SAILING NEWSA SECOND IRISH entry to the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) will be made this week following the purchase of the winning boat from the 2005-6 race by Ireland's top offshore sailor, Ger O'Rourke.
After a gap of 20 years since Ireland last had an entry, the news that the tiny west-coast sailing community will field two of the eight teams in the 2008-9 race - at an estimated cost of €16 million - is not only the biggest investment seen in Irish sailing but a global sports story to boot.
After 24 months at the top of the world offshore circuit, during which he conquered the Fastnet and the Sydney-Hobart, many wondered what O'Rourke, a property developer, might do next. But few imagined he would tackle a full VOR campaign, which can include spends of €40 million on a two-boat campaign.
O'Rourke's new vessel, previously known as ABN Amro 1, will arrive in Ireland in two weeks following substantial upgrade work to compete with a new generation of Volvo 70 designs, the fastest monohulls.
The boat is scheduled to contest the BMW Round Ireland race on June 21st, but, when contacted by The Irish Times last night, O'Rourke would make no comment.
Significantly, the Russian VOR entry is also slated for the 704 miles from Wicklow, although Ireland's Green team, the entry announced last November, will not be ready to compete.
Although the Green team expected to meet stiff competition in their nine-month voyage round the world, they certainly did not expect any from their back yard. The Green team are still to announce a title sponsor and crew panel.
It is understood the two teams have already held preliminary talks on areas of co-operation and will collaborate on a number of pre-race projects, including sail-testing off Galway in August.
Pundits will expect O'Rourke to struggle against the six other new builds designed specially for this race, but O'Rourke has been cast as underdog many times before.
The Western Yacht Club sailor has secured a boat that wiped the eye of the last VOR fleet two years ago, and it remains the benchmark from which all new designs for the current race are still being measured.
He confounded experts before in his previous yacht, the Cookson 50 Chieftain, when he won some of the biggest prizes in the offshore world, including a class win in the 630-mile Sydney-Hobart race. He had an overall win in last year's 600-mile Fastnet race, but readily acknowledges this is his first 33,000-mile marathon.
THE GREEN team entry has received State backing of €8 million for their entry and the staging of the Galway stop-over leg, but Ger O'Rourke aims to go round the world for half that amount, all of it funded from the private sector.
With 126 days to go to the start of the race in Alicante, Spain, O'Rourke has hatched a marketing plan to tap into the Volvo Ocean Race's estimated two billion television viewers over nine months, and the hunt for a title sponsor for the craft is under way.
The race organisers claim a 200-300 per cent return on investment on media exposure alone for syndicates that were involved with the 2005-6 race.
An official launch for O'Rourke's campaign will be held on the Liffey beside the IFSC on June 20th.
Details are available from Florence Irwin on 086 206 6196.
