new solo monohull 24-hour distance record.

Between 1430hrs UTC Sunday 3rd and 1430hrs UTC today Ruyant is measured to have sailed 539.94 nautical miles. This beats the 2017 record mark of Alex Thomson set on 16th January during the Vendée Globe of 536.81. And with the leaders still making around 22-24kts, there is every chance Ruyant’s new mark might fall again.

Indeed, race leader Yoann Richomme (Paprec-Arkéa) had already come close around 0800hrs this morning and subsequently has been first to go north in search of more breeze and was doing just under 24kts late this afternoon.

The recent winner of the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre with Morgan Lagravière, Ruyant made up the best part of 30 miles and three places during those 24 hours at record speed. This afternoon, he was still about 14 miles behind Sam Goodchild (For the Planet). Early leader Jéremie Beyou (Charal) continues to have technical problems and has set up a secondary wind vane system and lies fourth.

“It looks a little like we saw on the Transat Jacques Vabre that the Koch boats have this edge. They have this quad set up with the smaller J2 and J3s which in certain wind conditions they can set as staysails and it is clearly very effective, they are very much optimised for that configuration. And we can see that again with Thomas who has been on a great run.” Observes The Ocean Race winner Jack Bouttell who was co-skipper on the TJV with Sam Davies.

He continues, “It is interesting to see Yoann gybing for the shift or more pressure, I think mostly the front group will follow each other otherwise. Sam (Davies) has been sailing well and has gybed. She has had a few little breakages, just some fatigue nothing serious but she and Clarisse are having a good race. I am also really impressed by how Violette Dorange is sailing, she is having a fantastic race for her first solo IMOCA race.”

Goodchild said today he felt that as the sea conditions have been building he is at a slight disadvantage compared to the new boats like Richomme’s and Ruyant’s. Nonetheless he was still holding a solid second place and going fast on the opposite gybe to the leader.

Goodchild, at midday: “I have just changed sails which took me a mere one and a half hours and so I am tired. It is fast but the waves are now picking up a bit which is making it a bit difficult for my boat which has not had a new bow put on it and all the boats round me are new boats which are a bit more adapted. I am not going to complain. I have made my hay while the sun shone to be here. I am struggling to keep up to the same speeds now. We have had a wind shift which we did not expect, well I did not expect, and it is a big lefty (header, wind has gone left) so I have changed to my smaller downwind sail and so there are some people who were already on that who might be a little bit slower, so they won’t have to change. And there are others who still will….I think it depends on what they have. Charal are obviously struggling a bit with their wind instruments, when I crossed them yesterday they had a big sail up or a medium sail up. I think Paprec did a second change as I saw them slow down, I am not sure about ‘People’ (For People), I have no plans to gybe soon, as this left wind shift is helping us get north.”

The Retour à La Base solo IMOCA race from Martinique to Lorient, France, is heating up as the leaders complete their curve around the North Atlantic high-pressure system and start to head towards the east. They are seeking to find the best entry point to catch a ride on the train of fast-moving, low-pressure systems set to carry them rapidly towards Europe. 

According to reports, the speeds on Monday and Tuesday could be high enough to threaten the solo 24-hour record, which has been held for five years by Alex Thomson at 539.71 miles. Jéremie Beyou (Charal) had been leading the race, but in the late afternoon, Briton Sam Goodchild (For The Planet) took the lead as Charal gybed north. 

At four days into the 3,500 miles passage from Fort-de-France, the pace is already telling on boats and skippers. Goodchild revealed that he hoped to get some much-needed rest this afternoon before a week’s onslaught with successive, deeper and more malicious low-pressure systems due through to the finish, which should be Saturday, according to the latest estimates.

Goodchild said, “To be honest, I don’t know what I am doing right, really; I am just happy the boat is going well. But I am a bit tired, so I need to start being a bit careful. Last night was a bit full-on, so I did not get much sleep. I have been trying to catch up on sleep but it really is not easy. It is nicer now, and the wind is more stable, so we had the big sail change this morning, which went relatively well. We are heading more to the east now, which is nice; I am trying to eat properly get some rest and keep going fast. The last two nights have been bad for sleeping, painful, to be honest, with unstable winds and a bad sea state, so I am hopeful. I have put some rice and fish curry on for my Sunday lunch to eat, I am looking forwards to it and then try and get a nap after that.”

Meanwhile, Beyou is still in the race, always around 17-19 nautical miles ahead of Goodchild and Yoann Richomme (Arkéa-Paprec). 

The race is far from over and the sailors are pushing themselves to the limit. As the weather conditions continue to pose a challenge, it remains to be seen who will emerge victorious in this exciting solo race.nd Seb Simon (Groupe Deubril) are more on the outside, positions more fancied by Will Harris, the co-skipper of Malizia-Seaexplorer and a renowned weather expert,

“Going slightly wider will take them north earlier and may mean one less gybe, and they should have a little more pressure.” Says Harris who believes the solo record could well fall, considering 550 miles a realistic mark. “The thing here is if they need to gybe in the 24 hours. Really to maximise the record run it needs to be straight line, especially solo.”

“Between Monday morning and Tuesday, there can be some very nice runs,” explains Christian Dumard, the race meteorologist. “They must manage to sail at more than 22.36 knots to beat the record,” specifies Jacques Caraës assistant to the race director.

The daggerboard boats will also start to accelerate and turn to the right. Louis Duc (Fives Group – Lantana Environnement) is positioned slightly further East than his competitors. Often happy to do his own thing, Duc says he is liking passing through the South-East of Bermuda – “I would have liked to stay round here to see how it is.”

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After just over 24 hours of racing since leaving Fort-de-France, Jéremie Beyou is proving his well-optimised Charal is fastest on the northward climb up the Atlantic for the Retour à La Base fleet of solo racers.

While the French favourite on his Sam Manuard design has eked out a lead of 11 miles, showing the benefit of launching his new boat early and now having three Transatlantic passages to its credit, the fleet for this inaugural solo race from Martinique to Lorient, France was about to grow to 31 skippers after an express turnaround in Fort de France by Tanguy Le Turquais.

Le Turquais and his co-skipper Félix de Navacelle were forced to pitstop for six days in Lorient to repair a large hole in the hull side of Lazare after hitting a floating object not long after the start of their Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre.

After battling light winds, keel ram problems and three days of squalls, the duo crossed the finish line at 0551hrs local time, the word Resilience painted across their pink hull.

Greeted by friends, family, representatives of both races and his technical team, Le Turquais lost no time in fulfilling his immediate goals – a shower, fresh sea bream dinner, swim in the sea, and spending time with his and Clarisse Crémer’s one-year-old daughter Mathilda, before he was ready to cross the start line of the Retour à La Base – expected to be around 1500hrs local time, some 300 or so nautical miles behind Fabrice Amédeo (Nexans Art et Fenêtres) who is 30th after having had to take a 5 hours penalty for jumping yesterday’s start gun.

“In my head I don’t stop racing. Ultimately this is one race lasting two months, I will recover when I get back to Lorient.” he said when he stepped on the dock in Fort-de-France.

And the good news for Le Turquais, according to the race’s weather expert is that the displacement of the North Atlantic high to the east might allow the skipper of Lazare to catch a few miles on the fleet ahead of him, though his main objective is completing the course for Vendée Globe qualification.

Climbing just west of north in a moderate trade wind of 15-18kts, these first 48 hours are a speed test of upwind sailing with a true wind angle of around 65-70 degrees. Béyou – who had a disappointing 4th place in the Transat Jacques Vabre – is being pursued by Sébastien Simon on Groupe Dubreuil, winner of The Ocean Race as 11th Hour, Clarisse Crémer is going well in third on L’Occitane en Provence, previously a noted upwind performer in the hands of Charlie Dalin.

“I think things are going as we hoped, Clarisse made a safe start to a race which is very much a confidence builder for her. Now they are just setting up for the high pressure ahead and the question is if west and north gives a better angle to get to the high or if you can play the right a little and saw off a little bit of the corner of the high with the risk you might get sucked into it. It is moving quite quick but you really have to kind of pick your position.” Explained Alan Roberts who is Crémer’s co-skipper this season and just finished the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre with her.

“Jéremie has really taken a step on in terms of speed which comes from knowing your boat so well and is going very well. Thomas Ruyant dropped a little bit but will be coming back and Boris probably has the best boat for the downwind stuff so he is quite well positioned.”

In eighth place this afternoon Sam Goodchild (FOR THE PLANET) noted this morning, “We are in fast upwind mode, going north. The first half of the first night I struggled to sleep as we were so close to Bureau Vallée and Paprec Arkea, we were within 0.3 of a mile of each other for ages and so I did not really trust the boat on its own. So I managed to get some free space and get some rest. I am probably a little further west than I would like to be I am trying to edge back east to the pack there without losing too much speed. Looking at the weather, the next day and a half it is pretty much like this, going north as fast as we can until the light winds spot tomorrow night”

Boris Herrmann (GER) Malizia- SeaExplorer has dropped slightly to ninth, just behind Goodchild, he said this afternoon “I am in a little light spot which was forecasted, expecting more wind tonight going to one reef and J3. Now it is blue sea, sunshine and 13kts of wind so it is like holiday sailing, it is still bouncy and not easy to make the boat go fast. I see Thomas (Ruyant) out there and Sam Goodchild on the AIS, which is nice to haver them to motivate you to change and adapt to every wind change. I did not much sleep yet, lots of little naps but no deep sleep, just I need to get in the rhythm and it is hot. I have little issues trying to find the speed but that will be solved when we go downwind. In the future I will get a new set of foils which will be bigger and better for these marginal upwind foiling conditions.”

The weather outlook

Christian Dumard the race’s weather specialist briefed this morning. “For the foilers these are super conditions. Tonight there will be a little front which they will pass with some stronger winds, but not a big front like we see in Brittany for example, but there will some rain and squalls, with unstable winds, between 12 and 22kts, that will be for a few hours only and that front is dropping south towards the fleet. After that they get to the anticyclone which is displacing east little by little, which they will normally pass to the north and get into the depression.”

Japanese skipper Kojiro Shiraishi (DMG MORI Global One) is going well in 13th just ahead of Pip Hare (Medallia) in 15th,

Hare reported this afternoon, “You don’t get much more beautiful conditions than we have here, the seas are still quite flat. I struggled these last 24 hours to find the real groove, I kind of feel the wind was right on one of my crossovers between reefed and unreefed. Last night I found really difficult trying to get the boat going and not really managing and hence losing a lot of the foilers. That is hard to see at the beginning of the race. I need to know how to do better in the trade winds thinking about the Vendée Globe as strategically that is important.”

Best of the daggerboard boats today is Louis Duc on FIVES Group- Lantana Environnement who is four miles ahead of Violet Dorange (Devenir). Kiwi Conrad Colman (Mail Boxes ETC) had a couple of small breakages which cost him some miles but he is catching back up to these two, about 12 miles behind Dorange.

Colman is struggling with a broken sensor which means his primary wind instruments are not working and also reported, “After we tacked over a big wave I heard a big crash and the carbon fibre sheave box for the J2 sheet exploded, so I have set up a jury set up but that is fine but it does increase my workload for the rest of the race, and mean that I am working harder to maintain the level. So that is quite frustrating to have small breakages which will impact on the way I can sail the boat efficiently. So I gave up a few places then but now I have caught up to Guirec and Manu and eat into my deficit to the boats ahead. That’s great as this will be a long and complicated race. I don’t think that will be the last of the breakages for me but then I don’t think anyone is going to get through this race without some kind of damage.”

Pip Hare, who recently visited Dun Laoghaire on Dublin Bay, is one of those racers who is probably happiest when she is at sea, at one with her IMOCA Medallia. But the British racer now faces her biggest test yet as races solo for the first time on Medallia since she fitted big, powerful foils during last winter and spring. Buoyed by a good 12th place on the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre race out to Martinique, she is relishing the challenge of the solo Retour à La Base race which starts midday local time (1600hrs UTC) Thursday.

How have you recovered in Martinique?

“The thing is for me and a programme of our size, is working life goes on here, I am still working, planning ahead, trying to organise things, looking for sponsorships which we still need, and so there really has not been much beach time at all. And I had major ‘cabin fever’ yesterday. I just wanted to be getting out there and on with it. I am ready to leave.”

What is the particular challenge for you in going solo again?

“I really am looking forwards to it. Being here has not been any kind of holiday, it is business as usual and it is the sailing that gives me the relief. I am not not nervous about it, I am nervous. It is the first time with the big foils on my own. It is a bit of a gnarly course. There is a lot at stake but the only reason I do this is to go sailing. I like sailing.”

Pip Hare is relishing the challenge of the solo Retour à La Base race

Are you looking forwards to being alone again?

“All of this exists so I can go solo sailing. It’s what I love, what we all love. And this race is an important part of our preparations for next year. It gives us an extra vision. I have spoken to several people including one of our sponsors and they have said ‘you have nothing to prove here’ I think the main aim is to get the boat back and, ideally, not rack up any more costs!”

And so, as the French say, where will you ‘set the cursor’ on this race, presumably there is no long term benefit from being overly conservative?

“ In my routing I set my cursor at the conservative end of performance parameters. I have set a maximum wind limit. But then I also have to consider that this will be my one and only opportunity to see how it feels, what the considerations are pushing the boat in the south (in the Vendée Globe). If we get what are looking for, we will get up north, we will get depressions coming across, position ourselves in the front of fronts, it is a chance to try sail set ups, it is a chance to see how fast I can move in relation to the fronts and if I back off, how quickly the front catches me up. If I think back to the Vendée Globe I had to learn that ‘on the go’ in the south for the first time. The first time I backed off too early, the second one I scared the pants off myself. It is a reminder and a learning process and I have not done any of that kind of sailing since the Vendée Globe. So, for me, I am very much someone who needs to do things to give myself the confidence I can do them.”

And what learnings from the outbound race do you carry forwards to this first solo race of 2023?

“I did push the boat hard. The fact we hit 36 knots does tell you something. But because we had the sail damage, we were using old sail configurations which is a very useful learning, but the main thing is that in the bigger breeze I was still using 80 per cent foil in 30kts of wind which is full on. That is full on. And I know what it is like to be thrown across the cabin. So I know how all that feels.”

“So when I get into the bigger breeze my question is how do I set up the foil package so I create sustainable high speeds and living conditions and to keep myself safe. One of the things about double handed is that – not that I don’t care about my personal safety – is there is someone there to come and pick up the pieces if I sprain my wrist or bang my head. But on the way back now one of my bigger concerns is about my personal safety more than the boat, managing that.”

And how is this course back to France shaping up?

“It looks fairly classic. Head north, find depression put your foot down and try and stay ahead of it. There is a little bit of a sticky bit where the models don’t quite agree. There is a transition stage after three or four days but it looks fast but there are quite a few ‘off ramps’ if you don’t want to be right there in the thick of it”

Listen to Pip Hare on her recent podcast with Afloat here