Volvo Ocean Race 2014

Max Powers

Galway said they arent applying for it, as we have seen from the Tall Ships, Waterford has a perfect location for these boats/ships (city centre lots of water frontage). Would be great if we could get it. Maybe the tall ships then the year after.

_ricochet_

Max Powers wrote: »

Galway said they arent applying for it, as we have seen from the Tall Ships, Waterford has a perfect location for these boats/ships (city centre lots of water frontage). Would be great if we could get it. Maybe the tall ships then the year after.

Don't think the city is suitable, do they not race when they come in? It would have to be somewhere like Dunmore.

Max Powers

_ricochet_ wrote: »

Don't think the city is suitable, do they not race when they come in? It would have to be somewhere like Dunmore.

Dont think that is be a problem, the finishing line would never be at near the port for safety reasons, the finshing line is more than likely out at the mouth of the river/open water so the yachts can then go leisurely/safely to dock.

CardBordWindow

Max Powers wrote: »

Dont think that is be a problem, the finishing line would never be at near the port for safety reasons, the finshing line is more than likely out at the mouth of the river/open water so the yachts can then go leisurely/safely to dock.

It's an hour from Dunmore to the city, at approx 16 knots. Most yachts will not get half this speed, especially in an enclosed harbour.
If the organisers don't see a problem with a 2.5 hour+ trip between race and port, then why not? It would be great for the city to get it.

fricatus

Would be great for our 1,100 year anniversary in 2014!

jad2007

A couple of points on this.

Firstly the port would be suitable, Galway is a terrible port for sailing into so that wouldnt be a problem.

There would however be a number of issues that would make this very unlikely. The closing date for applications is only a month away. Galway left it to the last minute to announce that they were not interested making it very hard for another Irish port (unless they were already working on it) to apply for the race. The work involved in these type of applications is tremendous.

Probably the biggest problem is financial. There was major problems raising the finanace for the event in Galway this year (hence them taking a break). Waterford City is still paying off the Tall Ships and probably wouldnt have the resources to tackle the scale of such a project so close to the Tall Ships in 2016.

The only way this would happen is if someone agreed to underwrite a major portion of the cost to a tune of a few million. Waterford City doesnt have it and Failte have already invested in the Viking Triangle.

Personally I would love to see it in Waterford but its something that would have to be worked towards over years rather than done on short notice.

Silverado

There is absolutely no reason why Waterford would not make an excellent venue for the Volvo Ocean Race, we have proved how good a venue we are with two excellently run Tall Ships races. It is however necessary to point out that six 70 foot racing yachts are not the same spectacle as 50-100 Tall Ships.

Regarding the inshore races - they would be held in the estuary around Dunmore where there is good wind and open water. It is 12 miles downriver from the City but these boats can easily make 10-12 knots under engine so its not an issue for them. In fact it would add to the daily spectacle to watch them going to the start line near Hook Head/Dunmore.

Our city needs more events like these, we have shown that we can do it so why not bid for the VOR. Who knows, there are other marine events like these and we might attract them also.

jad2007

^ Silverdao agree 100% that port and harbour would be suitable.

However when you say "why not stick in application"

The two problems are

1. The logistics (deadline is only a month away)
2. Finance, The fee for this race is 4 million and Galway city council chipped in another million. Then there was sponsorship on top of that bringing the total to close to 7 million.

So basically we would need to find 5 million as well as sponsorship.
Failte gave Galway the 4 million for the fee. As they just invested in the Viking Triangle I doubt they would be as generous again.

As I said would love to see this here but its a huge task especially with Tall ships coming back in 2016.

fricatus

jad2007 wrote: »

...but its a huge task especially with Tall ships coming back in 2016.

I must have missed that memo!

Is there talk of them coming back in 2016??? I suppose it's to be expected, given how well it went the last two times.

Speak Now

Tall ships in Dublin next week, might take a trip up for a fix

galwayrush

It's the company who ran the event. 'Let's do it Galway' who have said they were reluctant to run it next time unless some serious sponsorship came along.
Galway is still in the running, but so are a lot of other ports. Time will tell.

fricatus

galwayrush wrote: »

Galway is still in the running, but so are a lot of other ports. Time will tell.

Are any of these other ports in Ireland, as a matter of interest?

galwayrush

fricatus wrote: »

Are any of these other ports in Ireland, as a matter of interest?

No, Galway was the only Irish port in the running, all host ports are automatically included for consideration for the following race.

Spideallight

Folks, I worked at this event, let's pay all the outstanding bills from this summer and the last event before the VOR comes back to Galway. It's shameful that suppliers wait so long for payment.