Bubbly Hamble yachtswoman Sam Davies raised her game this week in the French run Figaro race circuit as she beat the 2001 Figaro champion, Eric Drouglazet, by two places in the latest offshore race from Port Camargue to Beaulieu, France.

Elated by her performance, she gave an update of her progress: "The last time I wrote I was in the middle of racing my Figaro boat, Skandia, in the first Figaro event of the season, the Tour de Bretagne a la Voile.

"It was a two-handed event and Emma Westmacott joined me as co-skipper. It was an unbelievable intro into the intense world of the Figaro.

"Six days of coastal racing from the port of St Malo along the north coast of France and round the corner to Lorient, including one overnight 90-mile leg.

"We raced in big breeze, big seas and even bigger tidal currents, which are amazing, and it really was a baptism of fire.

"It was incredible to race in such a close fleet - most people finished within minutes of each other.

"Even after the 90-mile offshore in big tides the fleet finished within the same hour. We steadily improved on Skandia, learning all the time we raced, to finish in 18th overall out of 26 skippers.

"Scoring our best result of the event on the last day we claimed 11th place, which I think earned us some respect from the seriously talented field of French Figarists.

"I can honestly say that it is the first time in my sailing career that I felt happy about finishing halfway down the fleet! But the competition is of such a high standard that for our first event I was more than pleased.

"The competition included Bertrand Pace, tactician for Team New Zealand, Loick Peyron, multihull racer and superstar in France, Eric Drouglazet, 2001 Solitaire du Figaro champion, to name a few and it's kind of like turning up for a karting event and finding Schumacher and Coulthard on the starting grid next to you!"

She added: "La Generali Mediterranee is the first solo regatta of the 2003 Figaro season - two weeks of racing in the heat and fickle, although sometimes violent, winds of the Mediterranean.

"It started on the 14th and finishes tomorrow with 32 boats competing. Again, the entry lists looks like a who's who of solo sailing but my focus is to see how I performed against the rookies or newcomers.

"There are 11 of us at this event most of whom will be competing in the Solitaire du Figaro at the end of July. This regatta is a combination of offshore and inshore legs, although the Med weather hasn't been performing that well and two of the offshore legs, including a run into the Italian port of Imperia, have been cancelled due to lack of wind. Having said that, we had a big Mistral during the overnight offshore leg from Port Camargue to Beaulieu - France, that is!

"It was forecast to gust up to 50 knots before we left so I was feeling a bit nervous wondering how on earth you gybe in that kind of wind on your own and normally on this size boat you would have eight crew to work the manoeuvres.

"As it turned out, we had a consistent 35 knots so not too scary and some exciting surfing down the waves. I was in 26th place overall going into this long offshore. It turned out to be a very long offshore as the wind died in the final stages of the race and we were out there for 34 hours. But we scored our best result of the regatta so far - a 13th place out of 32 boats and third-placed rookie. I even finished two places higher than 2001 Figaro champion Eric Drouglazet.

"It was a hard race with contrasting conditions: 35 knots downwind with everything fully loaded up - when you cannot hardly contemplate leaving the tiller and just pray it doesn't get any windier - to hardly a breath of wind, when you dare not leave the tiller to even get a bottle of water as you might risk losing a place.

"The racing is so close in this fleet. There is pretty much always someone next to you, just ahead or just behind and it is intense all the time.

"Currently I'm 25th overall and sixth-placed rookie and I'm pretty happy with my performance.

"Every time I come off the water I have learnt something and know what I need to improve. The start of the Solitaire du Figaro is on July 31. This is the big one. It is the one every Figarist wants to win. My goal of course is to try and come out as one of the best rookies."