Irish Sailor of the Year Conor Fogerty aims for Vendee Globe 2020

Irish Sailor of the Year Conor Fogerty has launched a Vendee Globe 2020 campaign, bringing to four the number of Irish sailors now working towards the non–stop solo round–the–world race in two year’s time.

“Boat selection, physical training and preparation has begun” says the Howth Yacht Club sailor on his campaign website. He begins his round the world bid this August with an entry in RORC’s Round Britan and Ireland race.

“You don’t just wake up in the morning and decide you want to do the Vendee Globe”

The launch pad for Fogerty’s campaign was last season’s win in a tough edition of the OSTAR Race where Fogerty won the OSTAR and TWOSTAR fleets in the North Atlantic in early June. The solo sailor survived a mid–ocean storm, an achievement that subsequently led to his crowing as Irish Sailor of the Year Award in February at the RDS in Dublin.

“You don’t just wake up in the morning and decide you want to do the Vendee Globe,” Fogerty says in his promo video below in which he confirms, after sailing some 300,000 miles, that he is “getting to the point where I’m ready to do the Vendee Globe.”

As well as Fogerty, also bidding to make the Vendee Globe 2020 startline from Ireland are the separate campaigns of Nicholas O’Leary, Joan Mulloy and former Clipper skipper, Sean McCarter.

Along with his Vendee ambitions, this season sees Fogerty also launch a vintage Half–Tonner to contest ISORA Irish Sea races.

Conor Fogerty’s Countdown to Vendee Globe 2020:

08/2018 ROUND BRITAIN AND IRELAND RACE – CIRCUMNAVIGATION – DOUBLE HANDED​

11/2018 ROUTE DU RHUM – FRANCE TO CARIBBEAN- SINGLEHANDED

​08/2019 FASTNET RACE – DOUBLE HANDED​

11/2019 TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE – FRANCE TO BRAZIL DOUBLE HANDED​

05/2020 NEW YORK-VENDEE RACE – NEW YORK TO FRANCE SINGLE HANDED​​

06/2020 VENDEE GLOBE – FRANCE TO FRANCE – SINGLE HANDED CIRCUMNAVIGATION