La Solitaire du Figaro Dun Laoghaire Stopover 2011
Dublin Bay is a stretch of water with a huge variety of personalities, and many major championships have seen this in recent years, but I don't think anyone would have expected the Solitaire du Figaro crews to be subject to such a range of conditions over two laps of a windward-leeward course before they headed out past Dalkey under glorious sunshine on the way to Les Sables D'Olonne...
A total of 49 skippers are competing in the 2011 Solitaire du Figaro. In addition to the group of predominantly French sailors are six foreigners: four British, one Portuguese and one German; and of the 49 starters almost 20% of the fleet are in their first full season in the Figaro class taking on the challenge of arguably the toughest singlehanded race. The fleet is in the midst of a 1700-mile course over four stages, starting in Perros-Guirec on the North Brittany coast on 23 July and visiting Caen (Normandy), Dun Laoghaire (Ireland), Les Sables d'Olonne (Vendee), before finishing in Dieppe (Pas de Calais) on 28th August.