• Ahoy and Welcome to the New SSS Forums!!

    As you can see, we have migrated our old forums to new software. All your old posts, threads, attachments, and messages should be here. If you see anything out of place or have any questions, please scroll to the very bottom of the page and click "Contact Us" and leave a note with as much detail as possible.

    You should be able to login with your old credentials. If you have any issues, try resetting your password before clicking the Contact Us link.

    Cheers
    - Bryan

Bon Voyage, Nathalie!

This is really fascinating, to watch Nathalie enter the big time race scene. She's living my dream. It's unfortunate that with the new boats coming it will become virtually impossible for a regular Joe to enter the Figaro series in the future.

I've gone through her entire blog and learned an awful lot. I'd suggest you all do the same. She's made the classic mistakes that anyone of us could have made with course errors. And coming DFL - how many times have we all done that?

A donf Nathalie! You've joined my hero list.
 
bad news
Flash: The Franco-American solo skipper Nathalie Criou (Richmond Yacht Club Foundation) has contacted Race Direction to signal her decision to abandon Stage 1 of La Solitaire URGO Le Figaro for safety reasons. She had already accumulated a significant time deficit on the leaders and so in light of the stormy weather conditions expected and the need for the race organisers to provide safety cover for the whole fleet it was decided she should head directly to Gijon without passing the Rochebonne turning mark which the leaders were approaching early this evening.
She has been advised of the best course of action to remain safe in the most manageable conditions possible with the race fleet informed of her positions and course in order to monitor her progress. Her elapsed time for the stage will be equivalent to the time of the last finisher plus two hours.
 
Merde!

Hope she is OK, probably a good move to stay safe and not trash the boat or herself.

Good luck!
 
Holy Cow! Her description of the first leg is a must read:
http://envoleeadventures.blogspot.ca/2017/06/leg-1-start-and-gironde.html?view=sidebar
http://envoleeadventures.blogspot.ca/2017/06/leg-1-rough-night.html?view=sidebar

Two things I note.
First, just how incredibly well the Figaro Beneteau II handled 50 knots of wind. The boat really is built for it. Lord how I want one.
Second, just how incredibly well Nathalie handled 50 knots of wind. She must be built for it too! What an adventure!
 
Attention, si'l vous plait!
I hope others are following Nathalie. She has quite literally jumped feet first into the most competitive singlehanded fleet in the world. Read her posts at http://envoleeadventures.blogspot.com/2017/06/leg-1-rough-night.html?view=sidebar. Amazing stuff.

Least you might think she's not doing so well, SHE'S DOING IT! And if you replay the tracker from Leg 3 (the sprint leg) it appears a number of competitors left the harbor at Concarneau well after their finishes to go out and greet her at the finish line, a testament to the camaraderie of the Figaro.

A wonderful feature of the Figaro is that there are cash prizes for things like being first to round various marks of each course (what a concept!). And, there's a 1000 euro prize for "tenacity." Our Nathalie has been awarded, by a five judge panel, the 1000 euro prize Le Trophée de la Combativité Suzuki (literally translated "The Fighting Spirit Trophy" from sponsor Suzuki). Congratulations Nathalie!

En Francais, but worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP1IgbHn4KY&feature=youtu.be
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top