Tom Dolan Finishes Second in Mini-en-Mai

12th May 2017

Dolan saw his wafer-thin class lead worn down by a succession of challengers in other Pogo 3s Credit: Thierry Martinez

The finish of the Mini-en-Mai at La Trinite sur Mer today concluded a period of frustration for Ireland’s Tom Dolan in Offshoresailing.fr, as he saw his wafer-thin class lead worn down by a succession of challengers in other Pogo 3s writes W M Nixon. The final and most successful of these was Erwan le Draoulec in Emile Henry, who started to show ahead in the final thirty miles.

The neck-and-neck pace for the lead which has dominated the race throughout saw other competitors fall astern as le Draoulec and Dolan speeded on their way. But try as he might, Dolan couldn’t manage to get in front again.

As they raced past the islands of Hoedic and Houat, le Draoulec got a final extra burst of speed which opened the gap, and his lead was reasonably secure the rest of the way to the finish, with his boat Emile Henry crossing the line at 15.48 local time. By this time he’d pulled out 1.6 miles on Dolan, who was across by 1600 hrs, all of four miles ahead of the next in line, Pierre Chedeville’s Blue Orange Games.

With two races now completed in the Mini 6.50 2017 series, Tom Dolan has a third and a second on the leaderboard, so it’s looking good for him overall. But for now, the thought is that for much of the race, he was looking for a win. All Irish sailing is with him.

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