The Irish Sailor of the Year, Tom Dolan, recovered from a lowly 18th place overnight to deliver a top ten first leg result on Thursday (September 11th) morning, nursing a 'busted' left hand as he seeks to defend his overall Figaro title.
Dolan finished the leg in sixth position off Roscoff. After 638 miles of racing, the Irish skipper came home 46 minutes behind leg winner Alexis Loison, having mounted a strong comeback on the final stretch across the English Channel.
The 2024 winner will take the Vivi Trophy, awarded to the best non-French skipper.
Steering with his injured left hand for the last 70 miles, Dolan fought back from 20th position at one point to overhaul 13 boats through the night in strong westerlies in excess of 25 knots. Dolan will now have the injured hand X-rayed and seek further treatment as he rests in preparation for the second leg.
Speaking on the dock after his arrival, Dolan was in good spirits but admitted that the hand injury had set him back. "It knocks you out a bit. The manoeuvres were a bit complicated; everything was harder with one hand, in reality, a hand and a half. I could do most things, but not all."
Figaro first leg winner – Alexis Loison
Dolan noted that a tightly packed fleet meant the race order had been turned on its head many times, from the parking lot at the Daffodils mark to constant reshuffling on both final passages across the English Channel. The first twelve boats all finished within an hour of each other.
The winner of La Solitaire du Figaro is based on cumulative time, meaning that every second counts. At the top, Loison – the only skipper in the fleet with more Figaro experience than Dolan – will enjoy a 45-minute lead over the reigning champion going into the second leg, a gap that Dolan will be eager to close. Two legs remain. The next leg sees the fleet round Normandy, heading in towards Lorient & Quiberon before crossing the Bay of Biscay en route to Vigo in northern Spain, a true oceanic test with plenty of opportunities for breakout success.
But now it’s time for rest and repairs before Sunday’s start of the second leg, from the Bay of Morlaix to Vigo. This leg promises strong winds with a depression moving into the Bay of Biscay and off the coast of Brittany.
