After three weeks of tough offshore racing, 22-year-old Henry Bomby from Dartmouth finished the prestigious La Solitaire du Figaro in 24th place overall.

The four-leg race around Europe finished in Dieppe on Saturday night. Henry's boat, RockFish, crossed the line seconds before midnight after racing against some of the top solo sailors in the world. The final leg was 520 miles from Roscoff, across the channel to Wolf Rock, up the south coast of England to the Isle of Wight and back across the channel to finish in the Normandy port.

The exhausted yachtsmen took a beating along the south coast of England. 30-40 knots of wind and choppy seas left them little time to sleep, eat or do anything except hoist and drop spinnakers and hang on.

Henry said: 'It really wasn't pleasant on board during the last leg, with the wind and the rough sea state, but then I think we did deserve a bit of that as it had been too smooth sailing until this last leg.' The RockFish skipper was happy to get his feet back on dry land, coming home in 24th to see him also finish 24th overall. Although he was a little disappointed with his performance this year he's still improved 12 places on his 36th overall in 2012.

Henry said: 'I think I sailed a bit better over this leg. I've just finished my second Solitaire du Figaro at the age of 22 and that's pretty cool and I'm looking forward to next year; actually, that's a lie.

'Maybe in a week or two I will be!' Henry's heading back to Devon later this week to join Mitch Tonks at the official opening of the RockFish Seafood and chips restaurant in Plymouth.

He'll then spend the next month sharing his Solitaire 2013 experience with his local supporters before preparing for his next sailing challenge, the iconic Fastnet race, which takes place in August.