Full Irish the perfect build up as Dolan starts La Solitaire Final Leg
by Tom Dolan Racing 5 Sep 2022 04:16 AEST
4 September 2022
53rd La Solitaire du Figaro © Alexis Courcoux
A full Irish breakfast cooked in the early morning by his partner seemed to do the trick for solo sailor Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan) as he made probably his most assured, confident start yet of his La Solitaire du Figaro career.
The French based sailor was fourth to the first mark around a short, but very tricky, tidal coastal course as the 32 boat fleet left Royan at midday Sunday for the final 640 nautical miles stage to Saint Nazaire at the entrance to the Loire estuary.
After five miles Dolan was still fifth as the fleet headed south on a light spinnaker run towards a buoy off Arcachon - just south of Bordeaux, and at 1600hrs local time France Sunday he was just 0.2 of a mile behind the early leader Guillaume Pirouelle (Region of Normandy).
The first 61 miles leg to the Arcachon mark is followed by a 250 miles sail across the Bay of Biscay to Farallones just by Dijon on the Spanish north coast. From there it is expected to be a fast, hard downwind sail to the final finish line. The Irish skipper was relishing the downwind stage under gennaker as it is his strongest point of sail.