WARMINSTER sailor Rob Bunce made a strong start to the 2015 Solitaire du Figaro race.

The former Kingsdown School pupil, the youngest sailor in the race at 20, mixed it up in the top 10 overnight

The first leg is expected to take the fleet just over four days as the fleet sail from Bordeaux to Sanxenxo (Spain) for leg two. 

Bunce said: “It’ll be hard to get away at the start because the tide’s going to be with us so we’re all going to be moving pretty quickly out of the river.

"We’re expecting light winds on the first night so any wind will be compressed immediately when we get out in the Bay of Biscay. The main thing in the river will be trying to get clean air – there’ll be so many boats so if you do get away, you could maybe have a mile by the end of it if you’re in clean wind.”

“There are two ridges that we’ve got to get through. We’re currently running routings and they’re all going different ways, which is quite exciting.

"We were originally expecting strong winds on the first or second night, which has now completely changed – it doesn’t seem to be happening at all so the race is going to be pretty long.

"We’ve got four and a half nights at the moment. We’re expecting two patches of wind at the moment, so it’s whether you go north or south, or just let it happen and go over you, but we can definitely expect some big splits in the fleet.”

“Everyone wants to win the Rookie don’t they? But I’d be happy to be in the top five Rookies. It’s so difficult to see how the race is going to pan out. In other races, the podiums happen either really early or really late, so there’s just no way of knowing. My goal for this year is just to get round the course and enjoy it.”