Figaro : les dernières infos Tip & Shaft

35 skippers will set sail on Sunday for the 56th edition of the Solitaire du Figaro Paprec. On the agenda: 1,850 miles over three legs between Rouen and Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, via Fastnet, Morlaix Bay and Vigo, Spain. Who will be at the forefront this year? 

The Transat Paprec, contested for the second time in mixed doubles, sets off from Concarneau on Sunday, bound for Saint-Barthélemy (3,890 miles). As before every major race, Tip & Shaft has brought together a panel of experts to discuss the line-up.

The press conference for the 2025 edition of the Transat Paprec, which sets off from Concarneau on April 20, was held on Thursday at Paprec Bretagne’s headquarters in Le Rheu, near Rennes. For the past two years, this transatlantic race has contested by mixed doubles, with this year 19 tandems at the start compared with 11 in 2023, proof that the format has found its audience.

After the Ocean Fifty class last week, we continue our tour of the classes with, this Friday, the Figaro Beneteau class, which continues to focus on  diversity gender and youth training, a strategy that seems to be bearing fruit, with registrations on the rise and boats not depreciating in value despite the tense economic climate. The only fly in the ointment is the financing of the races, and therefore the calendar.

Tom Dolan won the 55th edition of the Solitaire du Figaro Paprec on Wednesday at the end of the final leg between Royan and La Turballe, won, like the first, by Loïs Berrehar, 2nd overall ahead of Gaston Morvan. To debrief the event, Tip & Shaft spoke to Gildas Mahé and Marcus Hutchinson, who know the Irish winner well, as well as Corentin Horeau, the title holder, and Yann Chateau, the race director.   

Tom Dolan won the second leg of the 55th edition of the Solitaire du Figaro Paprec between Gijon and Royan, ahead of Gaston Morvan and Charlotte Yven. Tip & Shaft takes a closer look at this race, in which several favourites lost out big time, with former Figaro racers Guillaume Pirouelle and Achille Nebout and meteorologist – and former Figaro racer – Dominic Vittet.

The Tour Voile sets off from Dunkirk on Wednesday 26 June, finishing in Saint-Cast-le-Guildo on 14 July. 103 sailors, including 36 women (from 15 crews), will be battling it out in Figaro Beneteau 3 on coastal races and offshore legs. Tip & Shaft takes a look back at this 45th edition. 

Elodie Bonafous is contesting her fifth season on the Figaro Beneteau circuit this year, with ambitions of a podium finish in the Solitaire du Figaro Paprec. At the same time, the skipper of Quéguiner-La Vie en rose is working on her Imoca Horizon 29 project with a Verdier design currently under construction at MerConcept. Before the start of the BPGO Trophy (15-25 May), which she is racing with Corentin Horeau, Tip & Shaft spoke to the 28-year-old sailor. 

Catalan racer Pep Costa, who moved in 2020 from Castelldelfels to France to pursue his ocean racing dreams, seems to have been popping up everywhere these past weeks. In fact just now his racing is split between Class40 with Erwan Le Draoulec, Ocean Fifty alongside Thibaut Vauchel-Camus and now again back to the Figaro on the Tour de Bretagne which he races with Elodie Bonafous on Quéguiner-La Vie en rose. In all, then, it seems like the right time for Tip & Shaft to talk with the 24-year-old. 

On Wednesday Paprec were announced as the main partners of La Solitaire du Figaro as well as becoming the official title partners of the Figaro Beneteau 3s biennial Transat en Double Concarneau-Saint-Barthélemy race which now becomes a ‘mixed doubles’ race. Both races are organised by OC Sport Pen Duick. Tip & Shaft explores these developments.