Solo Sailing and Circumavigation News
Solo Sailor Tom Dolan Aiming for Kinsale Leg Victory as 2023 Figaro Race Detail is Published
7th March 2023 Tom Dolan
A comprehensive sail testing programme completed in January and longer periods of intensive pre-season training races should mean Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan is well equipped to stake his claim to regular podium places over the course of the Figaro…
Kerry solo sailor Pat Lawless has decided not to enter this year’s Global Solo Challenge Race, which he had intended to do. After withdrawing from the Golden Globe Race at Cape Town due to self-steering failure, he announced that he…
Conor O’Brien’s Pioneering Saoirse Circumnavigation Centenary Will Be Honoured by Irish Cruising
18th February 2023 W M Nixon
The magnificent pioneering voyage round the world south of the Great Capes in 1923-1925 by Conor O’Brien (1880-1952) of Foynes, sailing his new-built engine-less 42ft Baltimore ketch Saoirse, was of such heroic proportions that any attempts at a re-enactment to…
Conor O'Brien Book Donated to Foynes Yacht Club as €1,000 Raised for RNLI at Presentation Night
20th January 2023 Conor O'Brien
Following Vincent Murphy's presentation on the life of circumnavigator Conor O’Brien at Foynes Yacht Club on the Shannon Estuary last Friday evening, Professor Patrick Frawley, a member of the Club, and a native of Foynes donated an unedited version of one of…
Kinsale Yacht Club Member to Deliver Circumnavigator Conor O’Brien Presentation
13th January 2023 Kinsale
Kinsale Yacht Club member Vincent Murphy has put together a presentation on circumnavigator Conor O’Brien, which he will give on Thursday, February 9. Murphy has compiled a booklet on the subject, which he is in the process of having printed…
Foynes Yacht Club on the Shannon Estuary welcomes Vincent Murphy on Friday evening, 13th January, at 7.30 pm, to give a 100th-anniversary presentation on the life of the late circumnavigator Conor O’Brien. In 1923-25, O'Brien became the first amateur skipper…
Celebrating Conor O’Brien’s Pioneering Voyage Around the World 100 Years On
7th January 2023 Conor O'Brien
The Journal has highlighted the upcoming centenary of Irish yachtsman Conor O’Brien’s pioneering circumnavigation. In June 1923, Limerick man O’Brien set off on his yacht the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the…
Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan has had an intense autumn of training on the water with his Figaro Bénéteau 3 Smurfit Kappa – Kingspan, during which he focused on getting the best from the offshore one design’s new autopilot sailing…
Orca attacks on sailboats off Spain or Portugal - usually aiming for their rudders - are a matter of serious and increasing concern. Now the topic has been moved even further up the offshore passage-making agendawith an assault on the…
New Watch at the International Association of Cape Horners, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston Appointed President
27th November 2022 Solo Sailing
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first man to sail solo non-stop around the Globe, has accepted the appointment of President of the International Association of Cape Horners. In addition, the French solo sailing legend Jean-Luc van den Heede has accepted the…
Sailing In Ireland Had “Bounce-Back Year” in 2022, What Will 2023 Bring?
26th November 2022 W M Nixon
Did we really manage it? Did we really cram all those major special and routine regular sailing events into the one season of 2022? And all that despite its three main months afloat experiencing decidedly mixed weather? And also despite…
Irish Solo Sailor Tom Dolan Looks to Pick Up New Skills On The Route du Rhum Race
5th November 2022 Tom Dolan
With the Figaro circuit season behind him, Ireland’s solo sailor Tom Dolan is fully involved in the Route du Rhum solo ocean race across the Atlantic from Saint-Malo to Guadeloupe. He is working in the back up team to French 35-year-old…
Tom Dolan and Crew Finish Fifth in Beneteau Figaro 3 French National Championships
11th October 2022 Tom Dolan
Irish solo offshore sailor Tom Dolan and his French crew sailed to fifth place in the Figaro Beneteau 3 French National Championships, which were raced over the weekend off Lorient, Brittany. Racing Dolan’s Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan, the crew were lying in…
Ilen’s Ancient Appearance at Sandycove in Dun Laoghaire Is Offset By Some Modern Thinking Underwater
22nd September 2022 Ilen
It was good to know of the sail training ketch Ilen lying serenely in the Scotsman’s Bay-Sandycove anchorage south of Dun Laoghaire Harbour last night, like a proper sailing ship of ancient times taking a useful break to await a…
Ireland’s Tom Dolan Finishes Seventh Overall after 'Brutal' Final Stage of La Solitaire du Figaro
8th September 2022 Figaro
Top Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan) has taken seventh overall on the 53rd La Solitaire du Figaro, the three-stage French solo offshore race which finished last night in Saint Nazaire at the mouth of the Loire estuary on…
A Full Irish; The Perfect Build Up As Dolan Starts La Solitaire Final Leg
4th September 2022 Tom Dolan
A full Irish breakfast cooked in the early morning by his partner seemed to do the trick for solo sailor Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan) as he made probably his most assured, confident start yet of his La Solitaire du Figaro…