A hard-earned 12th place in the final coastal race (Sunday) was small consolation for Irish solo racer Tom Dolan. Added to his 13th from Saturday’s light wind windward-leeward circuit Dolan, skipper of Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan finishes the first major race of his 2022 season, the Solo Maître Coq in 19th place.

The solid short course results buoyed Dolan’s mood slightly after last week’s massively disappointing 330 miles long opening offshore race. He tore his spinnaker beyond repair midway down a long downwind leg and had to race on under small spinnaker. Desperately short of power he haemorrhaged places before picking up a few positions in light winds on the approach back to Les Sables d’Olonne. He was subsequently also penalised 10pts under the Figaro Beneteau 3 for having to swap to a replacement spinnaker for the remaining two races.

Dolan did finish with his best race today, largely holding his own around the 34 nautical miles coastal course off Les Sables d’Olonne. With good upwind speed he was 10th at the last windward turning mark but lost a couple of boats on the final run due to a problem with his spinnaker halyard.

“All in all I am fairly happy with the way I sailed. I seem to be very fast upwind which is good and the key for me is that my boat on boat stuff – which was my weak point – was OK, and these were shorter courses, like today’s which have been my Achilles heel.” Said Dolan today on the Vendée Globe pontoon in Port Olona, Les Sables d’Olonne.

“Having to sail 60 miles with no big kite on the offshore was painful, and terminal as far as a good result here is concerned. I was just sailing along and it just exploded in two. Looking back I think now that we were doing outside gybes, that is to say where the sheets run across the sail and I think that had weakened the sailcloth. But really the whole fleet passed me. It was hard but I just kept at it.”

Dolan was sanguine about the consequent rules penalty which is designed to stop sailors with big budgets develop multiple different spinnakers for different wind strengths and angles. He takes a 10% places penalty so drops to 19th overall in the 33 boat fleet.

“Them’s the rules but I felt I like I was penalised enough by losing so many places. But you have to take it and move on.” Dolan said. “But today was good it was a perfect day to work through the ranges and do loads of manoeuvres and the changes of sails.

While the wind was so light and unsettled on Saturday that just one of the two scheduled windward leeward races could be completed, today’s coastal was raced in a solid 15-18kts of breeze. The race was won by Briton Alan Roberts who Tom Dolan pairs up with for early May’s new Banque Populaire Grand Ouest Trophy for the Route des Iles du Ponant.

There was a dramatic end to the 'grand course' of the 19th edition of the Solo Maître CoQ with plenty of light patches putting the sailors' nerves on edge.

Corentin Horeau crossed the finish line completing the 327-mile course between Belle-Ile, Ré and Yeu in the lead after a little less than 48 hours at sea.

The French Mutuelle Bleu skipper earned the win less than 20 miles from Les Sables d'Olonne by taking advantage of a slight wind shift further offshore.

The 33 boat fleet included Irish interest thanks to the pioneering efforts of three solo skippers.

The Offshore Racing Academy's Kenny Rumball from Dun Laoghaire Harbour finished 20th, County Meath's Tom Dolan was 21st. Conor Fogerty of Howth was forced to retire due to electrical problems.

Inshore races until Sunday will complete the Solo Maître CoQ.

A long, comprehensive spring season of training and preparation comes to an end Tuesday as Irish solo offshore sailor Tom Dolan takes on the first major solo race of the 2022 season. The Solo Maître Coq is the traditional curtain raiser, the opening event of the season long French Elite Offshore Championship and it has attracted a strong field of 33 entries.

The format has changed this year, reversing the order of events, so that the 340-nautical miles long offshore race is now first, starting Tuesday, followed by two shorter days of racing. Dolan completed his last training block three weeks ago now – intensive sessions, fine tuning boat-on-boat racing skills, starting and manoeuvring at mark rounding – and then raced the Plastimo Lorient Mini 650 two handed Mini650 class race with the up and coming Japanese skipper Federico Sampei, Dolan now says he is itching to be back racing solo on his Figaro Beneteau 3 Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan, not least to put all his learning and training improvements into action on the race course.

“I think I can safely say I feel like I have never been better prepared for a race. Training has gone well and I feel quite confident based on what I have seen and learned through the winter.” Said Dolan on Sunday on the famous Vendée Globe race dock Les Sables d’Olonne on the French Atlantic coast.

“I feel I have really worked on my weak points through this winter and my all round game has improved. We did the speed work earlier in the winter and it has been less of a fixation and I have really been working on getting off the start line well and making better starts into the races as that is what let me down too much last year.” The Irish skipper summarises.

Tuesday’s 340-mile race between Belle-Ile, Ile de Ré and Ile de Yeu is followed by coastal courses of around thirty miles out of Les Sables d'Olonne. At three days before the start the weather situation looks complicated as the different weather forecasting models do not agree with one another.

“We will just have to take it is it comes. I have done this course four times I think and so you get to know it a bit. But while I am confident in the work I have done and don’t feel there is anything I could have done more, it is always important to get out there and validate what you have been doing. And it is important to me to make a good start the season to come away with a decent result.” Smiles Dolan who had to withdraw from this race with an injured ankle in late March last year.

He is pleased the long offshore race starts this year’s programme:

“I'm always more comfortable on the long race than on the coastal ones. This will give me time to warm up! I am objective and just want a fair result as this Solo Maître CoQ has not been good for me before. The first time I kind of had a bit of a mental blow up and the second time I hurt my ankle. This time, I want to finish well and finish happy with what I did on the water” he concludes.

“Most of all at this stage it is about going out and executing and building confidence so I feel at my best going into La Solitaire du Figaro.”

Follow the race here

Tom Dolan had a disappointing retiral in the weekend's first on offshore race of the season that saw only 18 or 29 of the Solo Maitre Coq fleet finish the course in the Bay of Quiberon.

Dolan, who fell in the cockpit of his Figaro 3 and twisted both his ankle and wrist while in fourth place early in the race, admits to nearly giving up off La Rochelle as the pain was so bad in his ankle. See Facebook vid below.

Irish Sailor of the Year, Dolan, who was pitching to finish in the top 10 of the offshore which has a coefficient of three towards the overall 2021 standings was ninth overall after the first two inshore races of the regatta.

The concern now is that the County Meath sailor will be fit in time for the double-handed transatlantic race, from Concarneau, France to St. Barts starting on Sunday, 9th May in which he is teamed up with Gildas Mahé.

The annual Solo Maître CoQ, the traditional curtain-raiser for the Figaro season, has never gone very well for the Irish racer Tom Dolan but the skipper of Smurfit Kappa has this time made a strong start to the early season Vendée based race series and after the two inshore races lies in ninth place in the 29 strong fleet of Figaro Beneteau 3s.

On Monday and Tuesday’s inshore courses which were raced in tactical conditions between Les Sables d'Olonne, Bourgenay and Brem-sur-Mer, Dolan was seventh on Monday and 13th on Tuesday. After the lay-day Wednesday, the fleet takes on a 340 miles coastal offshore course out of Les Sables d’Olonne between the islands of Belle-Ile, Ile de Ré and the Ile de Yeu.

“I'm pretty happy with these first two days of racing. Although it was complicated, the weather worked out as I thought it would and it was quite clear to me. I knew exactly what I wanted to do and it all happened pretty much as I had expected.” Said Tom Dolan today in Les Sables d’Olonne, “In the end, I made the right sail choices at the right time went the right way and actually did some great manoeuvres which was gratifying after all the boat-for-boat training we did recently.”

And while he was pleased with the first race’s opening seventh place, he was nearly as happy to have kept his head on the second race and recovered after a bad start.

“ I had a catastrophic start and that put my mental game to the sword but I managed to stay calm and follow my initial game plan without blowing up, ” explains the skipper of Smurfit Kappa. “Coming away with the 13th, in the end, was not too bad.”

Taking full advantage of the lay day to prep and rest before the first long race of the season, Dolan previews the course: “It’s going to be full-on and complex. On the first section, it might be a bit of swings and roundabouts with light winds and currents. By the Birvideaux light (at the Bay of Quiberon) it should be a bit tougher with strong wind and seas before becoming again very random near the end of the course depending on how the timings are. I think the elastic band will extend and compress a whole bunch of times. So you have to be right on it, in the group from the start to finish, and with your eyes open and not miss a thing, especially over the first few miles on the Ile de Ré side. The positive thing is that this range of conditions and course will allow us to validate a whole lot of things, " concludes the Irish sailor who is pitching to finish in the Top 10 of the offshore which has a coefficient of 3 towards the overall standings.

The offshore starts 1300hrs Thursday and should usually finish lunchtime Saturday.

It is with a mix of hard-earned confidence and early season nerves that Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan starts his 2021 racing season on Monday in Les Sables d’Olonne. France on the annual Solo Maître CoQ race series.

Since finishing sixth overall on Smurfit Kappa on the French Elite Offshore Championship in 2020, Dolan has worked hard and smart through the back end of last season and the early spring to try and ensure he has taken all the necessary steps to improve further on last year’s successes.

After the race season closed he worked late into the Autumn speed testing and two boat tuning with French ace Gildas Mahé and a small group from Technique Voile sails. Together they effectively deconstructed many of the ideas that were prevailing in the Figaro Beneteau 3 class and revalidated them for themselves, notably looking at flatter sail profiles so developing equal or more power but with less drag.

More recently Dolan has sailed long hours on the water working with his Lorient Grand Large training group especially on perfecting super smooth and effective boat-on-boat work, manoeuvres starts and mark roundings – the short inshore courses have often been his weakness.

At the same time he has been doing what a lot of what he calls ‘geekery’, in essence work on the computer – collecting and crunching data from all kinds of past Figaro Beneteau 3 racing and training - to further refine the ‘polars’ for his Smurfit Kappa, that is the computer-generated target speeds and angles for optimum performance.

“I am definitely ready to go now. I have never felt so ready at the start of a season and I feel like I have got the balance of working hard and resting just right.” Dolan smiled on arrival in Les Sables d’Olonne where the Vendée Globe started in November and finished between late January and March 5th. He added,

“I did a lot of training at the back end of last season and that was good because not only was it valuable you know that is banked for this season and I start this season knowing that we did that and have complete confidence in our set up but have now been able to work on the weaknesses, starts and short, intense inshore races, so that I really feel like I have made a lot of progress since the end of last season, and have not had to put the boat in the water too early. So I feel fresh, super motivated, confident in what we have done and learned, but nervous!”

The Solo Maître CoQ, the first event of the five that form the French Elite Offshore Racing Championship. starts with short, inshore races Monday and Tuesday, a lay day Wednesday before a 340 nautical miles offshore race from Thursday to Saturday.

“The goal this week is to dust off the cobwebs and validate what we have been doing. The main pinnacles are the Transat Concarneau Saint Barths in May and La Solitaire du Figaro August-September, so, although I want a good result here – as much because this has been a bit of a ‘black cat event (ed note, in France the black cat is seen as unlucky) – it is not a dealbreaker,” Dolan asserts,

“I feel like I have had a good balance through the winter and spring and am really ready to go racing now. I have done the work I wanted to do and in training I have been going well so I am quite confident, but, hey let’s wait and see!”

Solo Maître CoQ, Programme

Monday, March 22, 9h00 Skippers briefing
11h00 Start of the 1st race

Tuesday 23 March 9h00 Skippers briefing
11h00 Start of the 2nd race

Wednesday, March 24 Day OFF

Thursday, March 25 9h00 Skippers briefing
13h00 Start of the offshore race

Saturday, March 27 Finish of the offshore race

Sunday, March 28 Prizegiving at 11:30 a.m.

Ireland will have two solo entries in next week's Solo Maitre Coq offshore race for the first time which starts and finishes in Les Sables d’Olonne.

Tom Dolan of County Meath and Kenny Rumball of Dun Laoghaire Harbour will go head to head in the Figaro3 Solo race, an important season starter that will ultimately see both campaigns compete in the gruelling Figaro race rescheduled for this September.

The pair will compete in an international 30-boat fleet that has some of the biggest stars in French solo sailing.

Since relaunching at the beginning of June the Brittany based racer, Dolan, from Kells, has been accumulating hours on his Figaro Beneteau Smurfit Kappa and, as Afloat reported here, is now making final preparations for what will be the first race of the season.

This will be Kenny Rumball's race debut since launching his campaign for September's Figaro circuit, as Afloat reported here, with a daily training routine on Dublin Bay over the past month. Rumball is now heading back to France preparing for the 270-mile Solo Maitre Coq and his first taste of the French offshore circuit and bringing with him some domestic competition for Dolan.

The fleet is packed with offshore sailing stars including Armel Le Cléac’h the IMOCA world champion in 2008 and French champion in a single-handed yacht race in 2003. Le Cléac’h notably won the Solitaire du Figaro twice and has finished second twice in the Vendée Globe.

Dolan has previously raced the Solo Maitre Coq, an important race on the Figaro circuit, finishing mid-fleet in 2019 as has Royal Cork's David Kenefick who took 17th place in the 2014 edition.

The full 2020 entry list is here

#fullirish – David Kenefick has finished 17th out of 35 starters in the Solo Maitre Coq race. The mid–fleet finish in the 270–mile opener to the 2014 season is a strong result for the Irish Sailor of the Year.  Here the Royal Cork sailor recounts his race, a game of four quarters.

The first part was light, very light and so light that for long periods we just hung there waiting for something to fill in. The race committee needed three starts to get us all off the line. I had had two great starts in the middle of the line as you can see from the photo, but the third was not my best. The line was short for 38 boats and that makes it even more critical to get off in good shape. I really struggled to get going on the first beat and as the wind was dying I struggled more. By the time I got to the first mark I was one of the tail-enders and it was looking like a long race. But I've learnt from last year that these races often yield real opportunities to get back into it. This 270-mile race, with two laps of a figure of eight course around the island of Yeu and Ré passing by a gate in Les Sables in the middle, was going to be full of transitions, corners and lots of tidal things to manage. On top of that a ridge of High pressure was going to pass overhead from the North to the South.

The ridge axis was overhead at ile d'Yeu in the middle of the night and with a cardinal mark right on the shore to go round, plus plenty of unlit fish-farms to get around and a nice knot or so of current, navigation was tricky. I approached almost last into here and found most of the fleet already anchored struggling to get around the buoy. So I was back in the group now and stayed close to others for the next legs, which took us back to les Sables through dawn on Friday.

By mid-afternoon the ridge was well and truly to the South of us putting us in a decent Northerly wind that slowly moved to the North west over the rest of the race and stayed always above 12 knots. I slept nicely on the straight line downwind legs and pulled back into the next group on the beat away from the bridge at ile de Ré. The boat is going well and I was comfortable with all parts of my game, navigation, tactics and speed. Now it was just a case of staying in the match through the second night, and not burn out. I could see that others had dropped off the race pace and I suppose my experience from last season is really starting to drop into use now.

It was a tough second part of the race and it is always tough going into a second night at sea but I'm really pleased with how it went. I crossed the finish line this morning in 19th place but hear as I come ashore that two boats that were ahead of me get the mandatory two hour time penalty for being over the line in the last minute to the start. So I finished 17th out of 35 boats, which if I'm not mistaken is officially the top half of the fleet!

Looking forward to the next big race, which is in six weeks in Concarneau. Between now and then I'll deliver the boat back to Lorient this evening after the rugby match and the prizegiving and then we have some more coaching sessions with Tanguy Leglattin in April. I'll also be working on my fundraising too as I haven't yet reached my budget commitments for the year.

#fullirish – Sailing out of the iconic Vendée Globe canal in Les Sables d'Olonne, France today, Irish sailor of the year David Kenefick had a poor start to his first race of the 2014 season but there is still all to play for as the Royal Cork sailor embarks on a 270-–miler tonight. He gave a podcast on his preparations here.

Kenefick, the only Irish sailor competing, was along side eight British skippers; Artemis Offshore Academy Rookies Rich Mason (Artemis 77), Alan Roberts (Artemis 23), Sam Matson (Artemis 21) and graduates Jack Bouttell (Overboard), Ed Hill (Macmillan Cancer Support), Henry Bomby (Black Mamba) and Sam Goodchild (Team Plymouth) and Phil Sharp (Phil Sharp Racing) – kick started their 2014 solo Figaro season with the Solo Maître Coq. Due to the extremely light winds forecast for the duration of the race, the organisers made the decision to shorten the 320 mile course by 50 miles: "It's going to be a difficult race as there is next to no wind forecast for the duration," explained Jack, who has had just nine days since taking over his Figaro to sail to Les Sables d'Olonne for the race. "Originally looping between Île d'Ré and Belle Île, the course instead sees the fleet sail a figure of eight from Les Sable d'Olonne north to Île d'Yeu and back, and then south to Île de Ré and back – passing Les Sables three times on route. The new course means organisers can easily shorten the race further if necessary."

Sun cream and sunglasses on, the 38 boat Solo Maître Coq fleet crossed start line at the third attempt just after 1130GMT, light winds of around 6 knots saw the Figaros drifting early over the line early resulting in two general recalls. Coming into the line on what was to be the actual start, Macmillan skipper Ed 'nailed' a perfect pin end start. At the other extreme, Sam Goodchild, who races into his fourth Figaro season, was biding his time on the 'right' to ensure he was the closet boat to the committee boat. New kids on the block Rich and Alan got their Figaro racing careers off to a fine start, their high-level dinghy racing experience puts a sting in their sterns, forcing double Solitaire du Figaro winner Yann Elies to shadow them all the way to the windward mark. Event Coach Marcus Hutchinson reports: "As ever there were big differences of opinion as to which side of the long first upwind leg would be the place to be. Ed was hell bent on the left and Sam and Jack were super keen on the right. Alan and Rich, perhaps being more conservative, choose to start in the middle of the line – both going really well with speed in their own space. Both sailors quickly pulled out into strong positions halfway up the beat."

Marcus continued: "Sam and Jack got what they wanted on the right, but realised after about 10 minutes that in fact the left hand side close to the shore seemed to have better pressure and chose their moments to move back across the course before any rot could set in. On the left and following a strong start, Ed sailed well and his choice paid off with the reward of a sixth place rounding at the top mark, followed by a relieved Sam Goodchild in 14th, Alan in 19th, Rich 23rd, Henry 32nd, Jack 33rd and Sam Matson 34th."

Popping their spinnakers on the first turning mark, the fleet set off on a long and drawn out run in the sun towards the mark at Île d'Yeu. With top boat speeds of around 5 knots the fleet's ETA at the island, just 35 miles away, is midnight tonight. Although not physically demanding, the light conditions of the Solo Maître Coq will take it's toll on the skippers concentration and morale, especially when drifting past Les Sables d'Olonne again tomorrow near to where the finish line will be – a course change described by Sam Goodchild as 'torturous'. Prior to the race, 2014 British Rookie Rich outlined what he thinks the biggest challenges presented by the Solo Maître Coq will be: "The forecast for the majority of the race is under five knots, which means concentration and mental endurance is going to play a big part in where we finish. We'll be looking out for any little gust of wind, and trimming, trimming, trimming our sails all the time. I'm not expecting to sleep much during the race and some of the skippers reckon we'll be weighing anchor with a total drop off forecast for tonight. Mentally, it's going to be a really tough race."

Experienced French solo skippers Thierry Chabagny (Gedimat), Gildhas Mahé (Interface Concept) and Fabien Delahaye (Macif) currently lead the fleet to Île d'Yeu, with Ed (Macmillan Cancer Support) in 4th and Rich (Artemis 77) heading up the Rookie fleet, with Alan (Artemis 23) not far behind. The 270 mile Solo Maître Coq is expected to take around 35 hours to complete, with skippers finishing Saturday 15th March ahead of the prize giving and RBS Six Nations finals all on the same day.