SAILING. HOW IT CAN BENEFIT ECONOMIC GROWTH:SCHULL IN West Cork has been awarded the World Team Racing Championships in 2011 by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) meeting in Korea.
The event is expected to attract 25 teams and over 300 sailors.
The ISAF also appointed Dun Laoghaire’s Con Murphy an international race officer at the conference in Busan this week.
Vivion Kennedy and Mervyn Dyke lift the Waterhouse Shield tonight for the most successful Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) yacht in handicap classes.
The result was achieved in Cruisers Two class in the yacht Jawesome II.
Among other presentations tonight at the awards ceremony for the country’s biggest racing club in the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire, is the George Arthur Newsom Cup for the most successful yacht in one-design classes, won by Guy Kilroy in Swift.
Next weekend’s ICRA conference in Kilkenny includes a talk by John Murphy of Kinetic, the Division Two national champion, on how to prepare a boat for a major regatta.
There will also be debate on whether the White Sails fleet should have a national championships or is such an event contrary to the concept of the White Sail initiative?
THIS MORNING’S Fáilte Ireland report into the financial success of Galway’s staging of the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) will reveal that nearly €60 million was generated in June. That figure suggests at least half that figure could be harvested from the sea annually and hundreds of full-time jobs created if ports around the coast followed the lead provided by the race stopover in Galway.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, particularly those in Government: we are living on an island, with hundreds of miles of scenic coastline. Now that Galway has shown the way, the opportunity to do the same at other ports should be grasped, otherwise the memories of two weeks on the west coast will just float away on the tide.
As much as sailors here might have hoped for a stronger performance from both Irish-inspired entries in the VOR, this morning’s publication of a Deloitte report into what Ireland gleaned from this Round the World event will be proof enough that there were many ways to win the race.
The report, presented by Fáilte Ireland chairman Redmond O’Donoghue and Galway organisers John Killeen and Enda O’Coineen, will show that Ireland had the highest spend per-capita-head of any of the nine stopover ports. For Irish sailing, it demonstrates in unambiguous terms the potential of what can come in on the tide.
In the biggest influx of people in to Galway city since the Papal visit, 600,000 people watched the in-port races and the pro-am event in the bay.
It was the first time the event had stopped in Ireland, and the fleet stayed for two weeks.
When they left, the skippers were unanimous that it had been the most hospitable time of the race, a Fáilte Ireland coup of so much benefit it is hard to quantify.
But this morning’s detailed analysis (already put at €80 million by Galway Tourism on Twitter this week) is proof to the public and the Government that this yachting event was a profitable exercise and not a decadent extreme.
This is its most important legacy, because it will demonstrate just how much Ireland’s ports and harbours can contribute to economic growth.
But now that June’s craic and festivities have sailed away, Irish sailing needs to concentrate on taking all it can from the largest State investment (€10 million) in sailing ever made.
Galway docks was transformed, but the progress needs to continue. It took the arrival of the Volvo 70 fleet to prompt 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 very inaccessible 300-mile stretch of coast.
If there is to be any material legacy, it must be a marina for Galway – not of 25 berths but 200 as a clear signal that we are serious about providing marine infrastructure.
That would mean Galway could become a serious ocean race component given its geographical advantage for many transatlantic fixtures that currently bypass Ireland.
Although Galway is short-listed as a stopover for the VOR again in 2011, the delivery of another team entry in the event now seems essential.
The Green Dragon yacht generated in excess of €30 million worth of global media coverage, a figure ahead of all the other competing teams. Around 10,000 school children got a chance to go on board the boat in Galway docks as part of the biggest free festival ever staged here.
The tourism produced was vital to Galway, and it could be just as vital 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 putting two race entries into the race and in organising the Galway stopover. We must capture this knowledge before it sails off to distant shores.
The knowledge must be shared, not just among a small bunch of professionals sailors for whom the race was financially valuable but among a wider audience who can be motivated for future projects.
Immediately after the event, one of the biggest participant sporting events in the country kicked off on the east coast. The Galway focus was on eight boats, but Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta had 470 boats and 3,500 sailors afloat on Dublin Bay in July. It’s an indication of the size and the potential of the domestic sailing scene here.
Racing was in 22 classes and, with a steady influx of visitors from across the Irish Sea, it was worth up to €3 million to the local economy, according to an Irish Marine Federation (IMF) survey.
In September, Belfast staged the Tall Ships visit, bringing €10 million in tourism revenues.
These are all positive reasons why the Government must look more closely at our coastline as a means of providing employment. Irish sailing is punching above its weight, generating up to €100 million in tourism revenue this year from these two events alone. Sailing is a unique model because it combines mass spectator appeal with a thriving domestic scene and, in this climate, that’s a miracle from the sea.
This is especially so because the sport is doing this against the odds. 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.
Spokesmen for our sport can help by making sound-bytes for exploring a set of marine projects.
These employers would be in activity tourism and niche manufacturing and services. Some of the projects would bring balanced regional development to the Atlantic coast.
For example, a small sail-making firm was set up in Crosshaven in 1974. It’s still there and it’s a thriving small business that designs and exports sails all over the world.
Government agencies would do well to engage with boating organisations to make more of this happen. The Irish did not win the Round the World race, but there are still plenty of victories to be had on our shoreline, as today’s results will show.
In our long history, only a few generations have had a chance to develop our coast. We should pay any price to get these facilities in place. Clubs and other marine bodies should use the two weeks in Galway to form a thinktank with a view to unlocking the potential that lies in our harbours.
A high-level forum could develop a national strategy for promoting water-based events that attract high-spend tourism. Dun Laoghaire regatta and Cork Week, the two biggest regattas in Ireland, should be involved.
Now we know the value of what can come in on the waves, it needs to get the tourism recognition it deserves. There are estimates that the industry is capable of growing by 20 per cent if we can bring together various different interests that organise regattas and events and draw up a national policy for maritime tourism.
In 2011, we will play host to the International Sailing Federation’s Team Racing Worlds, and in 2012 the Youth Worlds. The J24 and Olympic Star class keelboats will stage their World and European titles here in 2011. Kinsale will host the Dragon Gold Cup in 2012.
Ireland has an advantage in sailing events and can play an important part in developing our natural resources for the benefit of our people. Thousands want to come here to sail if we just develop the facilities. And all that requires is some courage, Galway-style.
