La Solitaire du Figaro Leg 2 - Day 4: Options narrow for Dolan
by Tom Dolan Racing 19 Sep 2025 13:17 BST
19 September 2025
La Solitaire du Figaro Leg 2: Tom Dolan charges on © Tom Dolan Racing
Day four of leg two started in light airs for most of the fleet. The leading bunch have passed Cape Finisterre, funneling through a mandatory checkpoint gate added by the race committee, and are closing in Vigo, around 40 miles to the south east.
That convergence forced a reshuffle at the top, and narrows the range of tactical options for the remainder of the leg.
For Irish skipper Tom Dolan, there's good news and bad news. The good news: He's reeled those leaders in, closing the gap by more than 50 miles overnight as he benefited from stronger breeze offshore. The bad news is that Dolan and the group that took the westerly route across the Bay of Biscay are running out of road to reel the fleet in much further. Dolan sits 28 nautical miles behind the leader and currently in 30th position. There may be time to pick off a handful of the boats ahead, but there will not likely be a major wind differential to tap into. Having to dive inshore to pass through the mandatory gate meant giving up the option of staying offshore in a line of stronger wind, arguably the only card left to play in that group's hand.
After four days of taxing ocean racing, carrying an injury, it will draw on reserves of mental strength and resilience to keep pushing hard and make gains on the light airs beat to Vigo.
The first arrivals are expected to arrive in Vigo, northern Spain, in and around sunset on Friday evening, and all eyes will then be on the cumulative times on the leaderboard, which sets in place every skipper's task for the long return leg northwards, scheduled to start on Sunday.
Where is Tom Dolan / Kingspan?
Leaderboard Position: 30th
Distance to Finish: 69 nautical miles (128 kms)
Distance to Leader: 27.8 nautical miles (51 kms)