France’s dominance of singlehanded offshore racing can be traced back to one event: the proving ground known as La Solitaire du Figaro. Check the list of Vendée Globe winners and you will struggle to find one that did not establish their singlehanded racing credentials with a win in ‘the Figaro’.
Only two non-French skippers have ever won the three-stage event – Switzerland’s Laurent Bourgnon in 1988 and Irishman Tom Dolan in 2024. However, the 2026 edition – La Figaro du Solitaire Paprec – has attracted an international contingent of sailors aiming to make their mark on this iconic event when racing gets underway in Perros-Guirec, Brittany on May 17.
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That opening leg will see a 30+ fleet of one-design Figaro 3 yachts race a 610 nautical mile course around Wolf Rock on the south-western tip of England and then south to Vigo on the north-western corner of Spain.
Leg two takes the fleet 450 nm across the notorious Bay of Biscay to a finish line off the French commune of Pornichet in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France, before the 600 nm third and final stage from Pornichet around a turning mark close to the French coast near the seaside town of Royan near the Gironde estuary, around the Eddystone Light in the English Channel, and on to an as yet un-announced finish port on France's Normandy coast.
I check-in with Tudor Team Alinghi’s director for technical and sailing, New Zealand America’s Cup veteran Dave Endean – the man in charge of making sure that in AC38 the Swiss syndicate improves on its somewhat lacklustre performance in the last Cup in Barcelona.
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