#Offshore - A fleet of 20 French yachts racing to Ireland narrowly avoided sailing into serious trouble off the Dorset coast earlier this week.

As BBC News reports, UK coastguard authorities scrambled to warn the yachts via emergency broadcast that they were headed towards an exclusion zone set up for a live firing exercise at Lulworth Ranges.

"It looks like there was a slight error made by the French authorities," said a coastguard spokesperson, who confirmed that the yachts were diverted from their dangerous course after contacting the race director.

According to Practical Boat Owner, the yachts were competing in the Normandy Channel Race which began on Sunday 14 April and continues till this Friday evening.

The race route to and from Caen in northern France traverses a triangle across the Celtic Sea, past the most southwesterly tip of Cornwall, via Tuskar Rock and Fastnet Rock.

#VOR - Lorient in France completes the route for the next edition of the Volvo Ocean Race.

Like last year, the Brittany port city will be the penultimate stopover for the race fleet when they sail in at some point in mid June 2015.

But rather than a return to Galway, the race will continue on to the new finish line at Gothenburg in Sweden - as announced by race organisers in February.

“This route has never really been part of any ocean race any time before,” said Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knut Frostad. “And when you have that element there’s a new strategy, there’s a new route, there’s new weather, there’s new challenges for the sailors.

"That is exciting, not only for us but for the sailors because no-one can claim they’ve done this before.”

The 12th edition of the Volvo Ocean Race begins on 4 October this year with the first in-port race in Alicante.

In other VOR news, Team SCA has selected the first five members of its all-woman team for the global yachting challenge.

Britons Sam Davies and Annie Lush will be joined by Dutchwoman Carolijn Brouwer and Aussie par Sophie Ciszek and Liz Wardley on the squad that marks the first female-only crew in the race for more than a decade.

#Shipping - The European Shortsea Conference will take place for the first time in France on Thursday 14 March 2013.

Shortsea 13 at La Defense in Paris is organised by the Bureau de Promotion du Shortsea Shipping (BP2S) and SPC France jointly with other European Shortsea promotion centres - and comes just weeks after the Euromaritime exposition that kicks of tomorrow in the French capital.

The conference will cover a number of hot topics related to shorts and intermodal intra-european transport, the challenges that exist and are yet to come, and what solutions can be found.

And like last year's event, hosted in Dublin by the Irish Maritime Development Office (IMDO) and Coastlink, the convention will provide a platform to network, discuss and debate issues shared by European shipping partners.

Organisers say that contributors are still welcome to take part as speakers (e-mail [email protected] for more) or sponsors (contact [email protected] for details).

Registrations will open soon for those wishing to attend as delegates. Keep an eye on the Shortsea 13 blog or find more information on the European Shortsea Network at www.shortsea.info.

#FAIL - The video above shows Lolo, resident Top Gear-style maniac with French motorcycle magazine Moto Journal, taking a tumble off the quay at Port de Saint-Martin-de-Ré in western France on his Yamaha FJR 1300 and plunging straight into the deck of a dockside boat.

Luckily the hapless rider got at most some deserved bruises and a severe shaking up, which is more than we can say for his surely now written-off motorcycle. Here's also hoping that poor boat didn't suffer too much damage.

Maybe next time he'll take a bit more care when he's riding around such valuable craft!

#FISHING - The Guardian reports that an alliance of EU member states plans to "hijack" a council meeting of the union's fisheries ministers today to prevent a ban on fish discards.

EU maritime affairs commissioner Maria Damanaki has stated her commitment to ending the practice, describing it as “unethical, a waste of natural resources and a waste of fishermen’s effort.”

Half of all fish in the North Sea - and up to two-thirds in other areas - are thrown back under the quota system implemented under the EU's common fisheries policy. The practice was recently highlighted by TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's 'Fish Fight' campaign.

Minister for the Marine Simon Coveney has called on EU states to support Ireland's effort to deal with fish discards, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

But some member states, led by France and Spain, have dismissed the proposed ban as "unrealistic" and "too prescriptive", and will attempt to pass a declaration to allow the practice to continue indefinitely.

According to the Guardian, the charge is being led by industrial-scale fishing enterprises who want to retain the permission to discard lower value fish in order to maximise profits.

Brussels insiders say that if the declaration were to pass it would "kill the reform".

#TALL SHIPS - Eighteen vessels are on the entry list for the 2012 Tall Ships Races which are set to conclude in Dublin Port next August.

The list is dominated by British entries, with all nine UK tall ships expected to sail the third and final leg from A Coruña in northern Spain to Dublin.

Tall ships from Russia, Poland, France, Ecuador, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia and Belgium will also be in the fray when Ireland's capital hosts the final port of call for the 2012 races, presented by Szczecin in Poland and organised by Sail Training International - a charity established to harness sail training to develop and educate young people regardless of nationality, culture, religion, gender or social background.

The first leg of the 2012 races kicks off in Saint-Malo, France on 7 July with ships racing to Lisbon in Portugal (till 21 July); Cádiz in southern Spain (21-28 July) and A Coruña (28 July-12 August) before the final leg.

Dublin will be hosting the Tall Ships Races for the first time since 1998. Earlier this year Eamonn O’Reilly, CEO of Dublin Port Company, said he was “delighted to welcome the Tall Ships Races to Dublin Port" in 2012.

Since the announcement the port has already played host to the British tall ship Tenacious and the Norwegian vessel S/S Statsraad Lehmkuhl.

From Thursday 23 to Sunday 26 August 2012 as many as 100 ships are expected to arrive in the port and Docklands area for an event that includes a four-day festival programme of music, food and fashion showcases, markets, street theatre, water sport and water-based activities. 

The weekend will also feature activities unique to the races including a crew parade, prize-giving event and a parade of sail.

Are you looking to get involved in Dublin's hosting of the Tall Ships Races? Check out the following links:

Become a trainee www.dublintallships.ie/trainees/

Take part as a volunteer www.dublintallships.ie/volunteers/

For further information see www.dublintallships.ie or e-mail [email protected]

Entry List for the Tall Ships Races 2012:

Akela (Russia)

Black Diamond Of Durham (UK)

Dar Mlodziezy (Poland)

Etoile Polaire (France)

Guayas (Ecuador)

Johanna Lucretia (UK)

John Laing (UK)

Kaliakra (Bulgaria)

Lord Nelson (UK)

Maybe (UK)

Moosk (UK)

Pelican Of London (UK)

Pogoria (Poland)

Rona II (UK)

Spaniel (Latvia)

St Iv (Estonia)

Thermopylae Clipper (UK)

Tomidi (Belgium)

In a bad omen for marinas in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe, Italian marina operators are facing a further decline in fortunes, according to boat industry website IBI Plus.

The site highlights a report in Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore which says visitor numbers are falling as boatowners have fled to France, Corsica and Croatia - a result of growing unease with increased checks by the Italian financial police.

More and more berthed boats are up for sale, especially in the 10-20m range, while fuel sales are also dwindling, the report adds.

President of Italian marina association Assomarinas Roberto Perocchio told Il Sole 24 Ore that in some cases up to 20% of berthed boats are on the market, while 10% of clients have left the market.

Marina operators reported a decrease in visits on 2010, with some accusing Italy's Guardia di Finanza of being too heavy-handed.

IBI Plus has more on the story HERE.

Team Portugal were crowned European Surfing Champions at the final day of Eurosurf 2011 in Bundoran yesterday.

It's the first time the Portuguese have held the title since 1997, which is also when the event was last hosted in the Co Donegal seaside town.

Portugal won three of the seven different categories, with two second-place finishes, one third place and one fourth.

Their surfers fought tooth and nail in a week of competition that was dominated by France, who made a bold statement of intent on the opening day by scoring eight out of the best 15 waves - and led the pack until the closing sessions.

Meanwhile Team Ireland did not finish too badly, placing a respectable sixth in the final tally.

Ashleigh Smith made the biggest mark for the Irish, being narrowly beaten into second place in the women's bodyboarding division by Portugal's Catarina Sousa.

“We’ve been delighted with how the week has gone for Eurosurf," said Eurosurf press officer Shane Smyth. "If we were to draw up a blueprint for a surf competition considering waves, weather and organisation we would have nailed it."

More details of results are available on the Eurosurf website HERE.

The BBC News website also has an image gallery of the week's action HERE.

Ships off Ireland's south and west coasts have been asked by the French coastguard to keep a lookout for a yachtsman who has gone missing on a transatlantic voyage.

In a report that has echoes of missing yacht The Golden Eagle - which sailed into Kerry after an Atlantic crossing from Bermuda many days after schedule - RTÉ News says that the 12-metre yacht La Galatee left French Guiana on 5 August sailing for St Malo in France, but the French coastguard has lost contact with the vessel.

No air and sea searches are being considered at this time, but Irish Coast Guard stations are broadcasting alerts and requests for sightings of the yacht.

French government support of marina projects will see the creation of an extra 4,000 berths this year.

IBI PLus reports that nine marinas out of 25 submissions have been chosen to benefit from the government's funding of the Ports de Plaisance Exemplaires (Exemplary Marinas) project, which aims for the sustainable development of new marina spaces.

So far the French government has spent €1.7 million on studies in support of the project, through which some 9,000 berths are already set to be created via the 2009 and 2010 winners.

France currently hosts 466 marinas and a capacity of more than 170,000 berths, which falls far short of the demands of the country's five million boaters.

IBI PLus has more on the story HERE.