As solo star Tom Dolan said when he arrived this week in Greystones to position himself on stand-by for his waiting-game round Ireland record challenge from the Kish Lighthouse, the current increasingly Autumnal weather pattern is much more encouragingly dynamic than it was when he made his previous attempt in the Spring.
It’s the Meath Maestro’s first time back in Ireland with the boat since he emerged as the winner of Stage 1 of the Figaro Solo Paprec 2023 in Kinsale on the last day of August, after racing over an artificially lengthened, extremely challenging and complex 620-mile course from Caen in Normandy.
While the Figaro 3 can certainly make to windward with enthusiasm - as seen here in the 2023 Figaro Solo Paprec in which Tom Dolan won the first stage from Caen to Kinsale – the strategic minimizing of windward work is essential to a successful Round Ireland challenge
The Figaro concluded, he then teamed up with fellow Figaro racer Gaston Morvan on Region Bretagne, and with three others aboard they contested the crewed season-concluding Figaro 3 Nationals at Lorient on October 7th, and won. As it was sailed while the late summer weather prevailed in heatwave conditions, subsequently choosing to sail north in Smurfit-Kappa Kingspan when the summer shutters came down with a bang on Ireland was inevitably a matter of going suddenly into a very different world. But it’s typical of Tom’s approach to challenges that he can put a cheerful spin on it all.
This was just a fortnight ago in South Brittany - Gaston Morvan and Tom Dolan and their crew basking in late summer sunshine after winning the Figaro 3 National at Lorient
STORM BABET? SHE WAS DEFINITELY “DYNAMIC”
And certainly “dynamic” is normally used in this positive way. Yet those who have been at the receiving end of Storm Babet in recent days - whether through wind damage, flooding, power outage, or just plain inconvenience - might find different and often unprintable words to describe the current rapidly moving chaotic kaleidoscope of conditions. It’s doubtful they’d enjoy being told they’ve just had a dynamic experience, accentuated by the brief bursts of sunshine lasting just long enough to emphasise the meteorological horrors in between.
These have included yesterday’s near-visit by Babet’s un-named little sister. While in development form, she went slowly past to the south of us, heading in an eastward direction in deepening mode. Then, having gained power, the nameless one unfairly turned back to have a whack at Ireland’s East Coast yesterday afternoon before settling down over England to start the messy process of fading away.
FLOATING ON DOLAN ENTHUSIASM
So what else can we do other than let ourselves be carried along by Tom’s bubbling enthusiasm? The Irish weather may be adversely under the heel of the jet-stream at its most malignant. And there are too many places in the world where intractable people-made horrors prevail ashore. Yet when we look at what this weekend has to offer as that latest low pressure area grinds away to the eastward while slowly filling, we find Irish sailors coming out for more sport at home and abroad.
Unlikely as it might have seemed early in the night, the final race may be sailed this afternoon in the monday.com Autumn League at Howth. And although there’ll be a real nip to the northerly wind, there are enough close placings at the top of various leaderboards to make it well worthwhile competing.
When Autumn sailing is good, it’s very very good – the Autumn League at Howth celebrated its 40th Anniversary last year, and memories tend to be like this, as seen with the two Howth 17s Leila and Aura, both of 1898 vintage. Photo: HYC
As for the seasonal leagues in Cork and Kinsale, being further west and using more of the weekend, they can expect even gentler conditions.
OUR NAVY OF ARMCHAIR ADMIRALS
But meanwhile, the considerable presence of Ireland’s navy of Armchair Admirals has been glued to weather observation and prediction charts as they wait and opinionate about Tom and Smurfit-Kappa Kingspan making their move.
It’s easy enough to say that wind directions were near enough just right to take off anti-clockwise on Tuesday. But severe easterly gales and zilch visibility in the shipping-busy North Channel would have been unnecessarily and extremely hazardous when the campaign has the luxury of time.
CHALLENGE OF 1986 GOT AWAY “BY SKIN OF ITS TEETH”
The last thing you need in a Round Ireland Record attempt is too much wind, even if it is favourable. Back in May 1986 when we were hanging around in Dun Laoghaire with Robin Knox-Johnston and his 60ft trimaran British Airways to inaugurate the current wave of non-racing Round Ireland records, we waited for winds from all sorts of easterly directions (with much rain) to abate a bit, and settle in a favourable direction.
Robin Knox-Johnston’s 60ft MacAlpine-Downie catamaran British Airways making away from Dublin Bay at the start of a successful Round Ireland record challenge in May 1986. Shortly after disappearing northeastwards into the murk, she was almost capsized in a sudden extra gust of wind. Photo: BA
All the ducks seemed to be in a row by Saturday, with a strong yet seemingly steady easterly. So off we went anti-clockwise in driving rain from the Kish, in sailing conditions which saw the big twin-hulled bucket at her noisy best. But she went so fast that we caught up with a line of squalls that had been retreating northwards, and one of them as near as dammit capsized us, though happily it’s a memory that had been largely obliterated by all the subsequent experiences before the job was done.
A FAVOURABLE GALE?
A favourable gale is just about manageable if you’re on a straight-line course, but a problem-filled challenge like the Ireland circuit is better off with good steady whole-sail winds and reaching conditions, just like Tom is enjoying in our header photo. So maybe after the current climatic chaos has fully departed, we can revert to the dynamic conditions the Meath skipper favours, and the show will be on the road.
And to think they might have been guiding a plough – former Meath farmboy Tom Dolan’s hands exfoliated by salt water at the end of a tough solo race
Yet while we’ve been left meteorologically punch-drunk at home by the hectic conditions, elsewhere Irish sailors are enjoying competition in something approaching summer, although it looks to be tough enough in Tangiers where Eve McMahon (Howth YC) is at the top of the table in the ILCA 6 U21 Worlds, which conclude tomorrow.
Thanks to Eve McMahon, IRL has been looking good at Tangiers this week in the ILCA6 U21 Worlds. Photo: ILCA Class
Meanwhile in Malta, it has been high summer by our standards in the countdown to today’s start in Valetta of the 609-mile Rolex Middle Sea Race, in which Conor Doyle’s xP50 Freya from Kinsale is defending an ORC Class podium place. Whether or not the strong wind conditions in Tangiers move eastward towards Malta is a moot point, as the Mediterranean weather is something of a law unto itself.
The ultimate in-harbour start: tradition dictates that the Rolex Middle Sea Race from Malta should start within Grand Harbour, Valetta. Photo: Rolex/Kurt Arrigo
She certainly gets around - Conor Doyle’s Freya from Kinsale in Dublin Bay. This morning (Saturday) she starts her second Middle Sea Race from Malta. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O’Brien
Either way, the smart money overall might be on Bryon Ehrhart’s Lucky from the US, as she is of course the former round Ireland mono-hull record-holder Rambler 88 with which George David and his team demonstrated that they probably had the best-all-round big boat on the planet, with overall victory - including a course record – being part of their track record in the Malta major.
“Sail clear through the gap….” Nobody knows how the gap opened up to let Rambler 88 through the smaller boats at the start of the record-breaking 2016 Round Ireland Race from Wicklow, but she was right there at the Naval Vessel end of the line, bang on time and going two or three times as fast as any other mono-hull. Photo: W M Nixon
TWO MONTHS TO SYDNEY-HOBART
Rambler 88 had yet to prove herself in the Sydney-Hobart Race, which is sailed again in just over two months time, but meanwhile, Down Under the new season is having its traditional opening in New Zealand this weekend with the Auckland-Russell coastal race numbering a fleet of 150-plus.
Among them is “The Irish Boat”, Mick Martin’s TP52 Frantic (ex-Patches). She won the new Sydney-Auckland Race - a 1250-mile marathon – a week ago, with Trevor Smyth, formerly of Clontarf and one of the legendary Sailing Smyths, in the afterguard. After the Auckland-Russell contest, Frantic heads back to Australia and the Hobart count-down, with Trevor Smyth aboard for his second Sydney-Hobart.
While you can have year-round sailing in Auckland, for many New Zealanders the annual Auckland-Russell Race (seen starting here) marks the beginning of “the real season”
IRISH RUFFIANS IN HONG KONG
Thousands of miles to the north in Hong Kong, yesterday they were enjoying 25 degrees Centigrade, but on a cloudy day. Over the weekend, the temperature will drop a little, but the sky will clear, while the winds – 18 km/h today from just east of north - will freshen to 23-24 km/h fr between north and northeast.
It may be the other side of the world, but it’s of nationwide interest in Ireland today, as the Irish Ruffian 23 Class is carrying its Golden Jubilee celebrations to a new level with the resumption post-Covid of the biennial inter-port contest between the Irish and Hong Kong fleets.
This weekend sees the Irish Ruffian 23 Class in Hong Kong defending the inter-port trophy which they narrowly won in Dun Laoghaire pre-lockdown in 2018
In the fast-changing Hong Kong sailing scene, the relatively venerabe Ruffian 23s are seen as something of a mascot class in the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, where they’re much celebrated. That will reach new heights today as Ann Kirwan of the National YC – a former Dublin Bay SC Commodore – has managed the logistical challenge of getting an all-Ireland team of twenty Ruffian 23 sailors from half a dozen widespread clubs out to Hong Kong for a long weekend of international sport and celebration.
The Ruffian 23 Hong Kong class’s trophies on display in the Royal Hong Kong YC
That Ruffian 23 international Corinthian contest is probably about as far as you can get – both in real distance and spirit – from top level sailing in France. As has been said maybe too often, the past is a different country, they do things differently there.
THE FRENCH WAY IS DIFFERENT
Certainly as far as sailing is concerned, at the top level France is indeed a very foreign and different country, with the corporate structures of its society reflected at the highest levels of professional sailing. The talented sailors compete for the support of promotion-geared companies which recognise that there’s an enormous appetite for news of extreme sailing among the population, most of whom live at some distance from the nearest bit of sea. And ashore, the gung-ho regional authorities vie with each other through big budget campaigns to host the starred events.
Obviously we’re looking at an Irish take on this with Tom Dolan’s Smurfit-Kappa Kingspan support. But in a week’s time one of the the really big one is right on top of the agenda with Le Havre hyper-alive with the crowds gathered for the start on Sunday, October 29th of the Transat Jaques Vabre to Martinique in the Caribbean.
Irish interest has never been higher, as Pamela Lee of Greystones – currently holder of two of the most meaningful Round Ireland Records as the two-handed champ and women’s record titleist - is on the line for the two-handed division with her loaned Class 40 and lead sponsorship from Brittany Ferries.
THE 2024 VENDEE GLOBE?
At the moment, there’s no noise from any of the four Irish sailors who announced potential campaigns three years ago towards the November 2024 Vendee Globe solo from Les Sables d’Olonne in IMOCA 60s, but the outcome of the upcoming Transat Jacques Vabre might put a different spin on that.
Fast women. Pamela Lee (right) and Catherin Hunt in speed mode on the Figaro 3 with which they established a solid Round Ireland in October 2020
