Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan achieved a tenth-place finish on the 395-mile offshore race of the event, which took place on Friday afternoon.

After two days of inshore races, Dolan recovered from a disappointing start to the offshore race and gradually worked his way up to the top third of the fleet between the Ile de Yeu and the finish line in Concarneau.

Dolan narrowly missed ninth place by a few seconds.

He finished 12th overall based on points aggregated over the two inshore races and the long offshore.

"I need to to stay clear-headed and focused right to the end"

Dolan acknowledged that the hierarchy was established early in the race and there were no strategic options to play, but he managed to gain a few places back on sheer speed.

The County Meath man stated that he performs better in longer races and when he stays clear-headed and focused until the end.

"The longer the races are, the better I seem to do, and when I don’t make mistakes, I am certainly fast,” he said after racing.

Dolan will take a short break before the La Solitaire du Figaro, which starts on August 27th.

After a series of mainly double-handed and crewed races so far this season, Irish sailor Tom Dolan returns to solo racing mode this week when he takes on the 47th edition of the Solo Guy Cotten – Concarneau against high-calibre opposition.

The event is seen as a final dress rehearsal for his late summer pinnacle, La Solitaire du Figaro and comprises two days of coastal, windward-leeward races and a long offshore race of 335-380 miles. Dolan’s career-best on this crucial indicator race is his fifth in 2021, but he is determined not to be over-focused on achieving a top place, but is looking to sail very well, make good decisions and ‘control the controllables’.

The solo skipper of Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan chuckles that he has two reasons to feel more at home than usual on this week’s race courses. He will be racing out of his adopted French homeport of Concarneau while the weather forecast for the week promises plenty of rain.

“Irish weather! I’m afraid it looks like that. I guess I’m used to it, and it doesn’t bother me that much. But it is always cool to be racing from home, to have a few hundred metres to get to the boat in the morning and to get home to my own bed when I can,” smiles Dolan who has been speed testing this week with some of the new sails he will use on La Solitaire du Figaro.

“I’m still going to be keeping them for La Solitaire. There looks like there will be a lot of wind at times this week, and so I don’t want to blow them all about before La Solitaire. But overall, I am happy with where I am; I am super well prepared, the boat is quick, and I am staying relaxed,” he says.

The first coastal windward-leewards look set to see winds of 15kts to 20kts, while Wednesday’s weather looks more straightforward than the last editions.

“It should not be too stormy and not too uncertain,” explains Dolan, whose last solo race was back in March when he finished sixth on the Solo Maître CoQ.

“The important thing here is not to be projecting too much forward to La Solitaire, I want to focus on my processes, doing things well, not getting ahead of myself, but just taking each race as it comes.” Says Dolan.
La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec starts from Caen on August 27th and takes in three stages from Caen to Kinsale and Roscoff on the bay of Morlaix, finishing in Piriac-sur-Mer.

After five races on the Tour de Bretagne à la Voile, the Irish-French pairing of Tom Dolan and Kévin Bloch, racing the Irish skipper’s Smurfit Kappa–Kingspan, are holding fifth place in the 26-boat fleet as of Friday (7 July).

Still to be contested are the weekend’s offshore race from Lorient to Quiberon and a Sunday day race on the Bay of Quiberon.

“We’re in the game and it’s nice, even if we have not really hit the high spots yet, but we have been quite consistent,” said Dolan.

He reported that after he and Bloch really struggled in the calm in the last miles of the first stage between Saint-Quay-Portrieux and Brest, on Thursday night (6 July) they were snared again in light airs off the Glénans islands after they had been going very well up to that point.

“We led almost the entire race but we got caught up in the light stuff at the end once again,” Dolan said. “It’s a bit frustrating because we go well offshore and we work hard and smart and then we end up being trapped in the calms near the finish. But, hey ho, that’s the way it goes sometimes so all in all we are happy.”

In fifth, Dolan and Blochare now 16 points behind the leaders, Basile Bourgnon and Corentin Horeau, and 13 points from the podium.

“We have a good rhythm on board. Today on this race around the island of Groix we didn't get off to a very good start but we managed to climb through the fleet,” said Dolan.

“And now there are still plenty of points left on the board with two races left, including this shorter offshore from Lorient to Quiberon with a points coefficient of two so we will stay focused.

“There will be a few twists and turns at Belle-Ile on this course so there is everything to play for right to the end.”

Ireland’s Tom Dolan and his French co-skipper Kévin Bloch took a hard earned fifth place on Tuesday (4 July) at the end of the first offshore leg of the Tour de Bretagne a la Voile, racing from Saint Quay-Portrieux to Brest via a turning mark, Hands Deep, off Plymouth.

Sailing Dolan’s Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan, the duo crossed the line off Brest 19 minutes and five seconds after the stage winners Romain Le Gall and Julien Pulve (Centre Excellence Voile-Secours Populaire 17).

The duo raced an excellent southwards leg between Hands Deep and the Brittany peninsula. Staying west of the fleet which tended to sail low to try and go fast, Dolan and Bloch elected to maintain a high, westerly route which paid off handsomely on the second half of the leg. By the Chaussée de Sein at Ushant they were up to second, challenging for the lead.

But the winds died on the final stretch into Brest and Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan lost places when they sailed into a calm zone.

“Well we are happy enough with the result,” said Dolan on Tuesday afternoon. “I feel we sailed a good race all in all and were a bit unlucky in the end, but that is what happens when you finish into a big port like Brest like that coming in from offshore.

“We tore the jib early on which in the end did not seem to harm us too much. At Hands Deep we were with the lead group and then in the leg south we stuck to our plan. Everyone seemed to want to go low and fast but we always knew there would be less win to the east.

“We stuck to what we thought and actually stopped monitoring the fleet as much on the AIS. So in the end it is a good result, if a little frustrating to have been higher up.”

After this 280-nautical-mile course, the duo were looking to maximise their rest before Wednesday’s (5 July) 23-mile coastal course out of Brest.

Irish skipper Tom Dolan eagerly looks forward to Saturday's Tour de Bretagne à la Voile, where he believes a podium place is within reach.

The four-stage, double-handed race starts on Saturday, July 1st and goes around the Brittany peninsula starting from Saint Quay Portrieux, in the NE, on the Bay of Saint Brieuc, with offshore stages to Brest and Lorient before finishing on July 9th in the SW of Brittany in Quiberon. At each stop, there is a day race.

It is a key event on the Championnat de France Elite Course au Large and an important chance to check in with a very high-level Figaro fleet before September’s pinnacle event, the Solitaire du Figaro

After a break to recover from his unsuccessful challenge for the Round Ireland speed record, Dolan has been training hard on the water and is pleased with his form.

The National Yacht Club sailor will sail this double-handed race with French co-skipper Kevin Bloch, a highly talented and sought-after allrounder who has just won a very competitive Class40 in the CIC Normandy Channel Race with Italian skipper Ambrogia Beccaria.

“I have done a lot of sailing in the last week or so and I am very happy with the speed I have. The boat is going well. It is all good. And I have been working on setting up the new sails I will use on La Solitaire du Figaro. I will keep them for good, for La Solitaire, but we have worked on a few things which I feel are good to have in my pocket. And I am glad to get that preparation phase completed.” Said Dolan after arriving in the pretty coastal town of Saint-Quay.

“I am so keen to get going. There was a Transatlantic race which kind of split the fleet up, those who did it and those, like me, who didn’t. And so there is a real sense of anticipation here now. And believe me there are some very good duos, a few of the older, top guys back for this, so it will be great competition.” Dolan adds.

“And this is double handed so the performance level is sustained at a higher level, and over the next week or so, there is a lot of racing; it is very intense, and so good preparation for La Solitaire."

Of his French co-skipper, Dolan comments, “Kevin is someone I got to know in 2020 when he raced La Solitaire and finished first rookie, I was on the podium as best international, and so we got to know each other. And then this winter, we have done a bit of work together on the new autopilots. He is an engineer as well as a good sailor. He is a great allrounder.”

The Irish racer believes a podium finish overall is within reach.

“I have the boat, I have the speed, I have the experience now, so that is what we are aiming for,” Dolan concludes.

(Day Four 1600hrs) - Tom Dolan sailed back to Dun Laoghaire this evening, having completed the Round Ireland speed record course but without breaking any records, as Afloat reported earlier here

He arrived back at the Dun Laoghaire finish line of the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSR) in ideal conditions that unfortunately deserted him for the previous 24 hours.

Light headwinds on the north coast and into the North Channel between Scotland and Northern Ireland left him fighting a strong tide.

He completed the course in a time of 4 days, 11 hours, 54 minutes and 31 seconds. 

Tired, disappointed, but objective, Dolan arrived back at the National Yacht Club.

“We expected light winds in the North because we knew that if we got caught by the weather front that it was going to be light, so we always knew the window was tight. It was all based on staying in front of the front that was coming from the southwest. It was those unexpectedly light winds initially which put us just about 20 miles behind the planned timing at the Fastnet. It was the case of these 20 miles. If it had not been for that, I would have stayed in front of the front. I was watching the weather. But I loved the course, I learned lots, it was great to put miles in the bank, and it’s great training for La Solitaire du Figaro later in the year. And I will be back; it is definitely achievable and a great course.” 

Tom Dolan (right) with his team manager Gerry Jones after the circumnavigation Photo: Colm Doherty

Dolan had agreed with the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC) that he would attempt to break the 'Round Ireland Double-handed less than 40ft record'.

While the WSSC is not recording his voyage as a solo attempt (as Dolan had a journalist onboard), Dolan also sought to set a 'faux record' by attempting to break the Belgian Michel Kleinjan's solo 2005 record time.

The reference times are the 2005 solo record by Kleinjans aboard a Class40: 4 days, 1 hour and 53 minutes and 29 seconds and the doublehanded record set in 2020 by Pamela Lee and Catherine Hunt on a Figaro3 of 3 days, 19 hours, 41 minutes and 39 seconds.

(Day four, 0800) Light winds - mostly from ahead - and adverse Spring tides in the most tide-riven part of the unforgiving North Channel, have seen Tom Dolan's clockwise Round Ireland solo/duo challenge evaporate through the night.

By midnight, he was still in the Belfast Lough region southbound for the Kish finish, when the deadline had passed for the Pamela Lee of Greystones & Cat Hunt duo record of October 2020 (also in a Figaro 3) of 3 days 19 hours 41 minutes.

And the Dolan boat still had 57 miles to sail this morning when the time registered solo by Michel Kleinjans of Belgium in an Open 40 in 2005 came and went. Yet the doughty Meath-originating sailor, winner of many events and titles, is determined to sail his circuit completely to the Kish. But although freshening southerlies are expected later today, at 0800 this (Sunday) morning, progress is still very slow with Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan off St John's Point in County Down and making just 3.5 knots over the ground.

?? Not giving up until the end ?While the weather doesn't seem to be on Tom's side, @smurfitkappa @GlobalKingspan skipper is showing ?????????? ??????????, determined whatever the cost to cross the finish line of his record attempt as soon as possible.. (1/4) pic.twitter.com/bPDVvs6hJ5

— Tom Dolan (@TomDolan650) May 6, 2023

Day 3 (1030hrs) – Ireland's northwest corner, the unspectacular but memorably-named Bloody Foreland in Donegal, lived up to its name all too well for Round Ireland record challenger Tom Dolan in his Figaro 3 Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan at midnight. For although he was well out to sea, shaping his slow progress to take him outside Tory Island, it was when Bloody Foreland was abeam at the midnight hour that he was "overtaken" by the Michael Kleinjans in his Open 40, currently the record-holder of the solo Round Ireland challenge.

Now Kleinjans may have dome the business back in 2005, some eighteen years ago, following which the Irish Coastguard made it clear that solo sailing for long distances in Irish waters contravened regulations. But as far as his French fan base is concerned, Tom is sailing solo as the cameraman recording his challenge is in a non-sailing role. And thus, to further simplify things for that fan base, Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan may have been pre-determined to go round Ireland in a clockwise direction as Kleinjans did, with Dolan's progress on the track chart set against Kleinjans positions in 2005, although in fairness, it should be said that they did study the anti-clockwise option when it came to the day.

The direct Kleinjans challenge was fine and dandy at the Tuskar Rock on Wednesday evening, as Dolan pulled ahead of the comparable Kleinjans 2005 position. And he continued to pull away on the south coast, and on up the west coast until he got to the area off Achill. There, the wheels came off with the wind slackening and going all over the place. Soon, the Ghost of Kleinjans Past came up over the horizon from astern, and by the time Dolan had crawled across Dongel Bay, the Belgian was snapping at his heels and was going so well - relatively speaking - that by Malin's head at 0800 hours this morning, his placing was something like 16 miles ahead.

With light headwinds and the adverse tide starting to run in the North Channel by noon today (Saturday), it doesn't look good for the challenge, but Tom has pulled things out of some very adverse hats before. That said, he still had 178 miles to sail to the Kish as he got himself past Inishtrahull at 10:00 hrs this morning, and those 178 miles include not only the North Channel's notorious, adverse tides but light headwinds too.

Of course, much can happen in the generally volatile weather pattern we've been experiencing for some days, but today looks like being one of the more settled, with even less possibility of a sudden favourable breeze coming out of nowhere. To beat Kleinjans, Tom has to be at the Kish before 04:00 hours tomorrow (Sunday). But to beat the other record which has come rocketing up the agenda, the two-handed three days 19 hours and 41 minutes set in a Figaro 3 by Pam Lee and Cat Hunt in October 2020, he needs to be looking at Dublin Bay around sunset this evening.

Meanwhile, Round Ireland Record aficionados are faced with the possible dumbing-down of their beloved challenge. Because if it becomes accepted that the record is to be set clockwise, an entire bundle of the "knowable unknowables" will be removed from the fascinating strategic and tactical decisions required to take on the Great Conundrum.

Day Two 0900 - Tom Dolan and his "non-sailing cameraman" aboard the Figaro 3 Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan, in their current multi-interpretation Round Ireland Challenge (is it double or solo?), had a frustrating time out beyond Achill Island early this morning. The unstable wind patterns within the messy low-pressure area, which has dominated Ireland's weather for the last couple of days, saw speeds slowed right back to five knots or less.

With Tom's progress generally so slowed, the circuit they are aiming to beat - Michael Kleinjan's Class 40 solo time of 4 days and 4 hours in 2005 - now sees the trailing Belgian Kleinjans' relative position improving by the hour.

But with the low now moving northwest into the Atlantic, fair winds for the Irish skipper may soon arrive, even though they may prove to be headwinds beyond Malin Head. But with the wind pressure slackening all the time, it may be some time before getting past Malin Head has reached the top of the Dolan agenda.

See tracker below

Day Two: Meath maestro Tom Dolan's Figaro 3 Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan came past the Blasket Islands northward bound at noon today (Thursday) on his clockwise Round Ireland Solo Record Challenge, making excellent progress
in a brisk easterly wind that should carry him all the way to Ireland's northwest corner of Bloody Foreland, as the course alteration at Erris Head in northwest Mayo may see him getting the benefit of a distinct southeast twist to the wind across Donegal Bay.

Under current and forecast conditions, it rather looks as though, from Bloody Foreland onwards, things will become, well, perfectly bloody. It has been blowing a local easterly gale off Malin Head for some time now, and it seems in no great hurry to move on, though the general volatility of the developing weather in the bigger picture still makes all things possible.

So many factors are now involved in this enduringly fascinating great challenge of Irish sailing that we'll be wallowing in it in obsessive detail in this weekend's Sailing on Saturday. But meanwhile, the remarkable thing is that a north Meath farmer's son who emerged from among the rolling acres near Nobber to have a first sail on Lough Ramor with his Dad aboard a Miracle dinghy bought on eBay should now be a French sailing legend popularly and deservedly known as The Flying Irishman.