On Sunday, May 17, those six short handed pairs depart Perros-Guirec 15 minutes after the 36 solo Figaro sailors, bound for Vigo in northern Spain across 610 nautical miles of open ocean. Before the start gun, the crews spend four days in the race village alongside the solo skippers, absorbing the atmosphere, the pressure, and the rhythm of a race of this scale. It is, by design, a full immersion.
The format was created to give upcoming offshore sailors a genuine taste of elite competition without the full exposure of solo racing, and the evidence suggests it is doing exactly that. Pierrick Le Touzé raced the inaugural 2024 edition alongside Lola Billy and has since graduated to the main La Solitaire fleet. “I had never sailed a Figaro before,” he said. “Two years later I’m finally lining up for La Solitaire, and I already have a good understanding of what it’s like, at least over a typical leg. I already have some experience of how things work offshore, with radio check-ins, fleet management and sleep management, even though we were racing double-handed. There are far fewer unknowns for me now.” Billy herself followed the same path, completing her first La Solitaire in 2025 and finishing 26th.
The youngest competitor in this year’s fleet is 20-year-old Tiphaine Rideau, who came through the Olympic dinghy pathway before a Trans Atlantic crossing redirected her toward offshore racing entirely. “I discovered offshore racing quite early, considering I’m only 20 years old,” she said. “Once I discovered offshore sailing, I realised that it was truly what I wanted to do.” She cites the one-design nature of the Figaro class as a particular draw, the same even playing field she was used to in dinghy sailing, but with the intensity turned up. “The competition is extremely intense. We’re all very close to one another and the overall standard is incredibly high. I still have a lot of room for improvement.” Rideau lines up alongside Elouan Barnaud aboard Habitat et Humanisme, targeting La Solitaire herself in 2027.
Eliott Coville, racing alongside Thomas Dinas aboard Auray Quiberon by Orlabay, described the Défi as the centrepiece of his entire season. “This is really our main double-handed Figaro objective this season,” he said. “It’s simply incredible to be able to start just behind the solo sailors, knowing that in the coming years we would like to race this event ourselves.” Coville pointed to the sheer density of the racing as the defining feature of the Figaro circuit. “Two weeks ago at the BPGO Trophy, we completed more than 70 tacks less than 15 metres from the rocks, with 35 boats on the water. And then there’s the sheer intensity: everyone pushes flat out. We’re still discovering the rhythm required.”
The entry list this year reflects the race’s growing international reach. Croatian Ivica Kostelić, a four-time Olympic silver medallist in Alpine skiing and world slalom champion in 2003, is competing aboard Amelicor alongside Turkish sailor Deniz Bagci. Kostelić made his first major offshore appearance in the 2011 Transat Jacques Vabre in the Class40 category, finishing 17th alongside Antoine Calliste. He is using the Défi as a stepping stone toward the Transat Paprec next year. “The Figaro class is the only true one-design offshore class,” he said. “It is extremely competitive and you can learn an enormous amount. Our goal is to achieve a podium finish.”
Kiwi in the deep end: Oakley Marsh and the French offshore dream
Also on the startline aboard Chipmunk are New Zealander Oakley Marsh and German co-skipper Jens Meier, using the race as preparation for an eventual solo campaign in La Solitaire. Their entry is a further sign that the Figaro circuit, long the preserve of French offshore sailing, is drawing serious talent from further afield.
The race village in Perros-Guirec opened Wednesday. The Défi Paprec start is Sunday, 15 minutes behind the solo fleet. The outcome will be decided in Vigo after an offshore passage where seamanship, tactics and endurance are the deciding factors. For most of those on board, finishing is only the beginning.
