Tom Dolan Makes Solid Start in the Second Leg of La Solitaire du Figaro at Kinsale, Despite Dropping to 20th Place

3rd September 2023

Light winds are set to prevail through most of the first 36 hours of Stage 2 of La Solitaire Du Figaro that began off Kinsale, County Cork on Sunday Credit: Alexis Courcoux

Tom Dolan, the Irish solo sailor who won the first leg of the 54th La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec, has made a solid start in the second stage of the competition. The leg, which covers over 500 miles from Kinsale in Ireland to Roscoff on the Bay of Morlaix, promises to be a light winds affair with plenty of opportunities for the fleet to expand and contract in the strong tidal currents.

Despite not having a boat-on-boat dinghy racing background, Dolan has been proving himself on the longer courses. He made a good start in the second stage, finishing tenth out of the bay in good company just behind some of his closest rivals. However, after 30 miles of racing, he had dropped into 20th place and was two miles behind the early leader Romen Richard of France.

Before leaving the dock in Kinsale, Dolan said, "The leg looks tricky. I feel good now. The start looks quite clear, we will be sailing downwind along the coast in the sea-breeze. Tonight there could be a big split. Some of the weather models are sending us offshore, others are telling us to hug the coast, there are two extremes."

The course will take the solo sailors up to a mark in the Irish Sea, most likely to be offshore of Dun Laoghaire, and Spanish sailor Pep Costa, who is weather adviser to some of the international sailors, has described it as "a very tricky leg." Costa added, "It is going to be mostly a light winds leg with thermal winds today transitioning into a very very light winds zone before coming into a light north to north east wind for later tonight. So they will be very close to the coast under spinnakers. Downwind it is very close to VMG and then tonight into a NE to E wind. They will go offshore and tack in the NE’ly maybe a few tacks to Tuskar rock. The breeze will fill in around 10-15 knots but the current is quite strong so they need to be close to the shore when the current is against them and offshore when it is with them."

Gaston Morvan of Région Bretagne CMB won the Paprec Trophy for the first around the short, departure circuit, just as he also led away from Caen a week ago.

Standings after Stage 1

1 Tom Dolan, IRL, (Smurfit Kappa-KIngspan) 3d 19h 16m 46 s
2 Nils Palmieri, SUI, (Teamwork) 3d 19h 23m 13s + 6 min 27 sec
3 Robin Marais, FRA, (Moi Chance Moi Aussi) 3d 19h 23m 13s + 8 min 17 sec
4 Benoit Tuduri, FRA, (Capso en Cavale) 3d 19h00m 25s (+30 mins penalty) +13 mins 39 sec
5 Basile Bourgnon, FRA, (Edenred) 3d 19h 31m 05 s +14 min 18 secs
6 Romain Le Gall, FRA, (Centre Excellence Voile Secours Populaire) 3d 19h 32m 52s + 16m 06s
7 Alexis Loison, FRA, (Groupe REEL) 3d 19h 32m 55 s + 16 m 09s
8 Elodie Bonafous, FRA (Queguiner La Vie en Rose) 3d 19h 33m 07s +16m 21s
9 Lois Berrehar, FRA, (Skipper MACIF 2022) 3d19h 33m 16m +16m 30s
10 Guillaume Pirouelle, FRA, (Region Normandie) 3d 19h 33m 32s +16m 46 sec

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