Irish offshore solo racer Tom Dolan is taking advantage of a break in the Figaro circuit to participate in a new crewed Class40 race - the Niji 40. Dolan is a key member of a three-strong international crew, skippered by top Figaro racer Gildas Mahé. The team, which also includes young Spanish racer Pep Costa, will compete in a 3,430 nautical mile Transatlantic course from the French Atlantic coast to reach Marie-Galante off the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.
Starting on April 7th, Dolan and his team expect the passage to take around 13 to 14 days. They will race the Class 40 Amarris at the request of its usual skipper, who has to remain on land on paternity leave. Dolan's objective is to win, and he believes that the team and boat are capable of delivering, even though a transatlantic race always has surprises in store.
According to Dolan, the boat is good reaching, especially tight reaching. The three sailors have experience in the class, and Dolan and Mahé, in particular, have experience with the boat, Amarris, a Lift V2 which Mahé raced across the Atlantic on the Transat Jacques Vabre and Dolan sailed back from Martinique to France.
Dolan is excited about the opportunity to expand his racing horizons and improve his skills in a different class. He believes that racing outside of the Figaro class gives him a new perspective and experience, a different way of looking at things, and different strategies and ways to set up a boat.
With three days before the start, the exact weather pattern for the first few days on the Bay of Biscay is not completely clear, but Dolan is expecting big winds and seas. He anticipates that there will be a bit of low pressure coming in, which will bring quite a lot of wind. They will be upwind for a bit, which is good for their boat, which is good on tight angles. The course will be quite open, as the only waypoint is the Azores, so it opens up the northern route more than some courses, where the waypoint you have to leave to starboard is down at the Canaries or Madeira, for example, and that makes the course shorter.
Dolan is confident about the upcoming race and is looking forward to the challenge. The team is hoping for a successful and safe journey across the Atlantic.
