Dolan completes his 2026 racing calendar with a bold gamble just short of the goal
by Tom Dolan - Kingspan Sailing 14 Sep 08:04 PDT
Kingspan - L'Aventura 2026 © Luis Fraguas
Tom Dolan and Gildas Mahé crossed the finish line of L'Aventura's second leg in 14th place at 5:56 a.m. on Saturday, after racing 783 miles from Lagos a finish short of their hopes, but the price of a bold gamble.
Yet two weeks after finishing the first leg just two minutes off the podium, the Irishman and his loyal partner leave with one certainty: following the abrupt setback of the Solitaire du Figaro in June, Kingspan is back in the game and its skipper has rediscovered his competitive spirit.
"It's a good thing the start was moved up by twenty-four hours. Otherwise, I think we'd still be out there!" Tom Dolan smiled a few hours after finishing.
After a long and tricky upwind along the Portuguese coast, the fleet split around a ridge of high pressure in the Bay of Biscay. Dolan and Mahé chose the longer western route in search of stronger wind. "We'd been watching the situation for a few days and felt increasingly drawn to the option of crossing the ridge as quickly as possible. So, we took it," Tom explained. The wind was there, but a drawn-out duel with Paul Cousin and Édouard Golbery meant they overcommitted to the detour, letting boats on more direct route slip past.
"I don't think the problem was choosing that option; it was mostly that we handled it poorly. We clearly should have cut the corner more sharply, but we got caught up in our duel with Région Normandie, and that led us to sail way too much extra distance." A misstep that saw Kingspan slip to 14th place, though Tom has no regrets about having taken the chance.
"It could have paid off," he insisted, still surprised by how certain scenarios played out. "At one point, I was looking at the routing for Hugo Dhallenne and Chloé Le Bars and said to Gildas, 'They're going to lose 24 hours there!' And in the end, they won the leg. It's absolutely crazy. It just goes to show, once again, how quickly things can turn around."
The six-day return leg was relentless: intense double-handed sailing with little time to settle into a rhythm, plus growing concern over orca encounters off the Iberian coast. "It was very intense. Sailing double-handed, you push each other harder, and the pace stays high almost constantly. The race was too short to settle into a transatlantic rhythm or properly manage sleep schedules, yet long enough to build up significant fatigue. And since the boats all travel at roughly the same speed, the slightest mistake comes at an immediate cost."
But for Dolan, L'Aventura carried extra weight after Kingspan ran aground in the Solitaire du Figaro, the fourth place finish in leg one was the first signifier that Tom and Kingspan are back, but Tom confirmed it at the finish. "It feels good to see the boat in good shape and to feel it moving fast!"
Dolan now heads into a run of press engagements in Lorient and Marseille, before joining Jérémie Beyou's weather team ahead of the Route du Rhum starting in November. The season is not over yet...
Program 2026
Solo Guy Cotten: 8th
Trophée BPGO (with Gildas Mahé): 6th
La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec:
Race 1: start 17th may - Victory
Race 2: start 24th may - 5th position
Race 3: retired
L'Aventura: 8th