It appears that Galway’s entry into this year’s Volvo Ocean Race is not only intimidating the competition with its skills, but also with its heritage, as Boston’s stopover team admits growing concern over the excitement surrounding the Irish team arriving in their city.
The revelation came on Monday during a presentation by the local Volvo Ocean Race Committee, Let’s Do It Galway when the city manager, who commended the Green Team on the stellar accomplishment of coming in the top three in the first leg of the race, noted that not only had the team been intimidating the competition in the water but also the competition on land. He said he has been informed that the team working on the stopover in Boston, which is due to begin on April 27, is concerned that due to the city’s strong Irish connections the presence of an Irish boat in the race is going to overshadow the city’s stopover as well as their own American team. The Puma Ocean Racing Team is currently in second place, just ahead of the Green Dragon.
The manager did say, however, that the council, together with Let’s Do It Galway and the team in Boston, are currently working on some way to capitalise on the American-Irish connection that will benefit both cities and the seventh leg of the race, which will see the competition heat up between Boston and Galway. Expected to take seven days, the eight boats in the competition are due to begin arriving in the city on Saturday May 23.
During the presentation on Monday evening the Let’s Do It Galway committee and the city manager announced a number of plans for the city which included using the entire Prom as a viewing grandstand as the boats approach the city in the closing of the race leg, as well as the renaming of the Docks, which will, for the duration of the two-week stopover, become known as The Race Village.
The completely tented village will include a stage for local, national and international entertainment, temporary food and shopping venues, and a number of VIP holding areas. The stopover was been confirmed by the team as a free-for-all event that is expected to attract tens of thousands of people to the city over the two week period.
