The rise in the international solo offshore sailing reputation of Tom Dolan, who has been known to describe himself as “an escaped farmboy from north Meath”, has been one of the great Irish sailing sagas of our time. For more than a decade, Afloat.ie has been recounting Big Tom’s progress from being identified as an exceptional talent by the now-defunct Glenans Ireland in Baltimore, to eventual hard-won solo sailing stardom in France via the well-established but ferociously competitive Mini-Transat and Figaro Solo routes.
These days, he is one of that elite band of Figaro Solo stars who are always included in any pre-race reckoning of success potential. And with the first full-on post-pandemic 54th staging of the offshore classic in late August and early September 2023, it was something special for the skipper of the Figaro 3 Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan to do well from the get-go, as its initial 610-mile stage was scheduled to finish – for the 21st time in the Figaro’s colourful history – back home in Ireland at Kinsale.
Tom Dolan rose to the challenge of a podium place when he finished second in a very high calibre fleet at Kinsale yesterday (Thursday) morning, having skillfully picked up two places in the final leg from being fourth at the Fastnet Rock. Anyone who closely followed the race tracker, and set the mostly close-packed fleet placings against the almost continually changing wind and weather conditions and predistions, will soon have realised that the Irish skipper was adhering successfully to the proven military dictum that you shouldn’t have a rigid plan, but must always be planning.
Tom Dolan has done us all proud, and a remarkable international career on the high seas, which began with a little sailing dinghy on Lough Ramor in County Cavan, has now reached new heights.
