SAILING:LESS THAN six months after the end of the Volvo Ocean Race, Ireland's Damian Foxall has been signed-up by French skipper Franck Cammas for the 2011-'12 edition of the round the world contest, The Irish Times has learned. The news follows the recent announcement of a two-race entry with full backing by Insurance giant Groupama.
Matching his position with the Green Dragon team, the Kerryman is one of two watch-leaders on-board and will be responsible for crew-preparation as the team is assembled next year.
Foxall’s commitment to Cammas means defending his victory with Jean-Pierre Dick in the two-handed Barcelona World Race in December 2010 won’t be possible. Cammas is a six-times champion multihull sailor and a triple Transatlantic race winner who recently was forced out of challenging for the Jules Verne non-stop around the World record trophy following damage to his 105-foot trimaran.
Until August of this year, the 36-year-old team skipper held the world 24-hour distance record of 794 nautical miles until Pascal Bidegorry increased this to 908 miles on Banque Populaire.
The Groupama project has bought Ericsson 4, winner of this year’s race and has secured the services of Argentinian Juan Kouyoumdjian, the designer of the winning boats in the last two editions. Foxall delivered the 70-foot yacht from Sweden to the team base in Lorient earlier this week.
The Groupama project stands to benefit from the first of two bellweathers for the outcome of the next race; the earlier a team can enter with full-sponsorship, the more likely it is to win the race. The second is whoever wins the first leg stands to win overall.
However, both predictions stand to be tested to their limits in the next edition as the early announcement of Cammas’s project, plus an Italian campaign using the Ericsson 3 stable-mate and current monohull 24-hour speed world record-holder, are both formal entries.
In addition, at least two Spanish teams are in the offing with news this week that former Whitbread Race winner and America’s Cup legend Grant Dalton is actively seeking involvement in the next Volvo Race.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s Green Dragon remains in Galway awaiting news of its future, possibly as a training-boat for one of the emerging teams that have a ready-to-go boat and equipment that could be optimised to cure its major ailments that dogged performance. Or it could form the basis of another Irish-led team in 2011. The story of Green Dragon as well as Galway’s economic lesson that has become a textbook version of “the ideal stop-over” is comprehensively reviewed in the Ireland Afloat Annual 2009/’10 that is on sale in time for Christmas shopping-lists.
Also included in the 100-page annual is Markham Nolan’s preview of next season, “Racing away from recession” who “climbs into the crow’s nest and scans the horizon for reasons to be cheerful in 2010”.
Meanwhile, Tom MacSweeney marks the low-point of the year with “Abandoning the Asgard” that is surely an under-statement for the dregs of the decade.
