15 Sep Dolan Continues Figaro Campaign Despite Injury
Irish Offshore Sailor Tom Dolan starts Leg 2 of the Solitaire du Figaro on Monday evening, after a 24-hour delay due to extreme winds. The 900km leg, delayed to allow dangerous sea conditions to ease, takes the fleet across the Bay of Biscay to Vigo in northern Spain. The start is set for 7:00 PM local time (6:00 PM Irish time), giving Dolan, the defending champion some additional recovery time following a hand injury sustained in the first leg.
Dolan, sailing the Figaro Kingspan, injured his hand just an hour into the 638 nautical-mile opening leg. Despite the setback, he pushed through with the assistance of on-call race doctors, fighting back from 20th place to finish sixth in Morlaix, France. Race organisers recognised his resilience with the Suzuki Fighting Spirit Award for the most combative performance in Leg One.
Following medical assessment, Dolan has sustained severe bruising in his hand but has been cleared to continue in the race with no breaks or surgery needed.
“I’m feeling very good about the second leg,” Dolan said. “It’s probably going to be a bit hairy getting out of Roscoff, we’ve got about 25–30 knots of wind and seas of 4 to 5 metres, which is really on the limit of what these boats can handle. But once we get into the Bay of Biscay, it’s a big change of atmosphere. We’ll have a complicated ridge of high pressure to cross.”
After a challenging start in heavy conditions, the 34-boat Figaro fleet is expected to encounter much lighter winds as they enter the Bay of Biscay. This will present a very different challenge from the start, with navigation and strategic weather calls becoming critical in order to try and stay ahead.
“My biggest goal is to stay lucid,” Dolan explained, “to be able to analyse the weather later into the race and make the best decisions as we navigate the high pressure zone.”
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Tom Dolan finished sixth in Leg One, and starts Leg Two with a deficit of 45 minutes and 57 seconds to leader, Alexis Loison.
Leg 2 covers 486 nautical miles (900 kilometres), finishing in Vigo, Spain, the second stopover of the race.
