V olvo Ocean Race, Irish second entry

Second Irish Entry in the Volvo Ocean Race
The Irish Times reports this morning has confirmed that a second Irish entry in to the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) will be made this week following the purchase of the winning boat from the 2005/6 race by offshore sailor Ger O'Rourke.

O'Rourke was crowned Afloat sailor of the year in 2007, becoming the first sailor to win the coveted trophy twice.

The full article in David O Brien's weekly sailing column points out that after a gap of twenty years since Ireland's last entry, the tiny west coast sailing community will field two of the eight teams in the 2008/9 race at an estimated total cost of 16 million Euros.

This represents the largest investment ever seen in Irish sailing - with a quarter of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet to be based in Ireland's west, which will also host a stopover .

O'Rourke is pencilled in to start line up in the BMW Round Ireland race, starting on June 21st, against another VO70 from Russia.

The race will be the first time VOR entries from two different teams will face off over any distance, however Ireland's VOR Green team - announced last November - will not be ready to compete. -- from www.Afloat.ie

Excerpt from David O'Brien's article:

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.

The Green team entry has received State backing of 8 million Euros 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.

The full article in the Irish Times is available for subscribers only at www.ireland.com