After a disappointing first race of the year last weekend, as Afloat.ie previewed here, Ireland’s Tom Dolan hopes to improve on his performance in the first single–handed race of the Mini 650 circuit.
In offshore racing, 'once the wind has died completely it is too late, you can’t do anything', says Dolan. The trick, he says, 'is to make sure that you stop in the right place' and that when the new wind arrives 'you are the first (or at least not the last) to touch it.' In light conditions it is in the phases of transition that races are lost and won.
This was a lesson that Dolan learned hard last weekend during the first race of the 2017 Mini 650 season. After a strong start the Franco/Irish team on board IRL 910 were in second position when the first shutdown (zone of no wind) arrived. The back of the fleet became the front of the fleet! One more shutdown later and they were not far off last position. “the second one hurt the most, as we were stopped as the boats offshore were at 3/4 knots...”. They managed to work there way back up the fleet, finishing in 18th place.
This Saturday is the first round of the French Offshore Sailing Championship, the Pornichet Select 650 is a 300–mile coastal race around the Islands of the south Breton coat. There will be almost 90 boats on the start line, and almost 60 of them in the production class so the competition will be tough. Dolan’s Concarneau based sparring partner, Pierre Chedville on board the 887 “Blue orange Games” will be a favourite as he returns to defend his title in the production class and yet again it will be Ian Lipinski in his 865 scow “Griffon.fr” who will be the man to beat in the prototype class.
The course takes the fleet from the small port of Pornichet, down to Les Sables d’olonne, across the finish line of the vendee globe before sailing back up to ile de Groix. The largest strategical decision of the race is which side to leave Belle Ile on the return leg. For the time being the weather conditions promise to be light with yet again a strong chance of there being a number of shutdowns. “This time round I will work to better prepare the weather forecast for the race, and be sure not to be the wrong side each time!', Dolan told Afloat.ie
Dolan, who hails from County Meath and is preparing to compete in the 2017 Mini Transat race, a single–handed race across the Atlantic Ocean on the smallest class of Ocean racing boat that there is.
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