Under a grey sky the 44 skippers taking part in La Solitaire du Figaro, left Kinsale for the fourth and decisive leg. 

Tension was high and the Committee was forced to give two general recalls. Swiss Bernard Stamm (Cheminée Poujoulat) and French Matthieu Girolet (Entreprendre) were involved in a collision and suffered from serious damage to their boats. Both decided to abandon racing.

 Portuguese Francisco Lobato and Italian Pietro D’Alì made an excellent start . Weather conditions are expected to be fairly tough for a fast 435 miles passage - mostly under spinnaker - to the finish in Cherbourg. As they left Armel Le Cleac’h is in the lead with a buffer of almost 1 hour 18 minutes. But he was not amongst the first 10 boats at the Radio France mark. Thus Jérémie Beyou (4) Gildas Morvan (6, Laurent Pellecuer (11) and Corentin Douguet (13) are snapping at his heels

Matthieu Girolet's Entreprendre on port collides with Cheminée Poujoulat - below