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‘I always wanted to be a sailor, but in Meath that was like wanting to be an astronaut’ – how the son of farmers became an elite-level yachtsman
Tom Dolan explains how growing up on a farm gave him the resilience to cope with the hardships of off-shore racing
At home on the high seas: Meath man Tom Dolan competing in La Solitaire du Figaro, recognised as ‘the unofficial world championships’
Tom on dry land after an exhausting race
In races, Tom is at sea for 4-5 days
Tom recently visited home for the first time in 20 months
Tom says: “I started working on the farm when I was very young and no matter the challenge the mentality was ‘just get on with it’"
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Tom Dolan vividly recalls the day when, leading up to his Leaving Cert, his teacher asked him: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”.
While Agricultural Science seemed an obvious fit for the son of sheep and beef farmers in Kells, Co Meath, he was harbouring a very different ambition.
“I wanted to be a sailor — but being from a farm in Meath, it was a bit like wanting to be an astronaut or top football player,” he says.
“It wasn’t very ‘cool’ to be into sailing either. All my friends were mad into football, and so was I — plus I’d no real access to it. The big yacht clubs in Dublin were very far away from me too.
“So my teacher just replied ‘yeah right, what do you really want to be?’,” he laughs.
Although he went on to study Ag Science at UCD, his passion for ocean sports — which came from his father who used to bring him boating on Lough Ramor as a child — intensified.
“I dropped out after a year and I found a French sailing school in Cork — Glenans. I went down as a volunteer in exchange for food and board, and they offered me a job. They sent me to France for a sailing course, and that trip changed everything.”
Ten years later, Tom has become Ireland’s leading solo offshore sailor. Last month he delivered his all-time best performance at La Solitaire du Figaro, recognised as “the unofficial world championships” which takes place on Europe’s roughest waters.
On his first journey home in 20 months due to Covid-19, Tom, who now lives in Concarneau, Brittany, in north-western France, outlines how his days of farming shaped his ability to conquer the seas.
“La Solitaire du Figaro has been going for over 50 years. The idea is that each sailor has exactly the same boat and we race over a month from August 18 to September 20,” he says.
“There are four legs, one after the other, and whoever is the quickest over the whole month wins.
“We’re at sea for four or five days, then we come into a port for two or three days’ rest, and then we go off again, so it’s pretty intense. By the end, you’d be fairly tired.
“Each race is between 12,000 and 14,000km. We started in France, then travelled off the north coast of Spain, then back up towards France, all around the coast of Brittany, then onto the English coast, around the island of Lundy, back to Roscoff in France, then around Fastnet Lighthouse in Cork and back to the finish at Saint-Nazaire.”
Competing against 34 boats, Tom crossed the finish line of Stage 4 in third place — the first La Solitaire stage podium of his career.
“It was a great relief because I had a bad finish in the second leg. It’s just a constant yoyo: you can be down in the dumps thinking ‘I’m useless’, then you do a good leg and you feel great.
“The lows are really low and the highs are really high. It was a real mixture of relief and joy and fatigue when I crossed the finish line.”
The 34-year-old, who is determined to win the championship over the next three years, says there is nothing like being at sea.
“I love being out there,” he says. “Your days just revolve around going faster — no email, no internet, no calls. It’s a huge adrenaline rush, very intense. My highest speed was 40kmh.
“You’re so into the competition, you’re more afraid of losing than of something going wrong. There is also a lot of banter with the other sailors,.
“If something goes wrong on the boat, or you injure yourself, the first line of help is your competitors. They will stop the race and come save you.”
Tom says: “I started working on the farm when I was very young and no matter the challenge the mentality was ‘just get on with it’"
While sea conditions can be very difficult at times, Tom tends to feel right at home.
“I started working on the farm when I was very young and no matter the challenge the mentality was ‘just get on with it’,” he says.
“That work ethic absolutely influenced my off-shore sailing — you can’t just give up when it gets tough out in the middle of the sea on your own; you have to keep going, just like on the farm.
“Plus, out there, it’s like getting a bucket of cold water thrown at you twice every minute — you’re just soaked all the time.
“We had a strong wind in Spain which got a quite hairy, and for the last leg around Fastnet rock the weather was miserable, it rained for three or four days.
“But looking after sheep in the depths of winter and getting blown away by the wet and cold certainly made me resilient to all-weather events. My farming background has undoubtedly shaped my approach to the sport.”
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