Dolan and Bloch’s Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan Fifth Into Brest on Tour of Brittany

4th July 2023

Kévin Bloch (left) and Tom Dolan after their arrival in Brest on Tuesday 4 July Credit: Pierrick Contin

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.

Published in Tom Dolan, National YC

Published in Tom Dolan

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