Ireland's Tom Dolan and French co-skipper Paul Morvan fourth overall in the Laura Vergne Trophy

Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan - Laura Vergne Trophy 2024 © Adrien François

After a fourth place on the shorter coastal course which was sailed last Sunday, Ireland's Tom Dolan and French co-skipper Paul Morvan sailed to sixth place in a 270 miles offshore race which finished yesterday to end up fourth overall in the Laura Vergne Trophy.

The two co-skippers, sailing Dolan's Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan, were well to the fore in the early and middle stages of the long offshore which was sailed off the Breton coast between the Isle de Yeu and the Glénan islands, off the Vendée region.

Ireland's Tom Dolan - Laura Vergne Trophy 2024 - photo © Adrien François

"We were up with the top three or four boats when the routing wanted to take us offshore but we really had to control those round about us and consolidate rather than gamble. We were on a good upwind course so it did not make sense to go offshore so we played the middle. There were a bunch of boats went out, offshore and they did well." Explained Dolan this morning, "They showed they were prepared to gamble and they made a great comeback. As far as we are concerned, with Paul, we fought until the end to finally finish 6th in this "sprint" format race."

"We were mainly in the leading trio, in the peloton as it were. And it was great sailing with Paul who is young and from an Olympic classes background so I learned more about good starts. In the end, we did pretty well during this event and we had a lot of fun. We showed that we had the speed and we were capable of doing well" concluded Dolan.

Now for the 'Flying Irishman' it is a change of class for the new Niji40 race across the Atlantic to Guadeloupe which starts April 7. He races with Gildas Mahé and Pep Costa is on a Class 40.