Les actualités de Tom

In 2024, Tom Dolan made history by securing victory in the 55th edition of the Solitaire du Figaro Paprec, becoming the first Irishman to have his name etched on the trophy. “It’s a huge achievement for me. When I arrived in France twelve years ago, I dreamed of being a ‘préparateur’...

(Copyright: Alexis Courcoux)   That’s it! The 2024 Figaro programme is drawing to a close and it will remain etched in my memory in more ways than one. It’s been full of challenges and lessons but it’s the achievements which have taken centre stage. The Solitaire du Figaro was the highlight of these past few...

The suspense was palpable throughout the third and final leg of the Solitaire du Figaro Paprec! It was a leg of truly epic proportions in which Tom Dolan and his fellow rivals had to contend with some particularly boisterous conditions, with the fleet concertinaing in and out, falling away from...

This Sunday 8 September at 2 pm local time, Tom Dolan and his fellow competitors in the Solitaire du Figaro Paprec will take the start of the third and final leg of the event. Extended by 100 miles in relation to the initial programme, it promises to be particularly full-on,...

This Wednesday 4 September, at 2:06 pm, Tom Dolan crossed the finish line in the second leg of the Solitaire du Figaro Paprec, securing a fabulous victory (prior to the jury’s decision) after a three-day sprint from Gijón to Royan. The race saw him shoot into the lead from the...

After arriving in Gijón on Thursday, Tom Dolan and his fellow competitors in the Solitaire du Figaro Paprec are already getting ready to set sail again. This Sunday, 1st September, at 2 p.m., they will set off on the second leg of the event. The route of this leg was...

At around 1pm this Thursday, Tom Dolan and his fellow competitors in the 55th edition of the Solitaire du Figaro Paprec arrived in Gijón as a pack. The top twenty boats all crossed the line in just five minutes. A minuscule gap after 615 miles of racing and four days...

This Sunday at 3 pm, Tom Dolan and the 36 other sailors competing in the 55th Solitaire du Figaro Paprec will take the start of the first leg, a 615-mile chunk of racetrack starting in Le Havre and culminating in Gijón, via the Wolf Rock lighthouse off south-west England. “The first...

Having systematically competed at the front of the pack during the pre-season races and even secured a podium place in the Le Havre Allmer Cup back in June, Tom Dolan is now poised to do battle in the Solitaire du Figaro Paprec. Currently in Rouen, like all 36 of his...

On Tuesday 6 August at 9.30pm on RTE1, discover "Around My Island", the documentary about Tom Dolan's solo Round Ireland record attempt last year. Irish solo sailor, Tom Dolan, attempts to be the fastest person to sail single-handed around the island of Ireland – one of the toughest feats in sailing. We...

We made you a promise and we’ve delivered: the first half of the year has been full-on! I’ve taken part in 5 Championnat de France Elite de Course au Large 2024 races, with the season’s highlight due to take place this summer: the legendary Solitaire of Figaro Paprec, the main event of...

After an intense first half of the season, comprising multiple back-to-back races on the calendar since March, accumulated fatigue was evident on the race course today in the final race of the Le Havre Allmer Cup. But Ireland’s Tom Dolan kept his head and remained focused to return a solid 10th...

Twelfth at the intermediate mark at Eddystone light, Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan made the breezy south coast of England work for him as he staged an excellent comeback to finish second on the 420 miles 6th edition of the Le Havre AllmerCup early this morning. Dolan brought his Smurfit...

In Olympic sport top athletes usually seek to elevate their game to be ‘in the medal zone’. For Ireland’s top offshore solo sailboat racer Tom Dolan the goal is the same, seeking to be fighting in the top pack to give himself the best chance of winning when the scrap...

Ireland’s Tom Dolan and his young French co-skipper Paul Morvan this morning finished a gruelling 740 miles long offshore race for the Trophée Banque Populaire Grand Ouest in seventh place from a star-studded field containing some of the most successful French solo Figaro racers of the last 10 years. Having started...

Banque Populaire Grand-Ouest Trophy is a long, long offshore sprint for Ireland’s Tom Dolan At 735 nautical miles long, the Banque Populaire Grand Ouest Trophy race which starts Saturday 1300hrs local time, is one of the longest offshore courses of the 2024 season for Ireland’s Tom Dolan. For the double handed course...

At the Solo Maître CoQ Figaro circuit event which started on Tuesday out of Les Sables d’Olonne in France’s Vendée region, a slightly frustrated Tom Dolan is sitting in 14th place heading into Thursday’s 390 mile offshore race component of the annual event. After enjoying good conditions on Tuesday for the...

After a brief recovery at home, returned from Guadeloupe and the crewed Class40 Niji 40 Transatlantic race on which he finished fourth as part of an international trio, Irish skipper Tom Dolan is back in action this week on his Figaro Beneteau 3 Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan. From Tuesday until Saturday he...

After finishing the new 3,430 miles Niji40 Class40 race between Belle-Ile-en-Mer, France and Marie-Galante Gaudeloupe in fourth place, Irish skipper Tom Dolan is hot footing it back from the French Antilles islands to Brittany and the helm of his Figaro Beneteau 3 Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan to be ready for next Tuesday’s...

Ireland’s offshore solo racer Tom Dolan takes advantage of a natural break in the Figaro circuit in France to expand his racing horizons and improve his skills as he competes in a new, crewed Class40 race – the Niji 40 – which follows a 3,430 nautical miles Transatlantic course from...

Only one week after the Solo Guy Cotten Trophy races which was the first of the four events that comprise the season-long 2024 French Elite Offshore Racing Championship, Irish offshore sailor Tom Dolan now is racing out of La Trinité-sur-Mer at the Laura Vergne Trophy, an eponymous event which is...

Tom Dolan overcame a torn spinnaker to finish in 11th place on the 390 miles offshore race of the Solo Guy Cotten-Concarneau, the Irish solo skipper’s first offshore race of the 2024 season. The spinnaker tear happened within the first couple of hours of the race. With a small initial cut...

Ireland’s leading solo sailor Tom Dolan goes into his first offshore race of the 2024 season this afternoon knowing the pressure will be on from before the start gun as the 370 miles, 48 hours long course of the Solo Guy Cotten-Concarneau looks set to mostly be a speed course...

Irish solo offshore sailor Tom Dolan will start his 2024 racing season on Monday at the 48th edition of the Solo Guy Cotten determined that a slight change of approach will bring him consistently better results.. Rather than spending big chunks of his winter and spring on the water, this pre-season...

Aboard his Figaro 3 Smurfit Kappa - Kingspan Tom Dolan will compete in the 5 races comprising the 2024 French Elite Offshore Racing Championship, with the highlight of the season being the legendary La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec, the pinnacle event of the championship and the season. For his seventh consecutive...

"Well, we had a great sporting season, one with its share of ups, and downs! The high point was undoubtedly winning into Kinsale on the first stage of La Solitaire du Figaro. This is only the fourth time that a non French competitor has won a stage of La Solitaire du...

Because of a rapidly worsening forecast, Irish sailor Tom Dolan has had to stop his solo Round Ireland sailing record attempt in Dingle, despite being more than 80 miles – or about 10 hours - ahead of the existing record pace after having sailed more than half the 688 miles...

Irish sailor Tom Dolan is back in Ireland with his Figaro Beneteau 3 Smurfit Kappa Kingspan and is set up ready for a good weather window to take on the single handed Round Ireland sailing record which eluded him in the early summer. Unlike in May when there was the requirement to have his...

The annual French solo, multi stage one design offshore race, La Solitaire du Figaro is an incredible sporting challenge and this year’s edition, the 54th La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec which finished into Piriac-sur-Mer this morning was no exception. Although there were no major gales it was a long, Doldrums...

The Solitaire du Figaro Paprec has a reputation for providing moments of great disappointment as well as times of joy. Irish skipper Tom Dolan has experienced both already during the first two legs of this 54th La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec. Winner into Kinsale one week ago, a complete calm...

It was a flabbergasted Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan who emerged blinking into the Kinsale sunshine this morning after a post-race physiotherapy session to be told that he has been promoted to winner of Stage 1 of La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec following the decision of the International Jury to...

Just on cue, Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan delivered his career best stage finish today when, under the added pressure of being the ‘homecoming favourite’ he took second place on the 610 nautical miles La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec first leg from Caen into drizzly Kinsale this morning. The result on...

A short summer ‘staycation’ – enjoying time resting and relaxing around his French home in Concarneau, Brittany – has been the final part of Irish skipper Tom Dolan’s preparations for the 1850 nautical miles, three stage 2023 La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec solo offshore race which starts Sunday from Caen,...

Tom Dolan put two days of disappointing inshore races behind him and scored a useful tenth place on the event’s 395 miles offshore race which finished Friday afternoon. The Irish skipper missed ninth by only a few seconds after two days of hard racing between Ushant and Rochebonne on the...

After a series of mainly double-handed and crewed races so far this season, Irish sailor Tom Dolan returns to solo racing mode this week when he takes on the 47th edition of the Solo Guy Cotten – Concarneau against high calibre opposition. The event is seen as a final dress rehearsal...

Irish skipper Tom Dolan and his French co-skipper Kévin Bloch, sailing Dolan’s Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan, completed the nine day Sailing Tour of Brittany today in Quiberon, France in eighth place overall from a field of 26 entries. The event comprised three offshore stages and four coastal day races linking Saint Quay-Portrieux...

As it was back in April when he last raced offshore on Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan, Irish skipper Tom Dolan is eagerly looking forwards to the multiple challenges which the upcoming Tour de Bretagne à la Voile will bring. The four stage, double handed race starts on Saturday July 1st and goes round...

Time ran out on the solo Round Ireland record attempt of Irish sailor Tom Dolan this Sunday morning of the Dun Laoghaire finish line. Unexpectedly light headwinds for more than 24 hours whilst he was sailing round the north coast and into the North Channel between Scotland and Northern Ireland left...

Ireland’s leading solo sailor Tom Dolan expects to leave the Dun Laoghaire start line early morning Wednesday as he sets off to attempt to set a new solo record for sailing around Ireland. After waiting in Greystones for ten days since his boat Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan arrived from its home in France,...

While his boat Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan has now been berthed at Greystones, south of Dublin, since Wednesday, Irish solo skipper Tom Dolan will start his ‘stand by’ period when he is reunited with the Figaro Beneteau 3 this weekend. Dolan is prepared and ready to go at a moment’s notice, just...

Ireland’s Tom Dolan, sailing with a crew comprising England’s Alan Roberts and French ace Gildas Mahe, took overall victory today in the hotly contested Figaro Beneteau 3 class in France’s huge annual Easter showcase regatta Spi Ouest France. Racing over four coastal races spanning the holiday weekend, Dolan and team...

Irish sailor Tom Dolan and his French co-skipper Achille Nebout should have been content with finishing in ninth place when the crossed the line off La Trinite sur Mer, Brittany yesterday, concluding the 315 nautical miles Laura Vergne Trophy, but the duo were mildly disappointed to lose two places in...

Tom Dolan lines up with French co-skipper Achille Nebout for Trophee Laura Vergne Two weeks on from his encouraging sixth in the 2023’s season’s first race, the Solo Maître CoQ, Irish sailor Tom Dolan transitions to double-handed mode as he pairs up with French ace Achille Nebout for the new 316 miles...

Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan is planning to return to his native Ireland in May when he will seek to break the singlehanded record for sailing 698 nautical miles around Ireland. The skipper of Smurfit Kappa –Kingspan is aiming to complete the circumnavigation in 3.5 days or less on his...

Ireland’s leading solo offshore racer Tom Dolan laid to rest the ghosts of three past Solo Maître CoQ events when he finished Sixth overall from a 30 boat fleet Saturday. After his 11th in Wednesday’s short inshore race the skipper of Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan fought back from a schoolboy error early...

After Monday's severe gales which buffeted the French Vendee coast to keep Ireland's Tom Dolan and the 29 other solo skippers tied to the dockin Les Sables d'Olonne unable to race, a proposed new programme for the Solo Maître CoQ has been announced by Race Direction. The plan is to try...

In the face of a dynamic, changing programme due to gale force winds and big seas om France’s west coast, Ireland’s solo sailing skipper Tom Dolan is keeping an open mind and remaining prepared for anything as the curtain raiser for the 2023, the Solo Maître Coq, sees Monday and Tuesday’s first...

A comprehensive sail testing programme completed in January and longer periods of intensive pre-season training races should mean Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan is well equipped to stake his claim to regular podium places over the course of the Figaro Bénéteau season in France. The seven month racing season starts next...

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...

Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan improved on his 12th on Stage 1 when he crossed the finish line into Royan, France this morning in fifth place on the second stage of La Solitaire du Figaro. The skipper of Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan should move into the top five of the annual French solo...

Irish solo racer Tom Dolan remained in a positive, upbeat mood in the post race sunshine of Port La Foret, Brittany after finishing 14th on the first 559 miles stage of the 2022 La Solitaire du Figaro. Racing Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan, he sailed a very strong opening half of the race, lying...

Ireland’s solo racer Tom Dolan, who sails in the colours of Smurfit Kappa and Kingspan, will start his fifth La Solitaire du Figaro this Sunday. The 34-year-old who originates from County Meath but has lived in France for 12 years holds the record for the highest overall finishing place by...

Irish solo skipper Tom Dolan will spend this week dealing with some niggling technical problems and debriefing the factors which contributed to a disappointing 14th place in the Solo Guy Cotten solo race which finished in Saturday into his French home port of Concarneau. A cavitation problem with his port rudder...

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...

Irish-Anglo duo Tom Dolan and Alan Roberts on Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan made a solid start to the second stage of the 2022 Sardinha Cup, a 560 nautical miles return leg from Figueira da Foz in Portugal back across the Bay of Biscay to Saint Gilles Croix de Vie on France’s Vendée...

Under other circumstances Irish-Anglo sailing duo Tom Dolan and Alan Roberts might have been content finishing into Figuera da Foz Portugal yesterday morning at the end of the first stage of the Sardinha Cup in eighth place, but having led for most of the middle third of the 565 nautical...

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 races 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...

Ireland’s solo skipper of Smurfit Kappa Kingspan finished in a very creditable seventh place overall today in the second event of the French Elite Solo Offshore Championship, the Allmer Le Havre Cup which was raced out of the Channel port of Le Havre for the fifth time.  Dolan finished in 12th in today’s 27...

Ireland’s Tom Dolan came back from deep in the fleet – in the low teens on the passage along to the South Coast of England - to finish a creditable ninth across the line this morning at the end of the 450 miles offshore race of the Le Havre Allmer...

Ireland’s Tom Dolan and his Beneteau Figaro 3 Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan are back in the English Channel ready to take on all of the many challenges offered by the Le Havre Allmer Cup which starts on Sunday with a 340 nautical miles offshore race. The event, which was last run in 2018, is the...

Tom Dolan and his English co-skipper were taking the many positives from the seventh place finish that they secured early this morning when the Trophée Banque Populaire Route Sur La Route Iles Ponant finished into Concarneau, Brittany after nearly four days of very intense, high pressure racing.    Having led the 12-boat...

Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan pairs up with on-form top English racer Alan Roberts tomorrow (Sunday) when the duo seek to land an Anglo Saxon win in a new 800 nautical miles French double-handed race for the Trophée Banque Populaire Grand Ouest. The race starts Sunday at 1330hrs (local time) from...

A hard earned 12th place in the final coastal race (Sunday) was small consolation for Irish solo racer Tom Dolan. Added to his 13th from Saturday’s light wind windward-leeward circuit Dolan, skipper of Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan finishes the first major race of his 2022 season, the Solo Maître Coq in 19th...

A long, comprehensive spring season of training and preparation comes to an end Tuesday as Irish solo offshore sailor Tom Dolan takes on the first major solo race of the 2022 season. The Solo Maître Coq is the traditional curtain raiser, the opening event of the season long French Elite...

Ireland’s leading solo offshore racer Tom Dolan has almost finished his training phase prior to the start of the five events which comprise the 2022 French Elite Offshore Racing Championship, the season long solo and short-handed circuit which has La Solitaire du Figaro (Aug 15th to September 11th) as its...

Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan reports that his pre-season training is on track as he steps up work with the other members of the Lorient Grand Large programme which he works with in Brittany and pairing off into small groups for focused speed testing and fine tuning manoeuvres. Now that his...

Ireland’s leading solo offshore sailor Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan) finished the 52ndedition of La Solitaire du Figaro on a high note when he crossed the finish line of Stage 4 into Saint Nazaire in third place, the first La Solitaire stage podium of his career. After leading the 34 boat fleet...

Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan was placing his faith in a slightly different, more westerly strategy as he left Morlaix Bay in north Brittany this afternoon at the start of a mammoth 685 miles final stage of La Solitaire du Figaro. The skipper of Smurfit Kappa -Kingspan, who lies 19th overall,...

Ireland’s solo offshore racer Tom Dolan set out from Fécamp on the north coast of France at midday today ready to take on the 620 miles Leg 3 of La Solitaire du Figaro. After two tough stages which both featured long periods battling upwind in brisk winds, Leg 3 looks...

Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan) is hoping for some compression with the front of the fleet as Stage 2 of La Solitaire du Figaro, from Lorient to Fécamp, takes on the notorious Alderney Race. The strong tidal current there, between Alderney and Cap de la Hague on the NW corner of...

After a promising tenth place on the 627 nautical miles first stage of La Solitaire du Figaro, Ireland’s Tom Dolan was fighting something of a rearguard battle after a modest start to Stage 2 this afternoon off Lorient. At the exit from a challenging four leg round the buoys sprint stage,...

[caption id="attachment_16911" align="alignnone" width="300"] Tom Dolan, Skipper du Figaro Smurfit Kappa, 10eme sur la ligne d'arrivee de la 1ere étape de la Solitaire du Figaro 2021 entre Saint Nazaire et Lorient - Lorient le 26/08/2021[/caption] Ireland’s Tom Dolan finished 10th into Lorient this morning concluding the first stage of La Solitaire du...

Tom Dolan, the leading Irish solo sailor, started the first stage of the 52nd La Solitaire du Figaro in perfect conditions from Saint-Nazaire - on outer reaches of France’s Loire estuary - pledging to stick to his strategy but to give everything to be near the front of the peloton when...

[caption id="attachment_16899" align="alignnone" width="200"] Tom Dolan, skipper du Figaro Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan - Solitaire du Figaro 2021 - Saint Nazaire le 16/07/2021[/caption] Three days before the start of one of the most gruelling ever editions of La Solitaire du Figaro, the annual multi stage French solo offshore race, Ireland’s solo racer Tom...

Top Irish offshore racer Tom Dolan will sail the upcoming Tour de Bretagne with leading French coach Tanguy Leglatin seeking to land a solid result for  Smurfit Kappa and  new co sponsor Kingspan and to keep his preparation for mid -August’s La Solitaire du Figaro on course. One month on...

Irish skipper Tom Dolan strengthens his long term solo and short handed Figaro Bénéteau offshore racing programme after agreeing an exciting new support package with Kinsgpan, the building materials and insulation group which operates in 70 countries worldwide and is headquartered in Kingscourt, County Cavan, close to where Dolan grew...

Ireland’s Tom Dolan and his French co-skipper Gildas Mahé have been coming to terms with a slightly disappointing outcome following a very close finish to the Transat en Double Concarneau to Saint Barthélemy race. [caption id="attachment_16857" align="alignnone" width="300"] Gildas Mahe et Tom Dolan, a bord du Figaro Breizh Cola, 8eme...

[caption id="attachment_16843" align="alignnone" width="300"] Tom Dolan et Gildas Mahé[/caption] The last 450 miles of the Transat en Double Concarneau to Saint Barthélemy sees the leaders of the 18 boat fleet finely balanced with a group to the north which have been gaining and the long established leading pack which have been...

With just over 1200 nautical miles to the finish line and more than ten days since leaving Brittany, Ireland’s Tom Dolan and his French co-skipper Gildas Mahé are fighting hard in third place on the Transat en Double Concarneau – Saint Barthélemy. Racing Mahé’s boat Breizh Cola the duo have...

Ireland’s Tom Dolan, racing with the French co-skipper Gildas Mahé on Breizh Cola, lies in fourth place on the Transat en Double Concarneau Saint Barthélemy as the fleet heads west across the Atlantic after passing the Canary Islands rounding mark in fifth early on Monday morning. Mahe and Dolan are...

Tom Dolan Ready For The Transat en Double Concarneau-Saint Barthélemy Following a postponed start, moved to this Wednesday evening at 1900hrs local time from last Sunday because of stormy conditions on the Bay of Biscay, Irish skipper Tom Dolan and his ace French co-skipper Glldas Mahé were in a buoyant mood...

[caption id="attachment_16790" align="alignnone" width="300"] Prologue of the Transat En Double 2021 - Concarneau le 09/05/2021 Credits Alexis Courcoux[/caption] Irish sailor Tom Dolan is among the 18 duos breathing a collective sigh of relief today in Concarneau, France after Sunday’s start of the Transat en Double race to Saint Barthélemy has been...

An ankle injury sustained midway through the 340 nautical miles long offshore race curtailed Irish solo sailor’s Tom Dolan’s chances of a top 10 overall finish in the first solo race of the French Figaro season, the Solo Maître Coq At the Ile de Ré, the southernmost turning point of the...

The annual Solo Maître CoQ, the traditional curtain raiser for the Figaro season, has never gone very well for the Irish racer Tom Dolan but the skipper of Smurfit Kappa has this time made a strong start to the early season Vendée based race series and after the two inshore...

It is with a mix of hard earned confidence and early season nerves that Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan starts his 2021 racing season on Monday in Les Sables d’Olonne. France on the annual Solo Maître CoQ race series. Since finishing sixth overall on Smurfit Kappa on the French Elite Offshore...

Ireland’s leading solo offshore racer Tom Dolan was recognised for his exceptional 2020 season, during which he finished in an unprecedented fifth place in La Solitaire du Figaro, when he was named Irish Sailor of the Year. The award is presented by Irish Sailing in association with Afloat magazine and...