Finishing the 710 nautical miles Stage 3 into La Turballe at 05:18:10hrs this Thursday morning in seventh place Ireland’s Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa-Kingpsan) is the provisional overall winner of the 55th edition of La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec, the annual multi-stage solo offshore race which is considered the pinnacle event of solo offshore sailing.
On his seventh challenge on the race the 37 year old Irish skipper finished ninth on the first leg from Le Havre across the Bay of Biscay to Gijón in NW Spain, just nine minutes behind the stage winner. Dolan then conclusively won the second stage from Gijon to Royan, establishing a lead on aggregate time of 57 minutes.
His seventh early this morning gives the skipper who grew up on a farm in County Meath an overall winning margin of 25mins 38 secs over French rival Lois Berrehar (Skipper MACIF 2022) who won Stage 1 and Stage 3.
Dolan becomes the first ever non-French skipper to win La Solitaire du Figaro since 1988 when Swiss skipper Laurent Bourgnon triumphed when the race was still sailed in half tonner class yachts.
All results are provisional, subject to jury