Round the world yacht race skippers may be enjoying superstar status on the west coast this week, but try putting them on the helm of a Galway hooker.
Windless conditions posed particular challenges for even the best of sailors on the bay yesterday, when traditional craft, including currachs, took to the water for the continuing Galway Volvo ocean race festival.
Brazilian race-winning Ericsson 4 skipper Torben Grael wisely opted to relax in the tumblehome hull of the American Mór – only taking the tiller at the request of photographers.
Earlier, some of his colleagues confirmed that Galway had been the best stopover they had experienced so far in a race village question and answer session for children.
Asked how much professional offshore sailors are paid, Green Dragon's skipper Ian Walker said that they had a "long way to go" to catch up with rugby, tennis, soccer and golf stars. Rates varied, but most would be earn a lot less for the entire 37,000-mile race than "one swing of the golf club by Tiger Woods".
Refreshingly, some of them also revealed that they didn’t all come from privileged sailing backgrounds. Irish sailor Justin Slattery only took up sailing when he was 17 in Co Wexford, and Swedish navigator Dr Roger Nilson of Telefonica Black said that he first took to the water using his “mother’s curtains on a timber raft”.
Several world records have already been set and broken in Galway at the festival’s halfway mark, but there is no guarantee that the round world yacht race will return to the west of Ireland.
A leaner, meaner event in future with lower costs, fewer ports of call, a cap on competitor spending and greater emphasis on renewable energy has been outlined by Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) chief executive Knut Frostad.
Galway and Belfast are among 81 ports bidding for stopover status in the next Volvo race in three years' time, and Mr Frostad said he "could not say" which if any of the bids would be successful. Stopover ports have to support a race entry, and the organisers want to encourage larger fleets, with more juniors and more women – it being 20 years since Ireland's Angela Farrell crewed on the Tracy Edwards-skippered Maiden.
The RNLI has been on the water constantly over the bank holiday weekend, having provided two additional craft to support the Galway inshore lifeboat Dóchas.
Calls for assistance from the RNLI included the rescue of a woman who fell off Nimmo’s pier into the water a week ago, and some mechanical breakdowns over the past weekend.
Galway lifeboat operations manager Mike Swan said that it had been a “amazing sight” to have so many boats on the water, with up to 300 at times, but urged people to use personal flotation devices (PFDs) at all times, and navigation lights in the evening.
Salthill promenade was location for an attempt to set a new world record for the longest chain of Chinese whispers – as Gaeilge – yesterday. Over 600 participated to raise money for the Cope charity for the homeless, setting an Irish record but not breaking the world record of 1,330 people. For those visitors unfamiliar with the Erse, a pocket guide to the language has been published for the Volvo festival by Gaillimh le Gaeilge.
DruidSynge is making its own mark on the Galway Volvo stopover this week, with the opening in Galway's Town Hall tonight of Synge's Playboy of the Western World. The race festival continues all week, with the Volvo fleet departing on its next leg for Sweden next Saturday, June 6th.