Green Dragon's Final Farewell

Former Miss World Rosanna Davison was probably remembering the words of her rock-star father Chris de Burgh’s hit ‘Sailing Away’ when she wished the crew of Green Dragon a successful campaign as they closed their training camp and prepared for a final farewell from Ireland for the 2008-09 race start in Alicante.

Rosanna, crowned Miss World in 2003, has played a range of sports, but was shocked by the harsh conditions on board for the world’s most elite sailors as they battle over nine months to win sailing’s most famous offshore ocean racing trophy.

“It was amazing to meet the crew and to see the Green Dragon up close. I cannot believe they will race around the world in such basic living conditions,” she said.

Rosanna, whose first love is athletics, also graduated from University College, Dublin, with a first-class honours degree in Sociology before becoming the first ‘Miss Ireland’ to win the Miss World crown.

The Green Dragon team, led by skipper Ian Walker, was visiting Dublin after eight weeks of training at the Naval Base in Haulbowline, County Cork.

Walker said that the decision to set up the training based in Ireland had been very successful. He said: “It offered us the perfect location for testing the boat in a range of conditions. The crew were overwhelmed by the welcome we received in Ireland.”

They will return to Ireland in late May next year when the Volvo fleet arrives in Galway after crossing the North Atlantic from Boston.

Green Dragon will sail to Alicante at the end of August ahead of the in-port race on 4 October and the race start to Cape Town, South Africa, on 11 October.