SAILING:AS MUCH as sailors here might have hoped for a stronger performance from both Irish-inspired entries in the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR), there's still two legs left and a lot to be gleaned from this round-the-world race that calls to the west coast later this month.
Regardless of which place Ian Walker’s team finishes the Boston-Galway transit on May 23rd, Green Dragon and the other Irish-owned entry, Ger O’Rourke’s Delta Lloyd, will be welcomed home with open arms.
When the VOR comes to Galway, 250,000 people are expected to watch the in-port race and the pro-am event in the bay. It will be the first time the event has stopped over in Ireland, and the fleet will stay for two weeks.
Proving to the public – and the Government – that this yachting event is a profitable exercise and not a decadent extreme and it will have an important legacy, because it will demonstrate just how much Ireland’s ports and harbours can contribute to economic growth.
By June 6th, the music, the craic and festivities will have sailed away, so Irish sailing needs to concentrate on taking all it can from the largest State investment in sailing ever made.
The Green Dragon has, so far, generated €15 million worth of global media coverage, a figure ahead of all the other competing teams.
Up to 10,000 school children will get to go on board the boat in Galway docks as part of the festival. That the celebrations are based around sailing will be a major boost to the sport.
The expertise that is expected to produce tourism revenues of €43 million is vital not just to Galway, but to all Irish coastal towns because it offers employment possibilities at each one of this country’s 900 harbours.
Specialist skills have been gained in getting two entries into the race and in organising the Galway stop-over. We must capture this knowledge before it, literally, sails off to distant shores.
The knowledge must be shared not just among a small bunch of professionals sailors for whom the race has already been valuable, but to a wider audience who can be motivated for future projects.
Immediately after the event, one of the biggest participant sporting events in the country kicks off on the east coast. The Galway focus will be on eight boats, but Volvo Dún Laoghaire Regatta will have a fleet of 500 and 3,500 sailors afloat on Dublin Bay from July 9th.
It’s an indication of the size – and the potential – of the domestic sailing scene. Racing will be provided in 25 classes and, with a steady influx of visitors from across the Irish Sea, it could be worth up to €10 million to the local economy.
These are all positive reasons why the Government needs to look more closely at our coastline as a means of providing employment. Irish sailing is punching above its weight, generating €50 million in tourism revenues this year from these two events alone.
But how can Ireland hope to exploit such high-yield tourism without basic marine infrastructure, such as berths for boats? There are more berths in north Wales, for example, than there are around our entire coast.
Take Galway, for instance; it took the arrival of the Volvo 70 fleet to prompt the construction of a 25-berth marina there. Sail away from this modest pontoon and there are only two other facilities on the entire western seaboard, Ireland’s beautiful but inaccessible, 300-mile stretch of coast.
We must explore other possible marine projects. For example, think of the Dell plant in Limerick, the cost to the Exchequer of each of those 1,000 or so jobs and the ease with which they left Ireland. For a similar investment we could have developed 1,000 marine leisure jobs that would stick to Ireland like limpets because this is where their natural advantage would exist.
Government agencies would do well to engage with boating organisations to make this sort of thing happen. The Irish may not be leading the round the world race, but there are plenty of victories to be had on our shoreline.
