The Spirit of Kilrush with a 21 man crew almost all hailing from the Western Yacht Club in Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland, is a Volvo 60 sailing machine with a vision of safety and speed. At 19.5 meters, this very sophisticated ocean racing yacht carries 30 sails and is capable of 35 knots. The time to beat for this race was set in 1998 with a time of 76 hours 23 minutes and 57 seconds, breaking the previous record by a massive eight hours. The Kilrush team was hoping to come close to or maybe even break that time with the help of good winds, one of the finest sailing machines and a crew with boundless enthusiasm and commitment.

The boats all started the race on the southwestern side of the country in Wicklow at 4pm on Saturday and began sailing clockwise around Ireland keeping all islands to Starboard (to their right). With good winds they hoped to be able to finish the race on Wednesday afternoon.

The Spirit of Kilrush's crew of non-professional sailors was guided by the Skipper of the Kilrush and three professional crew. One of the non-professional sailors from Western Yacht is GE's own Declan Hartnett from the Shannon office of GECAS in Ireland. Declan and his team members have been preparing mentally and physically for this challenge for several months while working in their real jobs, raising their families and raising money for the expensive challenge of sailing in this very competitive race. "Sailing in this race requires us to train physically and mentally. Racing for at least four days non-stop can be tough in calm seas but this is Ireland, and we need to prepare for the worst. There can be some pretty big head winds that would make this tough, but even with good winds we can see rough seas, and we almost count on seeing some rain. Mother nature definitely adds to the excitement of this race. When we were looking for sponsors we successfully secured donations from the kinds of companies you are used to seeing sponsor these types of events, but we were very excited to see that our race logistics provided us with an opportunity to leverage ecomagination and draw attention to a sport that is all about people working together and man working with nature. It just seemed natural that ecomagination should be here with us. There could be no better fit."

"When Declan approached us with the idea of sailing a giant 60 foot boat, with a hundred foot mast on a race trajectory in front of the Arklow Bank wind farm, we saw a great symbolic connection with ecomagination. Here is this renewable resource, wind, being used to generate power, while creating a challenging sporting opportunity that combines pure science with creativity and physical challenges,with no detrimental impact to the environment. Its a perfect symbol of ecomagination and we were happy to be able to help this local team realize their dreams," said Lorraine Bolsinger, GE's VP of Ecomagination.

The Spirit of Kilrush, sponsored by GE Ecomagination, finished the BMW Round Ireland sailing race on Thursday, July 6th around midday after 4 days 20 hours 4 minutes and 57 seconds as the 3rd boat to cross the finish line. They were also the first Irish boat across the line and came in 2nd in the Super O Class of racing yachts. Declan Hartnett, from GECAS in Ireland says, "We're really pleased with our results, particularly as the boats ahead of us (and some behind) were all-pro boats. It was a great experience and we thank GE for their support and sponsorship. After almost 5 days and 704 nautical miles of racing the 2nd boat was only 3 minutes ahead of us and the 4th only 10 minutes behind!"