La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec - photo © Alexis Courcoux
From an Irish champion to an American pioneer, a wave of international talent is redefining one of offshore racing’s most storied competitions.
When the fleet lines up for the 2026 La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec, a quiet revolution will be under way. Amid the familiar names that have long dominated this gruelling solo offshore race, a growing contingent of English-speaking skippers is arriving not as curious outsiders, but as seasoned competitors with something to prove.
They come from different countries, different backgrounds, and different points in their careers. What they share is a common conviction: that the French offshore circuit, long considered the world’s most demanding proving ground for solo sailors, is now within reach for international talent willing to put in the work.
A champion returns
Nobody embodies that shift more visibly than Tom Dolan. The Irish skipper made history in 2024 as the first non-French winner of La Solitaire since Swiss sailor Laurent Bourgnon in 1988, a drought of 36 years that underlined just how thoroughly the French had owned the race. A forced retirement in 2025 interrupted his title defence, but Tom is back for 2026 and, by his own account, hungry for more.
Originally from a farm in County Meath, Tom relocated to France 15 years ago to chase a professional sailing career, working his way up through the Mini 6.50 class before reaching the top of solo offshore racing. His 2024 triumph, built on consistency, set a new benchmark for what international sailors could achieve here. In 2026, he’ll be measured against it.
Building a new generation
Behind Dolan, a fresh cohort of English-speaking skippers is pushing hard through the field. British skipper Joss Creswell arrives in Lorient, sailing for DigiLab, four years after first setting foot in the city with a clear professional ambition and no guaranteed path to get there. He found one, through the Clipper Race, through the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Griffin Project, and through the kind of patient, unglamorous groundwork the French circuit demands.
“This is the culmination of a four-year project. I arrived in Lorient in 2021 and realised that offshore racing was something that I wanted to do professionally. Having no sponsors, I went to work as a First Mate for the Clipper Round the World Race, it’s the pathway that Alex Thompson took to become the IMOCA sailor that he is. ”
Creswell enters the ” Bizuth ” rookie class this year, but he isn’t simply learning the ropes. He’s trialling a machine learning tool designed to analyse race and weather data in real time, an approach he believes could have far-reaching implications well beyond sailing.
“It has future potential to change the world of offshore racing, but also the commercial world of maritime, nuclear and renewable energy. It’s going to be interesting to see whether this tool can start to successfully predict minute changes in weather and boat performance. ”
On the broader state of the English-speaking presence in the fleet, Creswell is measured but optimistic. ” In a post-Artemis Ocean Racing Academy world, it’s very difficult for young English competitors to get on the French scene ” he notes, ” but the situation is starting to improve, and there are young people arriving in France to start these projects. ” He credits the RORC’s (Royal Ocean Racing Club) Griffin Project with giving him his first real foothold in the class.
Experience sharpened by adversity
For Ellie Driver (STEM On The Start Line) and Oliver Hill (Ollie Hill Racing), the 2026 Solitaire is less about debut and more about refinement. Both British skippers have previously completed the race and return this season with a clearer sense of what the competition demands, and what it costs.
“More prepared. You get confidence from knowing that you’ve already finished the challenge. The Solitaire is going to be a massive challenge of mental and physical strength, three legs back-to-back, 600 then 400 then 600 miles each. You’re solo 24/7, sleeping ten minutes at a time, maybe three or four hours a day. Everything that has to be done has to be done by you.”- Ellie Driver
Oliver, who won the Top International Sailor award in 2025, describes the French offshore scene with genuine enthusiasm, and a useful analogy.
“The fleet here is just generally more welcoming, but also more professional. Everybody here is the very best offshore sailors in the world, but at the same time incredibly humble. The learning you do is so fast. The progression rate is almost vertical. “- Oliver Hill
Both are equally conscious of what they represent beyond the race itself. As Ellie puts it, young sailors coming up through the dinghy classes can now ” see themselves in your career ” and understand that a full professional life in offshore racing is possible, one that doesn’t begin and end with the Olympic programme.
“It’s creating role models where people can actually have inspiration and confidence in their own ability, that it will improve to a level where they are able to do something as amazing as this. “- Ellie Driver
Their advice to any young British sailor considering the leap to France is unambiguous. ” You just have to jump into it ” says Oliver. ” You can’t do this class by half. ” Ellie is equally direct:
“If you don’t move over here, you don’t make the move, you don’t change your life, you’re never going to gain as much out of it as you could. It’s a class and a place which has so much to give and so much to help you flourish into a next-level sailor.”- Ellie Driver
Across the Atlantic
Perhaps the most striking international dimension of the 2026 fleet comes from Erica Lush. The American skipper, sailing the Figaro 3 Hope, returns to the French circuit having spent much of her rookie season fighting something she names plainly.
“It’s quite easy to give yourself imposter syndrome when you hear so much about the sailors over here. In my mind I was putting myself at the back of the fleet, and then soon enough I literally put myself there. I learned a lot about sports psychology this year. Now I know I’m no longer a “Bizuth” (Rookie), and I do feel like I belong here. ”
She arrives in 2026 backed by prestigious American sailing institutions, the New York Yacht Club and the Storm Trysail Club, alongside dozens of individual contributors who helped fund her campaign. It’s a patchwork of support she has built deliberately, while laying the groundwork for the commercial partnerships she’s actively pursuing. Building awareness of offshore racing among American audiences, she explains, requires patience and proof of concept.
“Not many people in the US know about offshore racing, they don’t automatically understand that this has value from a marketing perspective. Last year I built a really strong platform, and I can now show potential sponsors the millions of views we got through traditional and social media. I’m both more confident in my sailing and more confident approaching companies now that I have a leg to stand on. ”
The longer vision is equally clear: build the Figaro programme into a springboard for a return to Class 40 and IMOCA 60, the classes where Lush already has transatlantic experience. And beyond her own career, she is working with the Magenta Project to develop the next wave of American and female offshore talent.
“The most valuable things in my career have been mentorships, and I try to pay that forward. It’s really exciting to see how many young people right now are interested in short-handed offshore, that wasn’t really on anyone’s radar when I was a kid. I hope to keep using my campaign as a platform for that.”
A race reshaped
The 2026 edition itself arrives in a slightly different form. Moved to mid-season rather than its traditional slot as the season’s climax, the race offers competitors less preparation time and demands sharper adaptability. Creswell captures the scale of the challenge in characteristically vivid terms:
“In my first proper full-blooded international event, I’m racing against the likes of Pogacar and Federer. Legends of the sport. Which is really, really cool. ”
For the English-speaking contingent, that particular challenge may matter less than it does for others. They have, in many ways, been preparing for exactly this kind of moment since long before the start gun fires.
by La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec
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