SAILING:IT'S HARDLY news and scarcely a surprise to anyone but a handful of nay-sayers, but, weather notwithstanding, this weekend should see the arrival of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet into Galway. It will be the highest-profile sailing event to come to Irish shores and is certain to be a highlight of the national sporting calendar.

The fleet’s arrival will mark the end of the oceanic stage of the longest event since the first Whitbread Race in 1973, and only for the second time will Ireland be represented among the entries.

Tens of thousands of fans are expected to descend on Galway over the next three weekends, especially for the in-port race next week and the re-start the following week. A good Irish welcome, irrespective of the hour, is on the cards with real sailing fans already converging on the City of the Tribes.

The overall winner is almost a certainty, but no such guarantees usually exist in this field of the sport. Regardless of that outcome, the podium is far from decided and Waterford Crystal’s “Fighting Finish” trophy is aptly named.

Regardless of their finishing-place into Galway, Ian Walker and the crew and team of Green Dragon will have a special celebration when they pass the Aran Islands, for it will be then that a complete circumnavigation, from home port to home port, will have been finished.

For this event is three races within one competition: first, there is the race to even get a team together, battling for finance, organising logistics, not forgetting boat preparation and crew-training. For Green Dragon, this has been a finely-balanced act which has seen not one but two significant sponsors announced in the course of the race that must stand as endorsement of the team’s potential.

Secondly, there is the race to stay within the race, a continuing task and one that this stage, in particular, has a reputation for nasty shocks – the fleet still has more than 1,000 miles to sail. Already, Team Russia was forced out due to financial difficulties and two other boats missed finishing two stages of the race due to damage.

Finally, there is the race to win the event outright and there is only one winner. Whatever about that outcome, to arrive into Galway will be a marvellous achievement for any of the teams.

Standing on the dockside will be another Irish sailor who can rightly take credit for one of those teams. Limerick’s Ger O’Rourke of Chieftain fame took the initiative a year ago to buy the previous winner of the last race and “grand-father” the boat to make a second Irish-entry.

That was a close-run affair that barely made the starting-line, but did so and with the owner/skipper at the helm living a childhood dream. His campaign may have metamorphosed several times over the past year to the point where there are no Irish sailors on the boat and just Edwin O’Connor on the shore-team, but this Dutch-managed campaign has its roots firmly in O’Rourke’s vision.

For Ireland, the coming two weeks will be a taste of what “marine leisure” can deliver both in terms of economic impact and international exposure. The Government’s commitment of €8 million in sponsorship via Fáilte Ireland will be easily paid back, which is why 80 cities are competing to stage a stop-over in the next edition of the race will attest.

And perhaps finally, in the wake of the first boat to compete in this event in 1989/90, when the effort of NCB Ireland was received with such widespread cynicism, maybe the wish of one of the founders of both projects might come true. In his book on that project 20 years ago, Enda O’Coineen wrote in his dedication: “To those that criticise the begrudger and then themselves begrudge, may they both self-extinguish”. Now, perhaps, that will be remembered only as ancient history.

branigan@indigo.ie