OC Sport announced on Friday that from 2028 until 2036, La Solitaire du Figaro will no longer be raced in Figaro Beneteau 3 yachts, but in Ocean Fifty trimarans. A seismic change for the event, first held in 1970, and for the Figaro class alike, which has already sparked strong reactions. Sailorz takes a closer look.
Rumours had been circulating for several weeks before the announcement was made official at 7am on Friday in an OC Sport statement: “From the 2028 edition onwards, La Solitaire du Figaro will open a new chapter in its history with the Ocean Fifty Class.” How did the organiser come to what it describes as an “evolution”? “Two years ago, we began a strategic review to identify the key criteria for the race’s future, Sailorz was told by Hervé Favre, President of OC Sport. For the race to thrive, it must combine sporting excellence, a strong experience for host cities and partners, and appeal to both the general public and the media. Today, when you assess all those criteria, the event in its current format is no longer delivering.”
Another major factor is that OC Sport has never hidden the fact that it loses money on La Solitaire, particularly after losing financial support over the past year from several local authorities forced to tighten their budgets. “It’s obvious that if the race is to survive, it has to be financially sustainable. That’s one of the factors, but it’s far from the only one,” Hervé Favre explains.
Based on that assessment, the organiser has spent months exploring ways to reshape the race. It first held discussions with the Figaro Beneteau Class, with which it was contractually tied until the end of 2025 (a deal ultimately extended by two years), but relations between the two parties became increasingly strained, particularly over the race dates, with OC Sport keen to move La Solitaire from September to May/June. “We disagreed on that issue, and that’s when things started to stall. Perhaps that was the beginning of the downward spiral, admits Marcus Hutchinson, the class’s Vice-President. There was also the fact that OC Sport wasn’t particularly keen on La Solitaire being described as a training race.”
Hervé Favre confirms that point: “We understand why the class wants to emphasise its training role, but today La Solitaire du Figaro is far too important an event to be reduced to a training race.” He continues: “We had genuine, in-depth discussions with the class, but they didn’t lead to any significant changes.” Marcus Hutchinson shares that view: “We spent the winter running workshops to try to answer their questions: how could we improve things, generate more buzz, change the sporting format? But there wasn’t a solution. Then, in March, everything simply stopped; we hardly had any contact with them after that.”
Class40 approached
At the same time, OC Sport also reached out to other classes, notably the Class40, which, Hervé Favre explains, “wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about the idea.” Asked about the discussions, Class President Cédric de Kervenoaël confirms: “OC Sport told us they wanted to rethink the format of La Solitaire and asked whether it was something we’d be interested in. We met, but ultimately declined because we felt it wasn’t our place to encroach on another class’s territory, especially as we see the Figaro as an outstanding training pathway that absolutely needs to be preserved. A Class40 Solitaire could have been a fantastic opportunity and, in a way, would have helped secure the long-term future of our class, but we couldn’t have looked the Figaro sailors in the eye and told them: ‘We’re taking your race away.’“
OC Sport also entered discussions with the Ocean Fifty class, whose Co-President Sébastien Rogues recalls: “We were indeed contacted several months ago by OC Sport, who asked us to consider becoming the class featured in La Solitaire du Figaro. We were completely taken aback and our first reaction was to say that we didn’t want to take anyone else’s place. They then explained the situation and we realised that what was really at stake was probably the survival of the race itself. Only then did we decide to look seriously at the proposal. We set up a steering committee to review all the information and, once we had all the facts, our Board voted to continue the discussions. A few days ago, following approval at last week’s General Assembly, we signed the agreement. There wasn’t a single vote against.”
In the meantime, OC Sport returned to the Figaro class with a hybrid proposal: “They asked whether we’d agree to share La Solitaire with the Ocean Fifty fleet and reduce our entry to around twenty boats. That would have meant scrapping the rookie programme, so we said no,” Marcus Hutchinson explains.
Asked why the Ocean Fifty class accepted the move, Sébastien Rogues replies: “For several years now, our championship has been built around a combination of simple yet spectacular boats, controlled budgets, a capped fleet (11 boats), and premium hospitality both on and off the water. This proposal comes at exactly the right time in the class’s development. La Solitaire du Figaro will take us into the most extreme end of our sport.” Hervé Favre agrees: “Ocean Fifty offers a product that is better suited to today’s audience, and the limited fleet size is not a drawback; quite the opposite, it will allow us to build stronger skipper profiles and greater star appeal. Admittedly, it’s not a one-design class, but we saw again at the Drheam-Cup that older boats are still competitive against the newer ones. There’s a genuine sporting challenge on the water.”
“Ocean Fifty is the complete opposite of Figaro”
The decision, taken with the approval of Le Figaro Group, owner of the race, has naturally sent shockwaves through the large Figaro community. Having won La Solitaire for the third time in June, Nicolas Luven described it as “a huge shock”, before adding: “When I told my father yesterday, who raced in the Course de l’Aurore (the former name of La Solitaire du Figaro) back in the 1970s, he was deeply saddened. It’s a real shame to wipe away an event with such a rich history, one that has produced generations of offshore sailors.”
The same disbelief was shared by another three-time winner, Jérémie Beyou: “This is disastrous for a whole section of French sailing. Without La Solitaire, none of us would be where we are today. The Vendée Globe wouldn’t be what it has become, and the same goes for the Route du Rhum, also organised by OC Sport. What’s more, the timing couldn’t be worse, just as both the class and the race were regaining momentum. Ocean Fifty is the complete opposite of Figaro: it’s a development class with a limited number of boats, and when it comes to budgets, let’s not even go there—you can simply add another zero.”
For Jeanne Grégoire, a former Figaro sailor and now Director of the Finistère Offshore Racing Centre, “the only thing I can understand about this decision is that, as a private company, OC Sport wants to make money. They’re neither the first nor the last to do so, and their business is selling spectacle and glamour. But under no circumstances can you still call it La Solitaire du Figaro!”
Confusion ahead
The race’s headline partners have reacted just as negatively. Paprec, title sponsor of La Solitaire as well as the Transat Paprec (next edition in spring 2027), issued a statement on Friday to “regret the organisers’ decision”, describing it as a “break with the DNA of a race based on equal equipment and outstanding accessibility.” As a result, the company added: “The partnership between Paprec and OC Sport will come to an end no later than after the 2027 editions of both events.” The same reaction came from Beneteau, whose Marketing and Communications Director Yann Masselot told us: “It’s a disappointment, a complete U-turn that bears no resemblance to the spirit of La Solitaire we’ve known for the past 56 years.”
The French Sailing Federation also said it “regrets” OC Sport’s decision. Could it have prevented it? “The Federation has no authority over a private company, which is free to organise whatever events it chooses,” President Jean-Luc Denéchau told us. “However, we are responsible for managing the racing calendar. OC Sport is effectively creating a new race under the La Solitaire du Figaro brand, so we’ll have to see where it fits into the calendar. As for the Federation and the class, we will create a new brand to ensure this flagship event of the French Elite Offshore Racing Championship continues, still raced in Figaro Beneteau 3 yachts.”
The Figaro class has already begun working to ensure the continuity of La Solitaire under a different name: “Since we managed to extend our contract with OC Sport until the end of 2027 last year, we have 18 months to reorganise. The aim is to keep the same format with a new organiser, with the class owning the race rights,” explains Marcus Hutchinson.
Meanwhile, OC Sport and the Ocean Fifty class will spend the coming months defining the format of the 2028 edition of La Solitaire du Figaro. “We’re not creating a new race; it remains La Solitaire du Figaro: a solo race decided on elapsed time, with at least three stages and firmly rooted in the regions,” insists Hervé Favre, contradicting Jean-Luc Denéchau’s interpretation. “However, we will adapt the format because you can’t ask Ocean Fifty trimarans to race in exactly the same way as Figaros.” These conflicting interpretations prompted Jérémie Beyou to remark: “I hope OC Sport won’t have the nerve to say, at the start of their Ocean Fifty Solitaire, that Jérémie Beyou is a three-time winner of their race!”
The final word goes to Hervé Favre who, when asked about the backlash he expected the decision to generate, replied: “We knew exactly what we were exposing ourselves to. But honestly, if we do nothing, I’m not convinced the race will still exist in three years’ time. We’d rather try something new, and we believe we have strong arguments to make it a success.” Time will tell. In the meantime, all parties will have to coexist throughout the 2027 season.
Photo : Vincent Olivaud / Ocean Fifty
