BONFIRES WILL be lit on the Aran islands in just over 60 days to mark the Volvo ocean race’s Atlantic crossing into Galway bay.
The event promises to be the biggest sporting event in Ireland since the Ryder Cup, and the world’s largest sports event of its type, the international organisers predicted in Galway yesterday.
Visitor numbers at the first five race stopover ports have exceeded all estimates so far, and the western region stands to benefit greatly from this during the two-week stopover in Galway from May 23rd, race communications director Marcus Hutchison said at a press briefing.
The two-week festival in Galway will involve a number of free concerts by performers including Sharon Shannon, the Hothouse Flowers, Kila, Aslan and The Stunning. Highlight of the fortnight will be in-port racing among the fleet on the May 30th/June 1st weekend.
The race organisers have also booked Arcana street theatre troupe, Frankie Gavin and others for the official opening ceremony on May 24th. Over 200,000 visitors from Ireland and overseas will generate an estimated €43 million in revenue, the organisers forecast, and some 750 volunteers will assist with organisation. Asked about difficulties in securing the race village site in Galway docks, due to delays in dismantling oil tanks, Mr Hutchison said that the tank issue was “pretty immaterial” as far as the event was concerned.
“Rumours of the race going somewhere else are just rubbish, and the fleet is coming to Galway,” Mr Hutchison said.
Galway harbourmaster Capt Brian Sheridan confirmed that final negotiations with oil companies involved in relocating to a new terminal on the harbour’s southern perimeter were taking place this week. However a “plan B” location has been earmarked in the harbour for the race village. Dismantling of the tanks was “not pivotal to the event”, Capt Sheridan said. The Health and Safety Authority has said it has no issues, once the tanks in question are empty for the fortnight.
Earlier this month, mayor of Galway Cllr Pádraig Conneely (FG) said that the oil companies, particularly Topaz, had a “civic duty” to ensure that the race was a success in Galway – the first Irish and only western European stopover in this event.
The fleet of five yachts has rounded Cape Horn en route to Rio de Janeiro on the longest leg so far from Qingdao in China – with crews having to ration freeze-dried food supplies due to extra time at sea.
The Galway stopover will mark the end of the ocean racing legs in the round-world race, and a return to the “comfort zone” of European waters, Mr Hutchison said.
It is expected that three yachts currently out of the race, including Team Russia which ran out of money, will return for the final stages from Boston via Galway and Sweden to the race finish in St Petersburg.
The race is attracting a global television audience of 1.8 billion people, and Fáilte Ireland is running both international and domestic media campaigns in the coming weeks.
The Government has given €8 million to Ireland’s participation in the event. Green Dragon, the Irish-Chinese entry, rounded Cape Horn in the dark early yesterday in a storm, behind a leading pack of three sailing west of the Falkland islands.
The second Irish entry, the Dutch-Irish Delta Lloyd, is expected to rejoin the race in Rio de Janeiro.
