With a ninth place earned this Sunday morning when, exhausted, they crossed the second leg finishing line back into Saint Gilles Croix de Vie on France’s Vendée coastline, Ireland’s Tom Dolan and English co-skipper Alan Roberts finish eighth overall in the Sardinha Cup, the two-stage, doublehanded race to Figueira da Foz on the Portuguese coast and back to France.

With an eighth on the outward leg, sailing Dolan’s Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan, the duo achieve their goal of finishing in the top 10 of the 22-boat fleet.

The second stage, which started at lunchtime last Tuesday, saw an incredible range of weather, from long, long periods drifting windless in searing heat, to a final night of thunderstorms and huge swings in wind direction with squalls to 30kts.

The duo stuck to their pre-race strategy throughout and while their fortunes ebbed and flowed between second and 18th at different points, they were in the main body of the peloton at the line and the solid finishing position gives them both confidence for the future.

“That was tough. I feel like we had a whole season’s worth of different weather in that one leg. At one stage we were doing sail changes every five to seven minutes. Last night the wind was going through 180 degrees it was hairy at times with more than 30 kts in the squalls. But we never really went off the plan to stay in the north of the route and it paid off in the end.” Dolan explained back in the Vendée fishing port this morning.

“We achieve our goal, finishing in the top ten, yes, and our strategy was good, we sailed the boat well and we really get on well, but the guys who won were right beside us in the middle of Biscay on the way back, they took one hitch away from by about a mile and went on to win. So on the one hand we were in the right place and were that close to being on the podium but I kind of don’t want to be missing out again like we did on the way down.” Dolan added.

“But that was one of the maddest, most intense races I have done. We saw whales, sharks, dolphins close up, Portuguese fishermen close up but we are very happy in the end.” the Irish sailor from County Meath enthused. “But I have to admit I am tired. We have had four big races back to back since the start of the season and now I need to make sure I get rested before the start of La Solitaire du Figaro in late August.”

The Irish skipper Tom Dolan teams up again with his English friend and counterpart Alan Roberts to compete on the Sardinha Cup, a two-handed race which starts from Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie on the west coast of France and races 580 miles across the Bay of Biscay to Figuiera da Foz on the Portuguese coast midway between Lisbon and Porto.

The duo will compete on Dolan’s Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan in a strong fleet totalling 22 pairs and harbour realistic hopes of finishing in the top five. Fresh from a seventh overall in the Allmer Le Havre Cup just over a week ago the Irish skipper is on good form ahead of a race which promises to be testing in terms of the weather patterns, especially during the first half of the race. Dolan and Roberts already finished seventh together this season on the Banque Populaire Grand Ouest Trophy offshore races series.

Even so, the County Meath sailor warns, the outcome of the outbound race might be decided from a cluster of boats in very light winds close to the finish.

“Certainly it is going to be intense over the first part and then I suspect just as intense during the second part, so all in all a real challenge.” Dolan noted on the dock in the Vendee town of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie ahead of Monday afternoon’s start.

“There will be a couple of fronts to get through to start with maybe up to 30knots in the gusts close to Cape Finisterre and after that high pressure and light winds into the finish. So it should be good with quite a lot of upwind sailing.” Dolan adds, “But that means different options and when you are going through fronts like this getting the timing of your tack right is key. Get it right and you can make a nice gain, get it wrong and you can be left behind.”

“I feel good about the course and sailing with Alan. I have been down the Portuguese coast eight or nine times but never as close in as we will go. And I still think this first race can be decided four miles from the finish with a bunch of boats floating around in light winds. But we feel good. We have done a lot of good miles together now and I know this boat backwards so we are hopeful.”

The outwards race starts on Monday afternoon from the Vendée coastal town and the return race starts the following Tuesday afternoon.