Sailing Column: Ireland's newest sporting hero returns to these shores today to begin a round of official receptions and public engagements. Just days after finishing their circumnavigation, Damian Foxall parts company with Jean-Pierre Dick to take his place in the limelight at home.

In a remarkable piece of timing, tomorrow morning Foxall will open the Irish Sailing Association's (ISA) annual conference at the Clarion Hotel, Liffey Valley, where delegates will eagerly await his story.

Barely one year ago, Foxall attended the conference and declared his intention to compete in the Barcelona World Race - which he has now done, and won.

Ireland's now has its Ellen MacArthur, a sailing Pádraig Harrington or Sonia O'Sullivan. At last, the "island nation" can point to a true sailing champion representative of all her people, and not from a perceived elite.

Easy-going and approachable, yet possessing deep insight and determination, this Derrynane yachtsman can bear any level of scrutiny, even by the most cynical of commentators.

Foxall has, to use a rugby analogy, a ball of opportunity to pass straight into the lap of the ISA. The question is whether it will be politely kicked to touch or the ISA will make something of it and drive forward to create a lasting result that does justice to Foxall's world achievement.

Just as MacArthur found her inspiration from the work of Arthur Ransome in Swallows and Amazons, Foxall embodies a spirit of adventure and skill in his story waiting to be told to a new generation of sailors.

For sailing is about skill versus risk, making decisions and being responsible, working in harmony towards a common goal in the knowledge that, win or lose, the sum of the effort made was as worthwhile as the result itself. If ever there were a time for such a message, it is now and the opportunity is Damian Foxall.

Placing sailing on the national schools curriculum has been talked of for years and its implementation is long past due. Championed by Foxall and led by the ISA, a drive to have countrywide integration with existing and future infrastructure is entirely possible by a competent national authority.

It needn't be heavily capital intensive: team racing has already demonstrated what can be achieved by sharing boats and equipment. And this is a country with an abundance of shoreline.

Just as Foxall and Dick skilfully positioned Paprec-Virbac for the next weather system days in advance, the same can be done for the next phase of growth in sailing in Ireland, just as it was done in France in the 1960s. Today, in that country, sailing is as accepted as cycling or rugby.

Perhaps that is why one of Ireland's sailing heroes lives in that country, sails a French-flagged and French-sponsored boat and will return there when the celebrations in Ireland end.