THE VOLVO Ocean Race has invited former Saw Doctors drummer Johnny Donnelly to become its international event manager at all the stopover ports during the 39,000 nautical mile global circumnavigation.
The Roscommon native – who runs Arcana, formerly the MacTeo corporate entertainment wing of Macnas – will manage shore events for the race at its start in Alicante, Spain.
He will direct events at stopovers in Cape Town, South Africa; Abu Dhabi; Sanya, China; Auckland, New Zealand; Itajaí, Brazil; Miami, US; Lisbon, Portugal; Lorient, France – and Galway.
It is understood Mr Donnelly, who could not comment yesterday pending finalisation of his contract, was approached by Volvo after the unexpected success of the race’s first ever Irish stopover in Galway in 2009. There will be no Irish boat in the 2011-2012 race, unlike last time, but the Galway event organisers are still confident of building public interest in the race finish in July 2012.
Let’s Do It Global, the Galway host company, is predicting an €80 million spin-off for Galway city and the western region. However, there is no major sponsor, apart from the Government’s grant of €4 million through Fáilte Ireland to pay for hosting rights.
It is understood some €2 million of this would have been channelled into an Irish entry had there been one. Instead, the Discover Ireland logo is expected to appear on the Chinese entry, Team Sanya, skippered by New Zealander Mike Sanderson, who won the race in 2005-2006.
Mr Sanderson had not ruled out an Irish sailor on the Chinese crew panel in a recent interview with this newspaper. Irish Volvo veteran Damian Foxall, a key member of the Green Dragon team last time, has been hired by the French Groupama 4 entry.
It is expected the Irish 2009-2010 yacht Green Dragon will be used for corporate activities to showcase Ireland.
