Around the coast of Ireland in three days: Tom Dolan embarks on record-breaking attempt

The 10-day wait is over and, sometime early on Wednesday morning, Tom Dolan will point his boat south from behind the starting line, between Dún Laoghaire harbour and the Kish Bank lighthouse, and set out to the break the record for the fastest single-handed sail around Ireland.

He’s been holding out for suitable weather since sailing his boat Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan from Concarneau in western Brittany, home now for the last 12 years, where Dolan successfully races on the professional La Solitaire du Figaro Bénéteau circuit, the unofficial world championship of solo one-design offshore racing.

Dolan is a 36-year-old sailor of many multitudes and some contradictions, his record attempt evidence of that. For safety reasons Irish maritime law no longer endorses single-handed record attempts, so he will have another body on board, French reporter Romain Marie, who won’t be contributing in any way to the physical record attempt, other than by capturing some of it on video.

Still, the record he’s setting out to beat was set in 2005 by the Belgian Michel Kleinjans, aboard a Class40, of four days, one hour and 53 minutes and 29 seconds. It’s a journey of 698 nautical miles around Ireland and all its islands (the nautical mile representing one minute of latitude, or 1.151 land miles), his seven-sail boat hitting speeds of up to 26 knots, or 52km per hour.

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His outlier of a journey this far is already unique. Born and raised on a farm north of Kells in Co Meath, there was no family sailing tradition whatsoever, and it all began when his father, Jim, purchased a small wooden boat to sail around nearby Lough Ramor.

“Purely for the fun,” he says, “pretending we were pirates. Most people living around Kells at that time didn’t even know what sailing was. And I know I’ll get in trouble for saying this, but sailing in Ireland is very elitist. For me, I never thought it would be possible to do sailing for a living. But now I am living and loving that dream.

“What I do racing on the Figaro Bénéteau circuit is complicated, confusing. What is Figaro? But everyone understands a record attempt. It’s simple – break it or not – and I hope maybe that gives a better understanding of what I do.

“And I’ve never sailed around Ireland before, something I’ve always wanted to do, the most beautiful island in the world.”

After starting out in agricultural science at 17, dropping out after one year (“I hated it”), Dolan’s journey from there took him to Coláiste Dhúlaigh in Coolock, where to his pleasant surprise he was accepted on the outdoor adventure training, which included sailing.

A year after that, he volunteered at the Glenans sailing school in Baltimore, in Cork – a French organisation, based there since 1969. From there he got to train professionally at Glenans’ home base in Concarneau, becoming increasingly obsessed about the life and the healthy style of it.

The idea for the record attempt came in 2020, when the professional racing circuit halted during Covid-19, this however being his first window of time to properly plan for it.

The plan and intention now is to reach Malin Head inside the first two days, which will be 75 per cent of the journey already, although things may turn more unpredictable from there.

“Round Ireland is a fairly complex course, with strong currents, many windy areas, but the weather is perfect for going south first, and if the weather window stays good, we estimate that it is possible to get round in 3½ days.”

He’s had to double the usual food rations, with his French colleague also on board, but otherwise it’s almost entirely similar to racing solo. He’ll sleep for short 20-minute intervals, as required, the impressive 30ft Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan decked out with only one sleeping quarter, for Romain Marie’s use only. The only bathroom on board is a blue bucket.

“Going around all the islands, from Tusker Rock, the Skelligs, up to Tory, does bring some dangers, but otherwise the ideal route is to never stray too far from the coast, unless it’s faster to go in a straight line.”

Since joining the professional La Solitaire du Figaro circuit, Dolan has finished fifth and seventh overall; still, the breaking of this record, officially recognised as solo or not, would likely top that.

– Click here to follow Tom Dolan’s record attempt