#VOLVO OCEAN RACE - The final leg of the latest Volvo Ocran Race from Lorient to Galway is starting now - and you can watch the live stream of the action HERE.

Yesterday's Bretagne In-Port Race saw French team Groupama - which features Ireland's Damian Foxall on deck - clinch a dream home win, edging them closer to overall victory.

But as the Kerryman said just a few days ago, that victory is by no means assured, with 500 miles of turbulent Celtic Sea lying between the fleet and the finish line.

#vor – Damian Foxall's Groupama took a dream home victory in the Bretagne In-Port Race this afternoon to take a big step closer to an overall race victory which to be played out in Irish waters over the next week.

Camper finished second to tie with Puma at the top of the in-shore series.

Skipper Franck Cammas and his Groupama crew scored six points for winning, taking their total to 225 points overall - 25 points ahead of their closest rival with just one leg and one in-port race to go in Galway.

Camper with Emirates Team New Zealand led the whole race but butchered the final downwind leg erasing a 25 second advantage in just a few minutes and lost the race lead to the hometown heroes. They had got out to an excellent start and dominated the race, looking to have the maximum points safely secured, until the closing stages of the final run.

#vor – Tradtional boating got a boost at the Volvo Ocean Race in Galway last night at a special ceremony in Galway Harbour when the country's newest community built Galway hooker was named in a ceremony attended by Social Protection Minister, Joan Burton TD. The boat has been named 'Croí an Cladaig'.

The 32–foot boat is the first of its class to be built in Galway since 1922. In keeping with the Claddagh's centuries old traditions it will be launched on Sunday afternoon, after it is blessed in a ceremony conducted by Dominican Fathers.

The new hooker took 18 months to design and build as part of a training scheme organised by the Claddagh based boatmen's association, "Badoiri an Cladaig", FAS, Galway City & County Enterprise Board and several other local community groups.

Chairperson of "Badoiri an Cladaig", Michael Coyne, said the building of the new hooker has created huge excitement in the Claddagh and has given new impetus to efforts to revive the ancient craft of  traditional boat building in Galway.

#VOR – Up to 200 sailing boats – including many traditional sailing craft – will take part in the dramatic "Parade of Sail" which is being staged in conjunction with the Volvo Ocean Race.

The fleet of 6 Volvo ocean racing yachts are now expected in Galway Bay late on Monday night ,July 2nd or early Tuesday morning, July 3rd.

The "Parade of Sail" is the traditional seafaring salute to the crews who have completed an epic ocean voyage. Boats, which are making their way to Galway from many parts of the

country, will join a fleet of local sailing boats and traditional Galway hookers ,currachs and fishing boats

Thirty boats from the Mayo Sailing Club left their base at Rossmoney, near Westport, today and are now on their way to Inishboffin where they will overnight. They will sail to the Aran Island's tomorrow and rendezvous with the parade of sail on Galway Bay.

The dramatic "Parade of Sail" will begin at the Blackrock Mark, off Salthill, at 4.30pm. The parade will be led by "The Green Dragon", Ireland's entry in the 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean Race. Smaller boats will join the parade at the Blackrock Diving Board. The flotilla will then make its way to the Harbour.

Parade of Sail co-ordinator, Pierce Purcell, said the series of events on the Bay on Sunday which will also include the Multihull Catamaran Championships and the traditional Galway Hooker Regatta, will be "the most fantastic turnout of boats ever seen on Galway Bay"

The Parade of Sail Organisers have issued the following instructions to participating boats.

All craft should allow sufficient time to be at the Blackrock Buoy area in time for a 4.30 start.

FLEET A. It is intended to let the powerboat fleet of participating pleasure boats, RIBS fishing boats start first in an orderly fashion spaced out in single file. This fleet will be led by a blue Garda RIB positioned in the middle of the start area at 4.29 pm.

FLEET B. Yachts in descending order size will set sail immediately after the powerboat fleet. This fleet will make its way inshore to Salthill along the Prom and around Mutton Island.

Fleet C. This fleet comprises of craft up to 4 metres, sailboards, currachs, dinghies and canoes will assemble near the diving tower at Salthill for 4.30.

FLEET D. The Galway Hooker Fleet will assemble after the last boat race is finished in the area between Galway Bay Hotel and Seapoint

FlEET E. The Junior Parade of Sail will launch at the Ocean Sports Club at 4.30.

SAIL PAST. 17.00 hours. A suitable yacht dressed overall will be moored off Nimmos Pier to welcome the fleet.

#VOLVO OCEAN RACE - Local businesses in Galway have committed to Fáilte Ireland's Quality, Value and Service charter for the Volvo Ocean Race festival that kicks off this weekend.

According to the Galway Advertiser, shops, eateries and accommodation throughout Galway have agreed to maintain high standards of quality and be transparent in their pricing to guarantee an enjoyable experience for the thousands of visitors who will be thronging the city over the next few days.

Minister for Tourism Leo Varadkar said the so-called 'Galway Guarantee' is "a great initiative to ensure that anyone visiting [the VOR] has a great time, and hopefully decides to return.”

The charter is a cornerstone of the ‘Your Volvo - Your Opportunity’ initiative designed to ensure that the City of the Tribes makes the most of the eight-day festival of sailing, culture, arts and food.

The Galway Advertiser has more on the story HERE.

#islandnation – The FISH IRELAND Exhibition in Killybegs, the Volvo Race in Galway, the Round Ireland Race at Wicklow, commemorating an Arctic hero in Courtmacsherry and where is the summer for sailing? That's quite a mix of maritime material for one week. At least the Volvo is generating more attention to the marine scene in the general media. It is a regrettable that the same attention is not continued throughout the year.

WICKLOW - FISH, YACHTS AND DENNIS NOONAN

Looking out the window of the Race Office perched high above the quay wall at Wicklow, Dennis Noonan recalled his days of sailing Enterprise dinghies at Baltimore in West Cork:

"They challenged your ability. A mistake at a gybe mark and you could end up in the water. You needed to concentrate, but they were a great way to learn sailing," and he chuckled at the memory, then pointed at the cruisers rafted up at the quayside, tugging at their moorings, seeming anxious to get away: "Offshore racing is a different type of sailing, but no less challenging when you take on the coast of Ireland, no matter what the size of the boat."

Dennis is the doyen of the Round Ireland Race which he was describing to me.

"I've stepped back a bit now," he said, waving at the busy office team putting the final arrangements in place for the start of the race when we talked on the evening before the start. The following day he sent 37 yachts off on their 704-mile voyage. "I have to live by the sea," he told me.

Sailing needs determined people like Dennis who, from his time as a boat builder, continues to build lovely model boats.

MORE FISHING BOATS AT WICKLOW

I noted the number of inshore fishing boats tied up at the quayside in Wicklow, as I am sure crews on the yachts gathered for the Round Ireland start also did. It seems that there is good whelk fishing off Wicklow which has attracted the boats and that the port provides better landing facilities than Arklow which had been the dominant fishing port on the Wicklow coastline.

FISH IRELAND KILLYBEGS

These are tough times for the fishing industry and I have been hearing many stories of those difficulties at THE MARINE TIMES FISH IRELAND EXHIBITION in Killybegs. The problems are extensive – from limited quotas to the massive amount of regulations and it is not good to see fishing boats tied up at the quayside prevented from going to the fishing grounds by EU regulations. There are few industries where the official approach is to stop men from working. All this while foreign vessels continue to fish in Irish waters because their quotas are so much larger than those of Irish vessels. There is no doubt that politicians have made a complete mess of the fishing industry.

The small Irish fishing fleet could not have fished Irish waters to the low state of some stocks at present, but this fact is ignored by sensationalist commentaries in the general media where the facts of fishing and maritime life are not understood and there is insufficient expression of an opposite viewpoint. To see areas of Killybegs shuttered which should have viable fish-related industrial activities is disappointing and some of this is due to the attitude of Irish government officials who have frustrated development and stopped proposals which would have created jobs by imposition of unreasonable rents and regulations. It makes me wonder about the government's commitment to job creation.

There are other issues to be addressed, such as the differing reports from environmentalists, scientists, fishermen and leisure anglers about cod stocks. While environmentalists and scientists claim cod has disappeared from Irish waters, anglers report catching more than ever before and fishermen, who are controlled in catching them say the waters are alive with cod. So who is right – those who go out and see for themselves or land-based opinion?

KEOHANE TO BE HONOURED IN COURTMAC

A project is underway in Courtmacsherry in West Cork, I am told, to honour the role of local man Patrick Keohane in Arctic exploration. He was one of those who located the bodies of Robert Falcon Scott and others from the Discovery Expedition of 1901-1904 near the South Pole. The location for a memorial to him is likely to be within view of his birthplace at Barry's Point on the route of the Seven Heads Walkway. A local committee is raising finance for the memorial. Unveiling day is likely to be Sunday, August 19. Well done to the people of Courtmacsherry.

This is an artist's impression of the sculpture.

ARCTIC

According to the Research Council of Norway the Arctic may contain more than a fifth of the Earth's undiscovered oil and gas. Increasing pressure on the region is indicated by shipping cargoes which will reach their highest level through the area this year as companies cut costs and fuel consumption by avoiding the Suez Canal. A thousand tonnes of fuel, costing over $600,000 dollars, can be saved. The environmental importance of the Arctic has been shown by the discovery of a 60-mile bloom of phytoplankton beneath the Chukchi Sea in the Arctic, regarded as "astonishing" by scientists. Phytoplantkon is the essential food of marine life.

WHERE IS IRISH AWARENESS?

Seafarers' Awareness Week, an annual campaign by the biggest charity helping seafarers in need – Seafarers UK – has just concluded. The charity works to raise awareness of Britain's dependence on seafarers and gives annual grants of more than stg£2 million to help seafarers, their families and dependants across the Merchant Navy, Fishing Fleets and the Royal Navy. What a pity there is not something similar in Ireland.

CONCORDIA CAPTAIN CHARGE WITH MANSLAUGHTER

Captain Francesco Schettino who commanded the cruise liner Costa Concordia is now charged with multiple manslaughter, causing the accident and abandoning ship prematurely. Italy's top appeals court has held that he should face the charges, indicating that he was unfit to command.

AMAZON NOW UNDER THREAT

Twenty-two hydro-electric schemes are planned to be built along the Amazon River and its tributaries. Environmentalists and indigenous rights campaigners claim this will alter the environmental and social balance and that the rain forest and tribes which live there will be permanently damaged as locals are removed to for construction work in remote areas. The power schemes are required to meet Brazil's burgeoning demand for electricity as the country develops economically.

IMERC HONOURED BY TAOISEACH

I was delighted to see that IMERC, the Maritime and Energy Resource Cluster at the National Maritime College in Ringaskiddy, whose work I have praised previously, was awarded this year's "Public Service Excellence Award" by Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

The award highlights the opportunities for job creation and economic growth in the marine sector and the importance of realising the economic potential of Irish marine resources. IMERC was chosen from 190 projects. It is a tripartite alliance between the Naval Service, UCC and the Cork Institute of Technology Development. This is the first time a maritime project has featured in the awards since they were initiated in 2004.

Val Cummins directs the team which is developing the world's largest marine renewable energy research facility at Ringaskiddy. Congratulations to them on their well-deserved award.

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#VOR It's a cruel world. The Volvo 70 racers arrive in to Galway next week, and it's their last hurrah. A week today, around lunchtime, they'll become utterly obsolete after their final race of the current series, an in-port event off the City of the Tribes.

With that little sprint concluded, and the overall winners honoured in gala style, we'll all then be expected to hail the concept of the new Volvo 65s, a fleet of one designs which will start hitting the water a year hence, with a new boat being launched every seven weeks until there are eight of them, ready to roll in the Volvo Ocean Race 2014.

The idea is that it will bring costs within manageable limits. Or at least the limits can be more clearly defined. But they'll still be fairly crazy by everyday standards, even if not remotely comparable with the moolah required to keep a Formula 1 campaign on the road, or transfer your average footballer.

For wannabee contenders, it's welcome news. But for those who see the Volvo races as being the cutting edge of boat design development, it has to be a retrograde step, as having a box design (albeit within fairly severely restrained limits) did push the concepts down the road from fantasy to actuality, whereas one design should in theory make everyone equal, if unexcitingly the same.

Meanwhile, with questions being asked about just how Galway and Ireland will recoup the costs being incurred for the current jamboree, it arouses mixed feelings to learn that the financial challenge will be manageable in the future. We've enough financial challenges to deal with right now, thank you very much, before we can get worked up about getting more bang for our bucks going forward.

But we have to applaud the chutzpah of the international marine industry around the Solent area in the south of England for this turn of events. The new boats will all be built by Greene Marine of Lymington and Southampton. And we can be fairly sure that many key personnel involved, whether afloat or ashore, will be Solent-based, even if they originated from every corner of the planet.

Ironically (that's the politest word we can use of this situation), the Brits themselves don't have a boat in the current race. In fact, they haven't been seriously involved at national entry level for a long time. But their advanced marine industry has done very nicely, thank you, out of the Volvo Race over the years.

Here in Ireland, however, the supporters will have to do an awful lot of partying down Corrib way simply to keep the Irish Volvo Race show on the road. Happily, recent experience gained by fans in Poland, the Ukraine, and New Zealand will be invaluable.

With the final results being totted this weekend for the Round Ireland Race from Wicklow, the predictions here last weekend that Piet Vroon's Ker 46 Tonnere de Breskens or French skipper Laurent Gouy's Ker 39 Inismor (of Clifden, among other places) proved to be spot on.

Aspiring offshore racers would do well to study everything about the Tonnere and Inismor campaigns. In a race which eventually comes down to making fewer mistakes than anyone else, they seldom put a foot wrong. Sailing at this level is a pleasure to watch. But with the Irish weather in a cussed mood and fog plaguing much of our coastline, very few saw Tonnere de Breskens and Inismor going so beautifully and purposefully about their business.

W M Nixon's sailing column is in the Irish Independent on Saturdays

#VOLVO OCEAN RACE - Damian Foxall hopes it will be fourth time lucky in his quest to clinch a Volvo Ocean Race victory - but as he tells the official VOR website, he won't be resting on his laurels.

Despite the overall 23-point advantage held by his team Groupama - following a dramatic comeback victory in the most recent leg of the race - Foxall says victory is not yet assured in a field that has been growing increasingly competitive in recent weeks.

"Now we have to keep pushing," says the 42-year-old Kerryman. "“We have a very fast boat if not the fastest boat in the fleet, and we've learned how to sail it very well. There is no reason we can't win this race. We've believed that from the start and now everyone else believes it."

But the watch captain and his crew are acutely aware that it can all be lost in the blink of an eye.

"A technical hitch or a couple of poor starts like we have had recently from Lisbon and it all goes down the drain," he says. "We can't let that happen.”

This Sunday the fleet departs on the final leg of the race, a 550-mile sprint from Lorient in France to Galway through the often turbulent Celtic Sea that has the potential to scupper even the best prepared team's plans.

The official Volvo Ocean Race website has more on the story HERE.

#VOLVO OCEAN RACE - Miriam Lord's "sniping" on the Volvo Ocean Race and Global Village festivities in Galway was "unfair, unwarranted and misunderstood", according to the chair of the event organisers.

In a letter to the editor of The Irish Times, Enda O'Coineen (currently racing Green Dragon in the Round Ireland race) of Let's Do It Global took to task the political writer and satirist's article in last Saturday's edition of the paper, in which she opined about the VIP nature of some of the week's corporate hospitality events.

"'Sniping' at a critical time like this damages the work of a small core of professionals and almost 2,000 volunteers making it happen in the heart of Galway," wrote O'Coineen.

"Much of the hospitality is for international corporate visitors who bring business. Our ambition is, once again, to deliver a massive return on investment for our North Atlantic island residents and diaspora."

The VOR Galway head invited the Irish Times writer to "come to Galway and share the vibrance, the energy, the fun and adventure" of the week from 30 June to 8 July.

Lord herself has yet to respond to O'Coineen's comments, but we'd expect something just as wry as her columns.

#VOLVO OCEAN RACE - The Volvo Ocean Race finale in Galway will be a homecoming of sorts for specialist nautical map designer Bobby Nash, as the Irish Examiner reports.

The designer, who works at home in Kinsale, enhances classic charts of any harbour, sea, ocean or lake.

Nash first made his mark the last time Galway hosted a VOR stopover, when his commissions of artistic charts of Galway Bay and the Aran Islands were featured prizes in the in-port races.

"By layering several identical charts, he makes painstakingly-produced, hand-made 3D charts which literally bring the standard 2D charts to a new dimension — and they now travel all over the world," writes the Examiner's Tommy Barker. "He’s had over 1,000 chart commissions, many for multiple copies."

With the latest edition of the round-the-world yacht race, Nash's family-owned business Latitude has had an even bigger profile, as his charts - some of which taking many days to make - have been presented to each of the nine host ports.

And that's not all, as his upcoming prizes for Cowes, Falmouth and the Palma Superyacht Cup show how much his work is sought after.

The Irish Examiner has more on the story HERE.