La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec

The spectacle was magnificent along the Galician coast on the first night of the second leg of the Solitaire du Figaro Paprec. Swept by a very active storm system, the fleet was able to sail a little faster than predicted by the weather files, and at dawn, the first skippers crossed the intermediate sprint line located between the northeastern tip of the Cape Finisterre TSS and the Rocundo lighthouse. Clear-headed, determined, and ultra-focused, Alexis Thomas (Wings of the Ocean) sailed a strong first coastal leg and rounded the starting line in the lead.

The first night resembled a long tactical tug-of-war. Before leaving the docks yesterday afternoon, everyone was clear that this comeback would be a back-and-forth affair: one minute you’d be in it, the next I’d be in it. And indeed, on the water, the yo-yo effect worked perfectly. Every tactic was fair game in the quest to gain ground in the north, making the most of coastal effects or a bit more pressure offshore.

As the hours passed, on a body of water whitened by lightning, positions constantly shifted. Alexis Thomas, on Wings of the Ocean, brilliantly anticipated these changes by opting from the start for a westward course, before adjusting his position at the right moment. This strategy allowed him to round the intermediate sprint finish line ahead of Hugo Cardon (Sarth’Atlantique), Martin Le Pape (Paprec), Loïs Berrehar (Banque Populaire), and Marin Carnot (Fondation Lejeune), who had a very strong start to the race.

At the rear, a third of the fleet unfortunately couldn’t capitalize on the increased wind pressure and is struggling to break free from the doldrums. This group includes Adrien Hardy (Sans nature, pas de futur!), Laure Galley (Hauterive), and Léo Bothorel (Decathlon). They are about ten miles behind the leading group.

Analysis by Yann Chateau, race director

“Hello everyone, the first night of leg 2 of the 2026 Solitaire du Figaro-Paprec was quite incredible, between managing the winds, thermal phenomena day and night, with quite a few transitions, and then the influence of storm cells that streaked across the sky, especially over land, but occasionally making a little contact with the sea. Naturally, in these conditions, there was a lot of reshuffling, we saw groups get becalmed, come back, get becalmed again, really not easy to manage on the water, and then a night with very, very little rest for the sailors, who had to be ready in all possible sail configurations, going from 0 to 30 knots in the space of a few seconds or minutes. But the route is still long, and the Bay of Biscay is full of obstacles for this leg.”

In this still very long stage, the key will undoubtedly lie in the sailors’ ability to decipher particularly complex weather, where localized phenomena and pressure variations make every strategic option potentially decisive.

Alexis Thomas (Wings of the Ocean)

“The night wasn’t easy. We had quite a few storms, with cells breaking away from the land before spilling out to sea. There were big wind shifts, really very irregular in both strength and direction. We had gusts of 30 knots at one point.”

There was a lot of instability. You had to be on the boat, trimming it, making it move forward, and the wind was shifting every which way. That first night was anything but restful. I don’t think many people were able to let go of the helm to get any rest.

What more can I tell you? These stormy situations don’t happen that often. I don’t think there’s much you can do except pray you don’t get struck by lightning, because it can really hurt: you can go deaf, have eye pain, or suffer lasting injuries. It’s not great.

“The weather patterns aren’t necessarily very stable today. We’ll be opportunistic and try to sail like we did last night: stay focused, maintain speed, and keep the boat moving forward on a direct course towards my waypoint. We’ll need to be strategic.”

Hugo Cardon (Sarth’Atlantique)

“I managed to take a few very short naps of five to ten minutes, but it wasn’t easy: the wind was shifting quite a bit, it was very irregular in both strength and direction. I had everything prepared in the cockpit to maneuver as quickly as possible.”

You have to be on top of things to catch every wind shift. You have to be alert; sometimes it comes down to a matter of seconds. We had a nice storm cell that really pushed us downwind towards Cape Finisterre.

In any case, we know it’s going to be slow and very uncertain for the rest of the race, especially in the middle of the Bay of Biscay. It’s certainly nice to be in the lead, but we can’t take it for granted. There are some boats seven miles behind, but we know very well they can catch up.

I was 2.5 miles behind Alexis and, with a few tactical maneuvers, I managed to catch up to him, so anything is possible.

Marin Carnot (Jérôme Lejeune Foundation)

“It’s so cool to come back with a new mast and already be in the game this far. I tried to play an option not too close to the coast because I thought the storm cell would move to the right, and it worked really well.”

Martin Le Pape (Paprec)

“Master Yoda isn’t doing too badly, and actually, things progressed quite well last night. I expect the rest of the story to be a bit slower. I’m going to try to anticipate things carefully because it could quickly spiral out of control.”

Luckily, it didn’t get too bad. We try to manage things by anticipating, because otherwise we’d be too overwhelmed. And then we also have to watch our trajectory, because the wind changes quickly in storms. We mustn’t get lost and must stay on the right course.