The solo sailors had a tough tactical race in variable conditions and strong tides in the final leg of the 2012 Solitaire du Figaro.

Sam Goodchild (Artemis 23) had a good race, one he has been working towards since the start, finishing 11 minutes behind leg three and overall winner Yann Eliés (Groupe Queguiner/Journal des Entreprises). Henry Bomby (Artemis 37) and Nick Cherry (Artemis 77) both had to overcome poor starts, from which they battled on to finish in 23rd/2nd Rookie and 26th/4th Rookie respectively.

The final leg of the Solitaire had mixed conditions keeping the skippers on their toes and their sleep to a minimum with Goodchild estimating getting just three hours sleep in 72 hours of racing, and even then only in 15min catnaps.

For Goodchild the final leg enabled him to race at the front of the fleet and see how they race: “Coming across the English Channel I changed my settings quite drastically half way through and went to being sailed away from, to being able to catch up, which was really encouraging.”