Today’s Sunday Business Post will carry a special preview of the first leg of the 50th La Solitaire URGO Le Figaro international race as the skippers set sail from Nantes for Kinsale.

The West Cork stopover this coming week is supported by the newspaper, which is also a title sponsor of second-time Figaro contender Joan Mulloy’s Believe in Grace/BusinessPost.ie.

The Mayo native will be sailing the 600 miles to Kinsale alongside fellow Irish skipper Tom Dolan, on Smurfit Kappa, in the first leg of the renowned offshore solo race that’s been dubbed ‘The Everest of the Seas’.

The Sunday Business Post features the race, the Irish skippers competing and the Kinsale stopover

Both are competing in new Beneteau Figaro 3 foiling craft as part of a highly competitive 47-strong fleet alongside several of the world’s top solo sailors.

The fleet is expected to sail into Irish waters on Wednesday 5 June ahead of a four-day stopover with an exciting itinerary of events (see below) expected to draw visitors to Kinsale ahead of next weekend’s SeaFest in nearby Cork Harbour.

Mulloy, whose yacht has been named after her famed ancestor ‘The Pirate Queen’ Gráinne Mhaol, will be supported by Grace O’Malley Irish Whiskey, the official spirit of the Kinsale stopover.

As one of the few women skippers competing in La Solitaire Urgo Le Figaro on an equal basis, Mulloy became the first Irish woman to take part in the race last year

“I’m nervous and yet excited,” Mulloy said, while in Nantes last week preparing to begin her stint in this year’s race. “Training has been intense and these are demanding boats to race.”

Mulloy and Dolan will sail with a small cargo of special gifts given to them From Nantes for the mayors of Cork City and County ahead of the official Grace O’Malley Kinsale Figaro launch event on Friday 7 June.

The gifts mark Cork’s support for the historic stopover, which will coincide with the city’s annual Seafest maritime festival and Ocean Wealth Conference, and is expected to deliver a significant tourism boost to the wider county.

La Solitaire URGO Le Figaro is a high-profile event on the annual racing calendar with a global media reach valued at more than €18 million across print, television, radio and web channels.

Six Irish skippers have competed with distinction in the race over the past 30 years, among them Damian Foxall, Marcus Hutchinson, Paul O’Rian and David Kenefick — all of whom will be celebrated in Kinsale.

Each of the 50 skippers in this year’s La Solitaire URGO Le Figaro will be supported by on-shore crew, including technicians and press officers, during the Kinsale stopover.

In addition to race organisers, this will bring the number of people visiting Kinsale for the stopover to more than 250.

The skippers will depart Kinsale next Sunday 9 June and cross for the Irish Sea before rounding the Isle of Man and returning to France, where they will complete the 630-mile second leg of the month-long race at Roscoff in northern Brittany.

For more info and to track the boats, visit the official website for La Solitaire URGO Le Figaro HERE. 

Programme of events for Kinsale Stopover

Wednesday 5 June

• Dock in PM: The first boats to finish in Kinsale are expected sometime late on Wednesday June 5. Come cheer the boats as they finish the race and arrive at Market Square. Track Irish Skippers Joan Mulloy and Tom Dolan on georacing.com.

Thursday 6 June

• The Figaro Historic Walk will begin at 10.30am at Kinsale Tourist Office. Participants will learn about the French and sailing influences on Kinsale through time.
• The Musique Trail will begin at 8pm at Kinsale Tourist Office featuring a guided evening of music with participants visiting live music venues and pubs in the town.

Friday 7 June

• Come aboard the Figaro Cruise on The Quays at 2pm for a spectacular tour of Kinsale Harbour with the opportunity to view the boats from the water.
• The Grace O’ Malley Pirate Queen Party will celebrate the Figaro Ocean Race Kinsale Stopover. Join us for a night of celebration.

Saturday 8 June

• The Figaro Feast will take place from 1.30pm to 4pm at Market Square, featuring a sea-feast of amazing food and drinks from well-known eateries and the chance to enjoy the many Figaro-inspired culinary delights on offer.
• Visitors will have the opportunity to meet the offshore and Irish sailors and hear about their adventures.
• Two prizes for the best-dressed sailor-themed fancy dress outfits will be on offer for adults and children.

Sunday 9 June

• Dockout will take place at 11am along the quays. Join the fleet on the water or view from ashore the start spectacle and inshore coastal race from Kinsale to the entrance of Cork Harbour and from Roches Point up the south coast around Tuskar Rock and up the Irish Sea.

For more info, visit TheKinsaleExperienceCompany.com or email [email protected].

Joan Mulloy is set to compete under the black sails of the Irish pirate queen — and fellow Mayo mariner — Grace O’Malley, the Figaro contender has announced.

Following a months-long drive to secure sponsorship for her sophomore Solitaire bid, Mulloy has now inked a deal to ‘Believe in Grace’ and showcase the Grace O’Malley whiskey brand in this year’s race as well as as in further offshore adventures as a solo sailor.

“Celebrating female leadership through rebellious spirit, this brand honours the legend of Grace O’Malley, regarded as one of Ireland’s but the world’s most inspirational and extraordinary female trailblazers,” Mulloy posted on social media today, Monday 20 May.

“Like their namesake, who earned her maintenance by land and sea, Grace O’Malley plunders fine spirits from the best of Ireland and worldwide adventures to create something truly special in and from the heart of Co Mayo.”

Mulloy’s most recent race was the Solo Maître Coq, where she placed 45th but not far behind the pack that included another Irish Figaro hopeful, Tom Dolan, in 28th.

Both will be racing in more local waters later this summer when the Solitaire URGO Le Figaro returns to Kinsale for the first time since 2009, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

After the heavy going experienced for much of the first two stages of the Sardinha Cup for the brand new Figaro 3 boats, a significant part of the fleet had sustained such serious rig problems that the long-distance Leg 3 has been postponed until the weekend in order to allow round-the-clock working in port at St Gilles Croix de Vie in order to get the boats ocean ready once more.

Ironically, the Bay of Biscay is now experiencing extremely light winds for the time of year, but the strong breezes may have returned when the fleet puts back to sea. Ireland’s Tom Dolan and Damian Foxall on Smurfit Kappa had their own problems when they became enmeshed in fishing gear while well placed during Leg 2, and currently are well down the line with a 13th and a 20th recorded in the two legs sailed, while Joan Mulloy and Mike Golding were early victims of the technical failures and had to put into the nearest port.

Joan Mulloy’s 2019 Figaro bid gets a step closer to reality as the first race of the season, the Sardinha Cup, comes in just a few days’ time.

Mulloy, who made her debut in the Figaro last year, has been juggling training with the sponsorship hunt for the last few months, and describes the prospect of her first race back as “a little intimidating”.

But from early next week her focus will be squarely on her Beneteau Figaro 3, which she will be racing with experienced co-skipper Mike Golding.

“Mike will bring a lot of experience to the team, with four Vendée Globes under his belt, but we will both be very much finding our feet for this race,” she says.

Mulloy and Golding will be part of a “pretty intense” lineup that includes more than a few offshore legends — and fellow Irish in the combination of last season’s third overall rookie Tom Dolan and Volvo Ocean Race veteran Damian Foxall.

“I’m very excited to be back on the circuit again this year, but it hasn’t been an easy winter in terms of finding sponsors,” Mulloy says, confirming that she will be starting this first race without a title sponsor.

She adds: “I have some good news in the pipeline, but not quite enough to see me to the end of the Solitaire.”

This year’s Solitaire URGO Le Figaro returns to Kinsale for the first time since 2009.

However, the Figaro is not Mulloy’s only campaign of his season, as she has also been conformed as co-skipper for Alexia Barrier in her IMOCA 60 4myplanet in this year’s Fastnet and Transat Jacques Vabre Races.

“These races give me crucial qualifying miles towards the Vendée Globe,” she says of her ultimate goal. “There are approximately 12 places left in the 2020 Vendée Globe, after those allocated for new boats or previous race competitors.

“These 12 places are allocated based on accumulated qualifying miles … I am currently 11th on this list and so working hard to stay here is very important.”

From next Wednesday follow Joan Mulloy’s progress (as well as Dolan and Foxall) on the Sardinha Cup race tracker HERE.

Following last year’s performance of ‘Flying Irishman’ Tom Dolan and pioneering woman Joan Mulloy in their Solitaire du Figaro debuts, now the renowned solo offshore race is coming to Ireland.

The Solitaire URGO Le Figaro is set to return to Kinsale this summer for the first time since 2009 for its 50th gala edition, with a course that takes in a rounding of Fastnet Rock to Kinsale on the weekend of 8-9 June to end its first leg out of Nantes.

The racing fleet continues on a “marathon run” around the Irish coast through the Irish Sea, around the Isle of Man and back down the west coast of Great Britain to Roscoff in northern France.

Stage three is a loop of ‘La Manche’ back to Roscoff before the final stage, via Wolf Rock and the Isle of Wight, to Dieppe. In all the course covers 2,130 miles (not accounting for weather-related changes).

Tom Dolan has already pledged his return for his second Figaro, this time in his new Figaro 3 boat, while the presence of Joan Mulloy — Ireland’s first female entry in the race — will further buoy Irish interest in the challenge as it takes in our coast.

Dolan tells Afloat.ie that he is “itching to get going after three months of computers and meetings!”

Race organisers add: 

The Solitaire URGO Le Figaro is set to enter a new era this year, with the introduction of the new Figaro Bénéteau 3 for the 50th edition of the annual solo sailing race. Starting from the French city of Nantes on June 2nd, 2,130 nautical miles of challenging offshore racing around some of Europe’s roughest waters await the Figaro skippers, including a return to Ireland with a stopover in Kinsale.

Owned and organised by OC Sport’s French subsidiary OC Sport Penduick, the Solitaire URGO Le Figaro is one of the world’s toughest sailing competitions. Fiercely competitive, the race is recognised as the unofficial world championship of solo offshore racing, with the course taking just over a month to complete. Requiring a unique skill set, the Solitaire URGO Le Figaro pushes competitors to the edges of their physical and mental limits.

OC Sport Pen Duick Event Director Mathieu Sarrot commented: “This anniversary year of the Solitaire is set to be an historic edition and we are expecting a diverse fleet including previous winners and new comers to the new Figaro Bénéteau 3. This means the stakes will be high with everyone out to prove themselves in a new boat.

“On the water it will be particularly challenging,” Sarrot continued. “To be successful the competitors will need seasoned offshore experience as well as coastal knowledge. But also sheer grit and determination. With the ongoing support of our title partner URGO, it’s set to be an incredible 50th edition."

The fleet will start leg 1 under the striking bridge of Saint-Nazaire following a passage through the river Loire from the historic city of Nantes in Brittany. After rounding Île d’ Yeu, they will head across the Celtic Sea before passing the legendary Fastnet Rock and heading to the port of Kinsale, Ireland. At 500 nautical miles, the fleet will be immersed in a tough race from the off with a drag race through potentially choppy seas to keep the solo skippers on their toes before they arrive in Irish waters.

Speaking on behalf of the Kinsale Chamber of Tourism and Business, Board Member Ciaran Fitzgerald and Chairperson Guny Patel commented: “Kinsale Chamber is delighted with the announcement that the 50th Anniversary of the prestigious La Solitaire Le Figaro yacht race has been awarded to Kinsale for June 2019.

“This is an amazing event for Kinsale to host and welcome back having hosted this world famous single handed race more than any Port over the 50 years of the race. Kinsale Chamber looks forward to welcoming the sailors and visitors for what will be an incredible spectacle on sea and land over the five days of the stopover. Congratulation to Enda O'Coineen and his team for bringing this event to Ireland.”

Expected to arrive in Kinsale on Wednesday 5th June, the Solitaire URGO Le Figaro fleet will stay in Ireland until Sunday 9th June, when the skippers will set sail on the longest 630-nautical mile Leg 2 to Roscoff in northern Brittany. In a first for the Figaro fleet, this marathon stage will take the skippers along the stunning Irish coast and through the unpredictable, and at times dangerous, Irish sea before rounding the Isle of Man. A long descent along the rugged western Welsh coast, followed by a passage between Land's End and the Scilly Isles, before a crossing of the English Channel towards Roscoff will conclude what is sure to be a gruelling leg.

From Roscoff, the fleet will stay in the familiar waters of Brittany where they will tackle a 450 nautical mile coastal course that will require them to use all of their technical and tactical prowess in the strong tidal currents, before returning to Roscoff on Wednesday 19th June.

To end the 2019 Solitaire URGO Le Figaro, the increasingly exhausted fleet have a double Channel crossing to contend with. At 500 nautical miles, the final leg will see the competitors leave Roscoff on Saturday 22nd June to head across the channel towards Land’s End via a starboard rounding of the south cardinal navigation mark off Portsall. From there, they will have to negotiate the difficult conditions along the south coast of England before skirting the Isle of Wight, and crossing back into French waters through one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. With fast depleting energy, the skippers will need to keep their wits about them as they head to a mark off Barfleur, before the final sprint into the Normandy fishing port of Dieppe.

The skippers are expected to arrive in Dieppe on Wednesday 26th June, with a non-points scoring postlogue race planned for Saturday 29th June allowing the public to see the new Figaro Bénéteau 3’s in action before the official prize giving where the winner of the 2019 Solitaire URGO Le Figaro will be crowned.

As many as 40 Figaro skippers are expected to compete in this 50th anniversary edition, including former winners alongside a plethora of young talent. At 2,130 nm, the 2019 Solitaire URGO Le Figaro course is one of the longest in race history and it will take everything in the skippers’ solo offshore arsenal to get them to the finish line.

With just over five months to go until the build-up begins in Nantes, the skippers will be using this valuable time to take delivery and train on their new Figaro Bénéteau 3’s. A full skippers line-up will be revealed in April.

La Solitaire URGO Le Figaro 2019 Schedule

May 27th: Arrival of the fleet in Nantes, France
June 2nd, Leg 1 start: Nantes, France – Kinsale, Ireland (via Fastnet Rock) – 500nm
June 9th, Leg 2 start: Kinsale, Ireland – Roscoff, France (via the Isle of Man) – 360nm
June 16th, Leg 3 start: Roscoff, France – Roscoff, France - 450nm
June 22nd, Leg 4 start: Roscoff, France – Dieppe, France – 460nm
June 26th: Anticipated arrival of first boats in Dieppe
June 29th: Postlogue and awards ceremony in Dieppe

Irish female solo sailor Joan Mulloy has made a fundraising bid for her La Solitaire Urgo le Figaro campaign next season. Mulloy, who became the first Irish woman to compete in the Figaro this year is seeking €350k in sponsorship that includes naming rights to the racing yacht for the title sponsor.

It is another step towards her ultimate goal of competing in the French-based Vendee Globe 2020, the single-handed non-stop round the world race widely regarded as the Everest of offshore sailing with a campaign cost of €3.5m.

The Irish rookie completed the arduous four stage 2018 Figaro course along the French coast, finishing 28th from 36 starters. 

No Irish sailor has ever completed the Vendee Globe, and until 2017 no one had ever competed in the race.

Galway sailor Enda O'Coineen changed that in the last edition when he made it halfway around the world before being dismasted. He then repaired his rig and 'unofficially' completed the race by sailing the boat home and crossing the Les Sables d'Olonne finish line.

As part of Mulloy's sponsorship package is an affiliation with O'Coineen's Atlantic Youth Trust Charity. Mulloy also tells potential sponsors of the opportunities for international media coverage and a 'highly effective PR campaign'. Details were given in a 'commercial profile' in yesterday's Sunday Business Post newspaper.

Although she qualified for an important Vendee Globe qualifier last November, Mulloy did not compete in the Transatlantic Route du Rhum race citing lack of sponsorship for her withdrawal.

Figaro Sailor Joan Mulloy from County Mayo sailed into the Royal Irish Yacht Club at Dun Laoghaire today fresh from her exploits in France where she became the first Irish woman to complete the famous French Solo Race.

It looks as though plans for Vendee Globe 2020 participation were set back for Mulloy recently, however. Despite making the qualifying standard for next month's Vendee Globe qualifier, the Route du Rhum, she will not now be on the start line due to lack of sponsorship, according to team management.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Mulloy was scheduled to speak last night at Mayo Sailing Club on her ambitions to be the first woman in the solo non–stop round the world race.

Joan Mulloy will be at Mayo Sailing Club Friday, the 5th October at 7 pm to give a presentation about her recent experience in the single-handed endurance Solitaire du Figaro race, her other sailing and her ambition to go all the way around the planet in the Vendee Globe Race.

All are welcome. Joan is a great Ambassador for Ireland and we are all very proud to have someone participating at the very top level of international sailing.

Admission is €25 adults and €10 Juniors/Students.

A taste of the Atlantic mussel dinner and a glass of wine “compliments of the Mulloy family” are included. There will also be an open bar.

All proceeds will go towards Joan Mulloy’s Yacht racing project.

Joan Mulloy of Mayo overcame the setback of a broken main halyard to get back in the hunt in Stage 2 of the Solo URGO Figaro from Saint Brieuc in Brittany across the Bay of Biscay to Ria de Muros in northwest Spain, and on Friday – the fleet’s final full day in a Spanish port – her spirited approach was rewarded at an emotional ceremony with a special Adversity Award from the local community of €1,000 writes W M Nixon.

Yesterday’s start of Stage 3 back round Cape Finisterre and northeastward to Saint Gilles Croix de Vie on France’s Biscay Coast was delayed by local calms, and when the fleet finally got away it was to race a course shortened by 30 miles to make it 410 miles – straight to Ile d’Yeu, then the short hop to St Gilles, with the expectation of calms in the middle of Bay of Biscay dictating this distance reduction.

But off northwest Spain, once the breeze settled in it became the inevitable north to northeast wind which prevails at Finisterre in summer, and generally, the fleet kept in a close group with short tacks as each tiny curve in the coastline favoured one tack over another. However, off Corme early this morning, one group decided to take a more marked stab offshore, and it paid, so much so that fancied Scottish sailor Alan Roberts – usually a front-runner – found himself back in 35th position through staying inshore, and among those ahead of him was the reinvigorated Joan Mulloy.

Ireland’s Tom Dolan has been doing even better, finding good speed to stay with the offshore group, and as of 1430hrs this afternoon, the leaders are due north of Coruna, with Frederic Duthil on Technique Voile in the lead with 325 miles still to sail and a speed of 6.8 knots, while Tom Dolan is in 12th place, just 2.5 miles astern of Duthil, and for the moment marginally slower at 6.4 knots but though the morning he had been pushing 7.

Nevertheless the reality is that the entire fleet have been benefiting from the localised northeasters off Galicia – there’s a great big gap in the wind between their present location and Saint Gilles.

Rae tracker here

#ThisGirlCan has become a rallying cry for Joan Mulloy’s supporters in the Figaro Race writes Alex Blackwell in Galicia.  After suffering a failed main halyard just before the start, which could have meant the end of the leg 2 for her A Taste of the Atlantic entry in the highly competitive and gruelling single-handed La Solitaire URGO Le Figaro Race, Joan returned to base, where her team managed to pull a new halyard through the mast in record time. She returned to the start and clawed her way back into the fleet, which had about a three hour lead on her. 

The Second Leg of the URGO de Figaro required crossing the notorious Bay of Biscay – some 500 miles of strong tides, choppy seas and shifting winds through busy shipping lanes, from France to Spain. The fleet encountered a north-easterly air flow at about 20-25 knots which made for mostly downwind sailing.

The Figaro fleet in port Photo: Alex Blackwell

Three packs of sailors chose slightly different tactics. The two leaders from France, Sebastien Simon and Eric Peron, steered for A Coruna staying closer to the coast of Northern Spain, most likely hoping for a wind shift that would sling-shot them past the headland. Peron shadowed Sebastien much of the way. A second grouping heading straight for Finisterre experienced a wind shift forcing them to the west. A third grouping pointed yet farther offshore to avoid the fickle nature of winds at Finisterre, once thought to be the end of the earth.

The wind was forecast to die down to very little past Finisterre, with a slow upwind slog expected up the Ria de Muros y Noia in Galicia to Portosin. Maintaining speed as long as possible was the goal for the fleet. As evening closed in, it appeared that most of the racers would be finishing during the night when the substantial Galician fishing fleet was most active. Media representatives from France, Spain, Great Britain and Ireland settled in for a long night as the race marks for the finish were laid and the race village set up.

Near 3 am the tracking app showed that Sebastien Simon was still in the lead and approaching the finish line at the mole off the Real Club Nautico Portosin. Race officials, photographers and journalists raced off to intercept him as he tacked up the Ria to the finish. Simon crossed the line at 3:05:55, 20 minutes ahead of his rivals with an elapsed time of 2d 14h 05m 55s. Xavier Macaire managed to slip in front of Eric Peron for second place. Seconds separated the two in a gripping fight to the end.

Tom Dolan at the end of stage two Photo: Alex Blackwell

Meanwhile, Tom Dolan, the veteran Irishman in the race aboard Smurfit Kappa, played a consistent hand for much of the way. He finished as dawn was breaking in 25th place, with an elapsed time of 2d 17h 25m 10s. He had run out of water at some point, having consumed four litres shortly after the start of the leg, and was parched. All he asked for was water. A fellow competitor noted that that was the first time he had heard Tom ask for water after a race.

Joan Mulloy finishes leg two in light winds Photo: Alex Blackwell

Joan Mulloy’s Taste the Atlantic – A Seafood Journey finished at 9:53 in the morning in sunshine and gusty but light conditions. Her elapsed time was 2d 20h 53m 22s. Though exhausted, her grin said it all and she complied with media requests for interviews with a smile and plenty of insight. Asked what it felt like out there, Joan responded without hesitation, “I learned a lot in this race, mostly I learned a lot about myself.” She mentioned that dealing with the fickle conditions and lumpy seas was most challenging. She’d look at the weather forecast, see light air coming, have a bit to eat, then set the spinnaker, only to have the forecast change and she’d have to start all over again.

Joan has become quite the ambassador for BIM and Irish Seafood, a good proportion of which is exported to France. There was a good deal of media interest in her on the docks – particularly after her difficulties at the start. She has also become a major role model for young Irish women who sail and can see themselves in her shoes, plying the seas with the boys from France and Great Britain. #FirstIrishWoman. #Today’sGranuaille. Good natured, skilled, and well spoken, she’s an exceptional ambassador for Ireland overall.

If you want to follow our Irish racers, you can view the race tracker here. The race app, that can be downloaded from Apple and Google Play for Android, is totally addictive. It updates automatically every five minutes if left open. It’s like being out there with them in the cockpit making the calls. But it’s much drier.