Damian Foxall is an Irish sailor originally from County Kerry and has participated in many long distance ocean races, including five Volvo Ocean Races. Damian lives in Canada, in Stoneham, Quebec, with his Canadian wife whom he met in Quebec City after a transatlantic race from France. They have one child. Damian is a Recreation Education Manager for the Canadian Wildlife Federation.
With more than 30 years of ocean racing experience, Damian has spent most of his life on the water. In that time, he has logged 350,000 nautical miles as a professional sailor and has participated in 18 trans-Atlantic and nine round the world events. Damian is famous in international offshore sailing circles and came in first place in the 2011/12 Volvo Ocean Race with the Groupama Sailing Team. Prior to this he won the 2007/2008 Barcelona World Race.
Setting speed records runs in his blood – Round The World Non-Stop, as a crew member of maxi-catamaran Cheyenne in 2004 and 10 years later another speed record racing around Britain and Ireland on the MOD 70 trimaran Oman Sail. There’s not much Damian hasn’t done when it comes to sailing but his choice for Leg 5 from Auckland to Itajai, Brazil in the 2014/2015 Volvo ocean race also came down to his own solo and short-handed race experience – three goes and a leg win at the annual Solitaire du Figaro in the late 1990s and victory in the two-handed Barcelona World Race in 2008. Damian replaced Thomas Rouxel on this leg as a member of the Dongfeng Sailing Team.
He has participated in four previous Volvo round the world races.
For the complete Winter Speakers Program, see the Speakers Series Calendar. The kitchen will be open from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m., so feel free to join us for a bite and a beer before the talk, which will start at 7:30 p.m. Bring yourself. Bring your friends. Attendees are asked to make a donation to support youth sailing.