Irish skipper Tom Dolan eagerly looks forward to Saturday's Tour de Bretagne à la Voile, where he believes a podium place is within reach.

The four-stage, double-handed race starts on Saturday, July 1st and goes around the Brittany peninsula starting from Saint Quay Portrieux, in the NE, on the Bay of Saint Brieuc, with offshore stages to Brest and Lorient before finishing on July 9th in the SW of Brittany in Quiberon. At each stop, there is a day race.

It is a key event on the Championnat de France Elite Course au Large and an important chance to check in with a very high-level Figaro fleet before September’s pinnacle event, the Solitaire du Figaro

After a break to recover from his unsuccessful challenge for the Round Ireland speed record, Dolan has been training hard on the water and is pleased with his form.

The National Yacht Club sailor will sail this double-handed race with French co-skipper Kevin Bloch, a highly talented and sought-after allrounder who has just won a very competitive Class40 in the CIC Normandy Channel Race with Italian skipper Ambrogia Beccaria.

“I have done a lot of sailing in the last week or so and I am very happy with the speed I have. The boat is going well. It is all good. And I have been working on setting up the new sails I will use on La Solitaire du Figaro. I will keep them for good, for La Solitaire, but we have worked on a few things which I feel are good to have in my pocket. And I am glad to get that preparation phase completed.” Said Dolan after arriving in the pretty coastal town of Saint-Quay.

“I am so keen to get going. There was a Transatlantic race which kind of split the fleet up, those who did it and those, like me, who didn’t. And so there is a real sense of anticipation here now. And believe me there are some very good duos, a few of the older, top guys back for this, so it will be great competition.” Dolan adds.

“And this is double handed so the performance level is sustained at a higher level, and over the next week or so, there is a lot of racing; it is very intense, and so good preparation for La Solitaire."

Of his French co-skipper, Dolan comments, “Kevin is someone I got to know in 2020 when he raced La Solitaire and finished first rookie, I was on the podium as best international, and so we got to know each other. And then this winter, we have done a bit of work together on the new autopilots. He is an engineer as well as a good sailor. He is a great allrounder.”

The Irish racer believes a podium finish overall is within reach.

“I have the boat, I have the speed, I have the experience now, so that is what we are aiming for,” Dolan concludes.

(Day Four 1600hrs) - Tom Dolan sailed back to Dun Laoghaire this evening, having completed the Round Ireland speed record course but without breaking any records, as Afloat reported earlier here

He arrived back at the Dun Laoghaire finish line of the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSR) in ideal conditions that unfortunately deserted him for the previous 24 hours.

Light headwinds on the north coast and into the North Channel between Scotland and Northern Ireland left him fighting a strong tide.

He completed the course in a time of 4 days, 11 hours, 54 minutes and 31 seconds. 

Tired, disappointed, but objective, Dolan arrived back at the National Yacht Club.

“We expected light winds in the North because we knew that if we got caught by the weather front that it was going to be light, so we always knew the window was tight. It was all based on staying in front of the front that was coming from the southwest. It was those unexpectedly light winds initially which put us just about 20 miles behind the planned timing at the Fastnet. It was the case of these 20 miles. If it had not been for that, I would have stayed in front of the front. I was watching the weather. But I loved the course, I learned lots, it was great to put miles in the bank, and it’s great training for La Solitaire du Figaro later in the year. And I will be back; it is definitely achievable and a great course.” 

Tom Dolan (right) with his team manager Gerry Jones after the circumnavigation Photo: Colm Doherty

Dolan had agreed with the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC) that he would attempt to break the 'Round Ireland Double-handed less than 40ft record'.

While the WSSC is not recording his voyage as a solo attempt (as Dolan had a journalist onboard), Dolan also sought to set a 'faux record' by attempting to break the Belgian Michel Kleinjan's solo 2005 record time.

The reference times are the 2005 solo record by Kleinjans aboard a Class40: 4 days, 1 hour and 53 minutes and 29 seconds and the doublehanded record set in 2020 by Pamela Lee and Catherine Hunt on a Figaro3 of 3 days, 19 hours, 41 minutes and 39 seconds.

(Day four, 0800) Light winds - mostly from ahead - and adverse Spring tides in the most tide-riven part of the unforgiving North Channel, have seen Tom Dolan's clockwise Round Ireland solo/duo challenge evaporate through the night.

By midnight, he was still in the Belfast Lough region southbound for the Kish finish, when the deadline had passed for the Pamela Lee of Greystones & Cat Hunt duo record of October 2020 (also in a Figaro 3) of 3 days 19 hours 41 minutes.

And the Dolan boat still had 57 miles to sail this morning when the time registered solo by Michel Kleinjans of Belgium in an Open 40 in 2005 came and went. Yet the doughty Meath-originating sailor, winner of many events and titles, is determined to sail his circuit completely to the Kish. But although freshening southerlies are expected later today, at 0800 this (Sunday) morning, progress is still very slow with Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan off St John's Point in County Down and making just 3.5 knots over the ground.

?? Not giving up until the end ?While the weather doesn't seem to be on Tom's side, @smurfitkappa @GlobalKingspan skipper is showing ?????????? ??????????, determined whatever the cost to cross the finish line of his record attempt as soon as possible.. (1/4) pic.twitter.com/bPDVvs6hJ5

— Tom Dolan (@TomDolan650) May 6, 2023

Day 3 (1030hrs) – Ireland's northwest corner, the unspectacular but memorably-named Bloody Foreland in Donegal, lived up to its name all too well for Round Ireland record challenger Tom Dolan in his Figaro 3 Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan at midnight. For although he was well out to sea, shaping his slow progress to take him outside Tory Island, it was when Bloody Foreland was abeam at the midnight hour that he was "overtaken" by the Michael Kleinjans in his Open 40, currently the record-holder of the solo Round Ireland challenge.

Now Kleinjans may have dome the business back in 2005, some eighteen years ago, following which the Irish Coastguard made it clear that solo sailing for long distances in Irish waters contravened regulations. But as far as his French fan base is concerned, Tom is sailing solo as the cameraman recording his challenge is in a non-sailing role. And thus, to further simplify things for that fan base, Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan may have been pre-determined to go round Ireland in a clockwise direction as Kleinjans did, with Dolan's progress on the track chart set against Kleinjans positions in 2005, although in fairness, it should be said that they did study the anti-clockwise option when it came to the day.

The direct Kleinjans challenge was fine and dandy at the Tuskar Rock on Wednesday evening, as Dolan pulled ahead of the comparable Kleinjans 2005 position. And he continued to pull away on the south coast, and on up the west coast until he got to the area off Achill. There, the wheels came off with the wind slackening and going all over the place. Soon, the Ghost of Kleinjans Past came up over the horizon from astern, and by the time Dolan had crawled across Dongel Bay, the Belgian was snapping at his heels and was going so well - relatively speaking - that by Malin's head at 0800 hours this morning, his placing was something like 16 miles ahead.

With light headwinds and the adverse tide starting to run in the North Channel by noon today (Saturday), it doesn't look good for the challenge, but Tom has pulled things out of some very adverse hats before. That said, he still had 178 miles to sail to the Kish as he got himself past Inishtrahull at 10:00 hrs this morning, and those 178 miles include not only the North Channel's notorious, adverse tides but light headwinds too.

Of course, much can happen in the generally volatile weather pattern we've been experiencing for some days, but today looks like being one of the more settled, with even less possibility of a sudden favourable breeze coming out of nowhere. To beat Kleinjans, Tom has to be at the Kish before 04:00 hours tomorrow (Sunday). But to beat the other record which has come rocketing up the agenda, the two-handed three days 19 hours and 41 minutes set in a Figaro 3 by Pam Lee and Cat Hunt in October 2020, he needs to be looking at Dublin Bay around sunset this evening.

Meanwhile, Round Ireland Record aficionados are faced with the possible dumbing-down of their beloved challenge. Because if it becomes accepted that the record is to be set clockwise, an entire bundle of the "knowable unknowables" will be removed from the fascinating strategic and tactical decisions required to take on the Great Conundrum.

Day Two 0900 - Tom Dolan and his "non-sailing cameraman" aboard the Figaro 3 Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan, in their current multi-interpretation Round Ireland Challenge (is it double or solo?), had a frustrating time out beyond Achill Island early this morning. The unstable wind patterns within the messy low-pressure area, which has dominated Ireland's weather for the last couple of days, saw speeds slowed right back to five knots or less.

With Tom's progress generally so slowed, the circuit they are aiming to beat - Michael Kleinjan's Class 40 solo time of 4 days and 4 hours in 2005 - now sees the trailing Belgian Kleinjans' relative position improving by the hour.

But with the low now moving northwest into the Atlantic, fair winds for the Irish skipper may soon arrive, even though they may prove to be headwinds beyond Malin Head. But with the wind pressure slackening all the time, it may be some time before getting past Malin Head has reached the top of the Dolan agenda.

See tracker below

Day Two: Meath maestro Tom Dolan's Figaro 3 Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan came past the Blasket Islands northward bound at noon today (Thursday) on his clockwise Round Ireland Solo Record Challenge, making excellent progress
in a brisk easterly wind that should carry him all the way to Ireland's northwest corner of Bloody Foreland, as the course alteration at Erris Head in northwest Mayo may see him getting the benefit of a distinct southeast twist to the wind across Donegal Bay.

Under current and forecast conditions, it rather looks as though, from Bloody Foreland onwards, things will become, well, perfectly bloody. It has been blowing a local easterly gale off Malin Head for some time now, and it seems in no great hurry to move on, though the general volatility of the developing weather in the bigger picture still makes all things possible.

So many factors are now involved in this enduringly fascinating great challenge of Irish sailing that we'll be wallowing in it in obsessive detail in this weekend's Sailing on Saturday. But meanwhile, the remarkable thing is that a north Meath farmer's son who emerged from among the rolling acres near Nobber to have a first sail on Lough Ramor with his Dad aboard a Miracle dinghy bought on eBay should now be a French sailing legend popularly and deservedly known as The Flying Irishman.

Noted marine climate expert and weather router, Chris Tibbs has commented that the Round Ireland Ireland Record poses one of the most intriguing yet manageable sailing challenges on earth. And it's particularly so when you're doing it in a mono-hull in the 30ft to 40ft size range, when your maximum potential speed is such that you're likely to experience the effect of at least two weather systems coming in from the Atlantic, whereas boats like the multi-hull record holding MOD 70s and the mono-hull Titleist Rambler 88 could do it in the one fell swoop of fairly consistent weather conditions.

With smaller craft, the ideal is an unusually prolonged period of either west-to-northwest winds, or southeast-to-east winds, with a bit of cunning required as to when you're in the different arcs of wind direction. Beyond that, it's generally agreed that any windward work - though it should be as little as possible - is best done on the east coast. And over and above all that, it's generally agreed that the sooner and more crisply you can deal with the long stretch through the North Channel between the South Rock Light and distant Malin Head - in the midst of which the tides are at their most ferocious at Rathlin Island - then the better it is for the overall project.

In looking at this midweek's developing southeast-to-east wind pattern, many seasoned observers had assumed that solo sailor Tom Dolan with his foiling Figaro 3 Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan, would head off today bound northward, to time his arrival at the South Rock in order to maximise the tidal boost all the way to Malin Head in a strengthening fair wind.

"Things don't look good at all for rapid progress from Tory Island back to Dublin Bay"

For sure, a boat like this minimises the effect of tides. But they matter nevertheless, particularly as regards sea state, and being west of Malin Head in minimal time with a prospect of the wind drawing more from the east to favour rapid progress south down the west coast seemed a sensible idea, with the only unknowable being just when he would begin to feel the initially adverse effects of the new weather system bringing in wind from the south.

If he had made good southing going anti-clockwise while the easterlies lasted, he could have been well along the coast of Kerry or even West Cork as the southerly established itself, and that would then give him fair winds all the way back to the Kish. But as it is, although he certainly looks very likely to get to Tory Island extremely quickly, things don't look good at all for rapid progress from there back to Dublin Bay. That's according to wind forecast charts for Friday, though of course he has until 06:00 hrs on Sunday to break the four-day barrier. And despite his initially slow progress off the Wicklow coast, he is now past the Tuskar and already ahead of Michael Kleinjean's established time, so clockwise or widdershins, Round Ireland is as fascinating a challenge as ever.

See the tracker below

Day One (start):  Just before dawn on Wednesday, May 3rd 2023, Ireland's leading solo sailor, the French-based Tom Dolan, embarked on his latest adventure to round Ireland in under four days and break the 2020 doublehanded record according to the bid lodged with the World Speed Sailing Record Council. He also in attempting to set a 'faux' solo record.

The 10-day wait is over, and at 04 hours, 27 minutes and 54 seconds, Dolan headed south at 185 degrees for the Tuskar Rock, leaving behind the starting line between Dún Laoghaire harbour and the Kish lighthouse and establishing a new time for the fastest single-handed sailing time around Ireland.

It’s a journey of 700 nautical miles around Ireland and all its islands; his seven-sail boat is capable of hitting speeds of up to 26 knots, or 52km per hour but averaging much less than that, about seven knots.

"The first 24 hours are critical; it will be windy from Tuskar Rock to the Fastnet and beyond"

As the County Meath sailor, whose French rivals refer to him as 'Irlandais volant' or the 'Flying Irishman', approached the start line in upwind mode just after 4 am, conditions at start time were gentle on the Kish Bank, not exactly record-breaking stuff, with only five to eight knots from the south in a flat sea. But, as per the carefully chosen forecast, all that is about to change. Dolan will confront much stronger winds along the south and west coasts of Ireland over the next 48 hours so he can live up to his French billing.

Round Ireland speed record keepers -  Gerry Jones, Tom Dolan's campaign manager (left), and Dublin Bay Sailing Club officials Brian Mathews and Rosemary Roy authenticate the record bid start at the Kish Light on May 23rd at 04 hours, 27 minutes and 54 seconds, IST. Photo: Afloat

Dolan has been rewarded with a great weather window, winds of 25-30kts around the south of Ireland, but there is a danger that if he drops off the frontal weather system, he could be left with little wind. The fly in the ointment in this circumnavigation may be the North Channel off the Antrim coast which Dolan expects to pass sometime on Friday. He plans to clock up as many miles as possible before then so as to have some 'time in the bank' to negotiate the notoriously tricky final passage down the Irish Sea back to the Kish. 

"The first 24 hours are critical; it will be windy from Tuskar Rock to the Fastnet and beyond, 25 gusting to 30 kts; you will do the whole south coast of Ireland on one gybe, and then the west coast on the other and the seas should be perfectly flat for a lot of the time", Dolan told Afloat before the off.

This morning's record start time was officiated by Irish World Speed Sailing representatives from Dublin Bay Sailing Club, Brian Mathews and Rosemary Roy, who authenticated the record bid at the Kish Light on May 23rd at 04 hours, 27 minutes and 54 seconds, IST.

In order to comply with the rules of Irish maritime affairs prohibiting single-handed sailing for several years, the skipper will be accompanied by a media man, Romain Marie. Under no circumstances will the latter affect the performance of the boat, Dolan claims.

Dolan has agreed with the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC) that he will attempt to break the 'Round Ireland Double-handed less than 40ft record'.

While the WSSC is not recording this as a solo attempt (as Dolan has a journalist onboard), Dolan says he is also seeking to set a 'faux record' by attempting to break the Belgian Michel Kleinjan's solo 2005 record time.

The course is approximately 700 miles long. 

Reference times are the 2005 solo record by Kleinjans aboard a Class40: 4 days, 1 hour and 53 minutes and 29 seconds and the doublehanded record set in 2020 by Pamela Lee and Catherine Hunt on a Figaro3 of 3 days, 19 hours, 41 minutes and 39 seconds.

The record bid has attracted some mainstream media overage with Ian O'Riordan's piece in The Irish Times here

See the tracker below

Tom Dolan has advised of a 'Code Green' for his Round Ireland Speed Sailing Record attempt from tomorrow morning, meaning a start off Dun Laoghaire within 24 hours.

Based on the latest weather forecast grids, the plan is to start on Wednesday, May 3, around 0600 (exact time to be confirmed) from the Dublin Bay starting line.

The current weather forecast files show the National Yacht Club sailor returning to Dublin on Saturday early morning.

You can follow Tom live using this tracker below and here and read his interview here

Tom will have a cameraman on-board who will not take part in any of the manoeuvres or tactics but will be recording as much of the World Record attempt for a one-hour-long documentary to be aired later in December!

After waiting in Greystones for ten days since his boat Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan arrived from its home in France, Dolan has been rewarded with a great weather window, winds of 25-30kts around the south of Ireland, but there is a danger that if he drops off the frontal weather system he could be left with little wind.

Dolan considers that if things go perfectly, he might be able to go under three days.

“If it is good is could be three days, and if it’s not, it could be six.” Smiles Dolan, “ But it looks good. There is a weather window which, if it works, means I could beat the record by a good bit and if it doesn’t work out, I would not get it by a lot.”

He will have to be on his game, pushing hard from the start line all the way through the first 24 hours of the clockwise circumnavigation.

“The start will be tricky. There is a trough moving south to north and the idea is to be staying with that to get strong SE winds the whole way, or three quarters of the way around. The longer you can stay in front of this front the better it will be.

With 25kts from the SE you can be straight line sailing all the way around to the north of Ireland.”

And while the weather modelling looks good on the westabout routing, the concern is the NE corner of Ireland to the finish line.

“ You don’t really know what we will get between Ireland and Scotland where there are strong tides. If it goes right to the routing, I would still have two days to sail 150 miles which is very, very doable.

The first 24 hours are critical, it will be windy from Tusker Rock to the Fastnet and beyond, 25 gusting to 30kts you will do the whole south coast of Ireland on one gybe and then the west coast on the other and the seas should be perfectly flat for a lot of the time.”

The 688 miles course requires Dolan to average more than 7.2kts. The course distance is very similar to a longer leg of La Solitaire du Figaro – the annual French pinnacle solo race.

“ It will be all about where to set the cursor, as the French say, it is different from racing like in the Solitaire. If it gets hairy around the Fastnet then I will ease back on the small spinnaker, for example and changing sails I will take it slightly easier but nor do you want to drop into cruising mode.

I will have two big spinnakers and two gennakers.” He explains.

He is very much in the zone now after a period of nervous tension on Tuesday,

“I was nervous yesterday, and now I am excited to be going. I am a bit nervous to be going out there on my own, you are pretty isolated in these conditions, 25-30kts under spinnaker. Racing you have boats around you, and it is safer. So it is all about setting the level right.

I won’t get much time sleep, the first 24 hours are really about pushing to stay ahead of that trough, that system, because if you drop off it, it would be hard. I can rest a bit after the SW coast and ahead of the front, but it will be a solid, hard first 24 hours.”

In order to comply with the rules of Irish maritime affairs prohibiting single-handed sailing for several years around Île Verte, the skipper will be accompanied by a media man, Romain Marie. Under no circumstances will the latter affect the performance of the boat, Dolan claims.

Dolan has agreed with the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC) that he will attempt to break the 'Round Ireland Double-handed less than 40ft record'.

While the WSSC is not recording this as a solo attempt (as Dolan has a journalist onboard), Dolan says he is also seeking to set a 'faux record' by attempting to break the Belgian Michel Kleinjan's solo 2005 record time.

The course is approximately 700 miles long. 

Reference times are the 2005 solo record by Kleinjans aboard a Class40: 4 days, 1 hour and 53 minutes and 29 seconds and the doublehanded record set in 2020 by Pamela Lee and Catherine Hunt on a Figaro3 of 3 days, 19 hours, 41 minutes and 39 seconds.

Follow Tom Dolan during his Round Ireland Speed record attempt in the live tracker below.

The course is approximately 700 miles long. 

Check out all Afloat's regular Tom Dolan updates on the record bid right here