The route for the 2005 edition will take the skippers to ports known and appreciated by sailors alike: it covers 1,710 miles and represents in terms of length, a further port of call compared to the 2004 edition. The skippers will spend some 12 days at sea between France, the Basque Country and Ireland. For its 36th edition of the race, La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro 2005 confirms once more that the route is based on a complex balance of, offshore and inshore sailing, between tactics and strategies and between sprint and endurance.
The Solitaire will start from Perros-Guirec on the 7th of August. This Breton town is the French port that has hosted the race the most number of times, for the first time in 1972 for the start of the Course de l’Aurore. In 2005, for the 15th time, La Solitaire Afflelou le Figaro will stopover in this town on the Côtes d’Armor. This will therefore be an anniversary year for the port, which had not hosted the race since 1996.
The single-handed sailors will cover some 368 miles before reaching Getxo-Bilbao, the next host port in the Spanish Basque country. To the sailors great pleasure, it will be the third time the race has stopped in this Euskadi port, home to Sebastian El Cano, the first man in history to sail round the world.
The winner of the second leg will be announced in La Rochelle, the main port of the Région Poitou-Charentes. The race village will be set up in the prestigious Grands Yachts Basin in the heart of the city.
The skippers then head for Ireland, where Cork 2005, the European Capital for Culture, will host La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro in the port of Crosshaven. This friendly and « green » port, first discovered in 2001 when the leg Saint-Quay Portrieux to Dingle was cancelled and once again in 2003, will host the race.
The final stage of the race, longest at 496 nautical miles, will confirm the winner of La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro 2005, upon arrival in Port-Bourgenay in the Vendée Region.
