Sam Goodchild away in second

As the final leg of La Solitaire du Figaro sets sail from St Gilles Croix de Vie

The third leg of La Solitaire du Figaro - Eric Bompard Cashmere started today at 1100 UTC with a 12 knot westerly, a 2m swell and sunshine breaking through off the coast of Saint Gilles Croix de Vie. Artemis Offshore Academy skipper Sam Goodchild on Artemis 23 got off to a flying start behind Leg 2 front-runner Nicolas Lunven on Generali.

The 36 skippers (Anthony Marchand did not line up despite his earlier hopes to resume racing) first negotiated a 10-mile inshore course before setting off up the Brittany coast on the first coastal part of this 486-mile leg to Cherbourg-Octeville. At the end of the dog-leg, 2009 Solitaire winner Nicolas Lunven led Goodchild. Paul Meilhat on Skipper Macif 2011, Nicolas Jossier on In Extenso Accountants and Jean-Pierre Nicol on Bernard Controls all made good starts but had dropped back by the Geolink buoy.

After the first run, the leaders' positions at the Radio France buoy remained unchanged, with third placed Morgan Lagravière on Vendée followed by Fabien Delahaye on Skipper Macif 2012 as Lunven led the fleet away from the Vendée stopover port.

Nick Cherry on Artemis 77 had a poor kite drop at the leeward mark and found himself in last position, but has been steadily regaining places over the afternoon.

By this afternoon's sched Lunven was fractionally leading Morvan by less than 0.1 miles, with Goodchild the same distance to the south, in third. Yann Elies, provisional leader of the overall standings, is in 12th position, with two miles covering the fleet.
The sailors are now heading towards the Glénan Archipelago off Concarneau, first racing past Belle-Ile, around 60 miles away.

Before leaving overall leader Yann Eliès on Groupe Queguiner – Le Journal des Entreprises said: “I will set ou, ignoring the overall standings and trying to duplicate what I did on the early stages, either in terms of speed, strategy or pleasure. I'm looking forward to it because since the beginning of the race I've been having a wonderful time. I really want to give everything. On the starting line, I'll try to be a little more powerful, to make less mistakes, and stop having to do 720 penalties for a better start. But it is not a critical phase. There are other more important things to avoid, like a hole in the boat, missing a buoy, or starting early. When looking at the leg in more detail, I think there will be some small choices to make and if the others want to catch me they will have to be fully committed. At one point, the fleet will have a blast. I will have to go with my own analysis, according to my own feelings. We'll see what happens after. The ranking is quite clear in my head. There are three boats between 30 and 33 minutes, after it is 50 minutes or an hour. Anyway I plan to arrive in Cherbourg as a leader, so that there is no calculation to make.”

Top 10 at the Radio France buoy:
1 - Nicolas Lunven (Generali)
2 - Sam Goodchild (Artemis 23)
3 - Morgan Lagravière (Vendée)
4 - Fabien Delahaye (Skipper Macif 2012)
5 - Gildas Morvan (Cercle Vert)
6 - Thomas Normand (Financière de l'Echiquier)
7 - Erwan Tabarly (Nacarat)
8 - Vincent Biarnes (Prati'Bûches)
9 - Fred Duthil (Sepalumic)
10 - Jeanne Grégoire (Banque Populaire)

Positions at 15:54 UTC