Solo Sailing and Circumavigation News
Figaro Sailor Tom Dolan in Solo Round Ireland Speed Sailing Record Bid
24th March 2023 Round Ireland Speed Record
Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan plans to return to his native Ireland from France in May when he will seek to break the singlehanded record for sailing 698 nautical miles around Ireland. The skipper of Smurfit Kappa –Kingspan is aiming…
Ireland’s leading solo offshore racer Tom Dolan laid to rest the ghosts of three past Solo Maître CoQ events when he finished seventh overall from a 30-boat fleet Saturday. After his 11th in Wednesday’s short inshore race the skipper of Smurfit…
As expected the weather conditions and more significantly the sea state with a swell greater than 5 meters off Les Sables d'Olonne, required Race Management of the 20th Solo Maître CoQ to give up the idea of a short coastal…
Tom Dolan Staying 'Mentally Focused' as Gales Cancel First Solo Races of 2023
13th March 2023 Tom Dolan
After Monday's severe gales which buffeted the French Vendee coast to keep Ireland's Tom Dolan and the 29 other solo skippers tied to the dock in Les Sables d'Olonne unable to race, a proposed new programme for the Solo Maître…
Kinsale is Part of 2023 La Solitaire du Figaro Three Stage, 1850 Miles Course
8th March 2023 Kinsale
The course for 2023's 54th edition of La Solitaire du Figaro will be contested over three stages over the period August 27 to September 13 and will call to Kinsale in late August. As Afloat reported earlier, the route was…
Solo Sailor Tom Dolan Aiming for Kinsale Leg Victory as 2023 Figaro Race Detail is Published
7th March 2023 Tom Dolan
A comprehensive sail testing programme completed in January and longer periods of intensive pre-season training races should mean Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan is well equipped to stake his claim to regular podium places over the course of the Figaro…
Kerry solo sailor Pat Lawless has decided not to enter this year’s Global Solo Challenge Race, which he had intended to do. After withdrawing from the Golden Globe Race at Cape Town due to self-steering failure, he announced that he…
Conor O’Brien’s Pioneering Saoirse Circumnavigation Centenary Will Be Honoured by Irish Cruising
18th February 2023 W M Nixon
The magnificent pioneering voyage round the world south of the Great Capes in 1923-1925 by Conor O’Brien (1880-1952) of Foynes, sailing his new-built engine-less 42ft Baltimore ketch Saoirse, was of such heroic proportions that any attempts at a re-enactment to…
Conor O'Brien Book Donated to Foynes Yacht Club as €1,000 Raised for RNLI at Presentation Night
20th January 2023 Conor O'Brien
Following Vincent Murphy's presentation on the life of circumnavigator Conor O’Brien at Foynes Yacht Club on the Shannon Estuary last Friday evening, Professor Patrick Frawley, a member of the Club, and a native of Foynes donated an unedited version of one of…
Kinsale Yacht Club Member to Deliver Circumnavigator Conor O’Brien Presentation
13th January 2023 Kinsale
Kinsale Yacht Club member Vincent Murphy has put together a presentation on circumnavigator Conor O’Brien, which he will give on Thursday, February 9. Murphy has compiled a booklet on the subject, which he is in the process of having printed…
Foynes Yacht Club on the Shannon Estuary welcomes Vincent Murphy on Friday evening, 13th January, at 7.30 pm, to give a 100th-anniversary presentation on the life of the late circumnavigator Conor O’Brien. In 1923-25, O'Brien became the first amateur skipper…
Celebrating Conor O’Brien’s Pioneering Voyage Around the World 100 Years On
7th January 2023 Conor O'Brien
The Journal has highlighted the upcoming centenary of Irish yachtsman Conor O’Brien’s pioneering circumnavigation. In June 1923, Limerick man O’Brien set off on his yacht the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the…
Irish solo sailor Tom Dolan has had an intense autumn of training on the water with his Figaro Bénéteau 3 Smurfit Kappa – Kingspan, during which he focused on getting the best from the offshore one design’s new autopilot sailing…
Orca attacks on sailboats off Spain or Portugal - usually aiming for their rudders - are a matter of serious and increasing concern. Now the topic has been moved even further up the offshore passage-making agendawith an assault on the…
New Watch at the International Association of Cape Horners, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston Appointed President
27th November 2022 Solo Sailing
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first man to sail solo non-stop around the Globe, has accepted the appointment of President of the International Association of Cape Horners. In addition, the French solo sailing legend Jean-Luc van den Heede has accepted the…
Sailing In Ireland Had “Bounce-Back Year” in 2022, What Will 2023 Bring?
26th November 2022 W M Nixon
Did we really manage it? Did we really cram all those major special and routine regular sailing events into the one season of 2022? And all that despite its three main months afloat experiencing decidedly mixed weather? And also despite…
