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Tom Dolan, Solo Sailor
Tom Dolan with Irish Sailing President Jack Roy in La Rochelle before the start of the Mini-Transat 2017.
Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan has revealed further details of plans to compete in the hotly-contested Figaro class in 2018 – a move that takes him one step closer to his ultimate goal of the Vendee Globe. Dolan will join…
Tom Dolan in his Pogo 3 IRL 910, in which at sixth overall in November 2017, he was the highest-placed Irish sailor ever in the biennial Mini-Transat. He has now moved up to the Figaro Solo, and this week in training with the Figaro 2 in Lorient, he recorded his first win.
Tom Dolan, who last November became the highest-placed Irish sailor ever in the gruelling Mini-Transat, will be giving club talks in Dublin and Dun Laoghaire next week of his adventures writes W M Nixon. It’s quite a story, the remarkable…
Man alone – Tom Dolan racing the Atlantic. He’ll be telling all in Westport on January 25th
On Thursday January 25th, at 19:30hrs, Mayo Sailing Club will be hosting a public presentation in the Westport Coast Hotel’s Atlantic Suite by Mini-Transat sailor Tom Dolan, and the admission of just €2 includes tea, coffee and biscuits. Originating on…
Tom Dolan is congratulated in Martinique. Scroll down for video
Ireland’s lone sailor Tom Dolan has been celebrating his fifth place with friends and fellow contenders in Martinique at the conclusion of the Transoceanic 2,750-mile Leg 2 of the Mini-Transat 2017 writes W M Nixon. After an improving performance which…
Top five for Tom Dolan in the Mini Transat. It took 15 days, 1 hour, 49 minutes, 10 seconds and an average speed of 8,13 knots for the County Meath sailor to make the crossing
In a final twist to the Mini-Transat 2017 saga this afternoon at Le Marin in Martinique, Ireland’s Tom Dolan came within 21 minutes of grabbing a podium place writes W M Nixon. After Erwan Le Draoulec’s clear win this morning,…
Erwan le Draoulec (20) has this morning won the Production Class in the Mini-Transat 2017
With Production Class winner Erwan Le Draoulec finished early this morning in the Mini-Transat 2017 with a very clear lead, Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan’s many supporters at home and abroad maintain a slim hope that he might yet scrape…
Ian Lipinski’s Mini-Transat Proto Class win with Griffon.fr in the Mini Transat 2017 has given him an unprecedented double – he won the Production Class in 2015
Fortunes have waxed and waned as the 80 little boats in the Mini Transat Boulangere close towards the finish of the 2,000 mile transoceanic leg from Las Palmas in the Canaries - via a mandatory gate in the Cape Verde…
Tom Dolan – fighting flukey winds and fatigue as Mini-Transat approaches final stage
Ireland’s Tom Dolan held on to third place over the weekend as the Mini-Transat Production Class leaders closed into the final third of the Transoceanic leg, with the northeast tradewinds providing difficult sailing in increasingly volatile conditions writes W M…
Tom Dolan and IRL 910 have been enjoying sailing like this - though often with more wind and sunshine – since coming through the Cape Verde Islands Gate at the weekend in the Mini-Transat 2017. Currently he lies third in the Production Class, with the halfway point of the open ocean stage to Martinique being passed within the next day or two.
Tom Dolan has been having a good week in the Mini-Transat as he consolidates his position among the leading five writes W M Nixon. This morning, he’s in third place, having gained from his closest challenger Pierre Chedeville making what…
Tom Dolan is now battling to take fourth place in the “long haul” of the Mini-Transat Race, having moved into fifth after getting clear of the Cape Verde Islands
As the wind-killing shadow of the Cape Verde Islands faded astern yesterday evening and he shaped his course with his Pogo IRL 910 for the finish of the Mini-Transat Race 2017 two thousand miles away in Martinique, Ireland’s solo sailor…
Tom Dolan in flying form in his Pogo 3 IRL 910
Ireland’s solo sailor Tom Dolan has been finding form and much-improved placings among the leaders in the Mini-Transat 2017 as the front runners approach the mandatory course gate, the channel between Santo Antao and Sao Vicente, the most westerly islands…
Dolan and his sparring partner Pierre Chedeville, still on port tack over towards Africa, are on 11 and 10 knots respectively
Ireland’s solo sailor Tom Dolan moved up to 15th place over-night as the fleet in Mini-Transat continues to hold closer to the African coast in search of stronger northeast breezes writes W M Nixon. However, the decision to make the…
Mini-Transat – Tom Dolan Gains Ground by Holding Towards African Coast
In the Transatlantic stage of the La Boulangerie Mini-Transat 2017, which started yesterday from Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, solo sailor Tom Dolan and his rival/friend Pierre Chedeville have chosen to break from the fleet and hold well to the…
One of the pre-race favourites after a strong 2017 season, Dolan led the fleet out of La Rochelle, France, until realising he had made a course error and had to turn back.
Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan has vowed to bounce back after a disappointing start to his bid to reach the podium of the Mini Transat when the second leg begins on November 1. The 30-year-old from Kells, County Meath, admits…
Mark Mansfield (right) onboard Ireland's Mini–Transat entry with solo skipper Tom Dolan in Las Palmas
Royal Cork's Mark Mansfield, the four time Olympic helmsman, dropped in on Tom Dolan in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria ahead of today's prologue in the second leg of the Mini Transat. Regular readers will know that solo sailor Dolan, who…
Tom Dolan: 'After all my hard work, it only took me one hour and one line on a piece of paper to mess it all up
Tom Dolan has had a good rest and recharge after ten and a half tough days at sea during the first stage of the 2017 Mini–Transat. Here he gives a short rundown of how things went with some video from…

Tom Dolan, Solo Offshore Sailor

Even when County Meath solo sailor Tom Dolan had been down the numbers in the early stages of the four-stage 2,000 mile 2020 Figaro Race, Dolan and his boat were soon eating their way up through the fleet in any situation which demanded difficult tactical decisions.

His fifth overall at the finish – the highest-placed non-French sailor and winner of the Vivi Cup – had him right among the international elite in one of 2020's few major events.

The 33-year-old who has lived in Concarneau, Brittany since 2009 but grew up on a farm in rural County Meath came into the gruelling four-stage race aiming to get into the top half of the fleet and to underline his potential to Irish sailing administrators considering the selection process for the 2024 Olympic Mixed Double Offshore category which comes in for the Paris games.