SAIL Scotland’s Marine Tourism Conference will be addressed in Greenock today by a man who completed a remarkable voyage in steering a boat single-handedly around the world when contesting the Vendee Globe Challenge while issuing zero carbon emissions.

In limping his wrecked boat that had been dismasted just days before he completed his mission and having all but run out of food, eking out the last two biscuits from his life raft over his last three days at sea,

New Zealander Conrad Colman won the modern day equivalent of the race to the South Pole between Scott and Amundsen with a Brit once again coming off second best.

I got a small taste of what it was all about some 16 months ago as part of the welcoming party when Phil Sharp, one of Britain’s leading sailors, completed what he hoped would be a test run for his zero emissions Vendee Globe bid with a Land’s End to John O’Groats Challenge. That alone was quite a feat but at that stage Sharp was still engaged in what proved an unsuccessful bid to identify a vessel for the Vendee Globe so in the end it was a one boat race.

As evidenced by the way Colman finished, it was no foregone conclusion that he would win it given that the challenge has a chequered history of death and destruction mixed in with some remarkable achievements.

Meanwhile, Sharp’s failure to get to the start line could be seen as a failure, in turn, inviting criticism of the admittedly small amount of public funding that was invested in his bid, but that would be to miss the point horribly. This sort of project is vital for the future of the planet and is consequently exactly the sort of area in which it is easy to make the case for investing public money in a sporting activity.

By happy coincidence Dee Caffari, another English sailor who made her name through circumnavigation by becoming the first woman to complete the journey ‘the wrong way’ – against prevailing winds and currents – has skippered the Volvo Ocean Race yacht which is powered by renewable power and who completed the Vendee Globe in 2009, was also in Scotland yesterday speaking to the Scottish Renewables annual conference and spoke regarding just what Colman has achieved.

“This is about protecting what is, for sailors, our playground, but is our environment as a whole,” she explained. “We encounter shocking amounts of, in particular, plastic debris when we are at sea and see the impact on marine life, but we are using this technology in one of the toughest test beds you possibly have.”

The sporting successes achieved by Colman, Caffari and others in finding ways of avoiding the use of previously essential diesel engines, can draw attention to the speed at which zero emissions technology is developing. At a time when grave concern is being generated about reduced amounts of money being made available from the public purse to support sport the wider benefits of supporting such projects are obvious, but that is not always the case.

Naturally we want our sportspeople to be successful, but how important is funding their efforts when the likes of education and health budgets are also being severely squeezed?

There is an argument that giving elite competitors the money they need to contend for silverware at the highest level in their sports plays to wider agendas, including education and health, because of their capacity to inspire, but that has been seriously challenged and, at best, the case is unproved.

There are obvious health and educational benefits in getting youngsters active and socially engaged, but the real drivers for initial involvement seem to be educators and peer pressure. Only once a certain level of involvement is reached does awareness of elite performers become inspirational.

Thereafter there has to be a powerful argument that at the top level of whatever sport they pursue it is either genuinely professional, whether in the UK, Europe or further afield or is an essentially amateur activity. In terms of the greater good it is hard not to see a correlation between the rewards on offer and some of the ugliness we have seen in terms of the likes of doping and match fixing.

There is, meanwhile, evidence that increasing professionalisation has led to a tendency for youngsters to drop out of sport in their teens at the point at which they realise they are not going to make it, rather than develop the sort of long-term habits that will prove transformative.

It is a huge subject, but whereas the benefit of investing public money in supporting those prepared to risk their lives in testing out technology that can potentially save those of countless others is obvious, elite sport must do a much better job of justifying future investment of public funds.