#TRY BOATING – As well as the Round the World Racers on show at the Volvo Ocean Race 2011- 2012 Grand Finale in Galway (30th June to 8th July 2012) there's also a chance to get on the water have a try at Sailing, Windsurfing, Paddle Boarding, Sea kayaking and Water Polo.

Get on board a Galway Hooker, Donegal Drondheim, Achill Yawl and Arab Dhow. See what it's like on board a modern racer cruiser. Accessible sailing for those with restricted mobility are also catered for.

Volvo Youth Academy

• Try Sailing on a Ludic 18 foot sailing dinghy with an experienced local sailor in a safe environment. Just visit the Race village any day 1100 to 1700 and book a place. Free age 10+.

• Website www.volvooceanracegalway.com

Ocean Youth Trust 

• Try Sailing on a RS Elite 18 foot sailing keel boat with an experienced local sailor in a safe environment. Just visit the Race village from Wednesday 4th July 1100 to 1900 and book a place. Free age 12+.

• More information from Bronagh Cappa-Campbell email [email protected] telephone 00442890453062. Website www.oyti.org

Galway Bay Sailing Club

• Try Sailing on a Vision 16 foot sailing dinghy with an experienced local sailor in a safe environment. Just visit the Race village any day 1100 to 1700 and book a place. Free Age 10+.

• Tried the sailing want to take the helm then the Taste of Sailing is for you. Then book a place on the half day Taste of Sailing Course and get your Irish Sailing Association certificate.

• Morning and Afternoon Sessions aged 10+.

• Multiple half days can be booked to make up a longer course.

• Take the helm and learn to sail on the 12 foot RS Feva double handed dinghy either on the waters of Lough Atalia or off the beach at the Galway Ocean Sports Club.

• Cost €10 per half day session booking in advanced from Thomas Mills 087 7754514.

• Email [email protected] website www.gbsc.ie or at the Race Village.

Bow Waves

• Try Sailing on a Laser 16 foot sailing dinghy with an experienced local sailor in a safe environment. Just visit the Race village any day 1100 to 1700 and book a place. Free Age 10+.

• Tried the sailing want to take the helm then the Taste of Sailing is for you. The book a place on the half day Taste of Sailing Course and get your Irish Sailing Association (ISA) certificate.

o Morning and Afternoon Sessions aged 10+.

o Multiple half days can be booked to make up a longer course.

o Take the helm and learn to sail on the 12 foot Topper Topaz double handed dinghy either on the waters of Lough Atalia or off the beach at the Galway Ocean Sports Club.

o Cost €10 per half day session booking in advanced by telephone 091560560 or 0878077177.

o Email [email protected] website www.bowwaves.com or at the Race Village

Accessible Sailing

• Sailing session for people with disabilities.

• The Irish Disabled Sailing Association, ISA, GBSC and Even Keel have teamed up to bring a fleet of 7 boats which will cater for different needs.

• Morning and Afternoon Sessions. Free aged 8+.

• Booking in advance by Email [email protected] by telephone 0878800744. Websites www.sailforce.ie, www.sailing.ie, www.gbsc.ie and www.theevenkeel.com

Galway Hooker Association

• Get on board a traditional Galway Hooker to get to know the ropes from the sheets and the canvas from the blocs.

• On the Quay side all week.

• More information from Padraic de Bhaldraithe email [email protected] or telephone 0876591904. Website www.galwayhookerassociation.ie

Rusheen Bay Windsurfing

You prefer to do some sailing standing up the Taste of Windsurfing is for you. Then book a place on the half day Taste of Windsurfing and get your Irish Sailing Association certificate RBW.

o Afternoon sessions weekends and evening Sessions all week.

o Multiple half days can be booked to make up a longer course.

o Stand up and sail on safe waters of Rusheen bay aged 12+.

o Cost €20 per half day session booking in advanced from Danny Mulryan 0862605702.

o Email [email protected] website www.rusheenbay.com or at the Race Village.

Try Sea Kayaking with Burren Outdoor Education Centre and Kayakmor

If you prefer going for a paddle then explore the shore line from the docks to Hare Island in a sea Kayak.

• Morning and Afternoon Sessions with Burren Outdoor Education Centre

o Fee €5 aged 10+ at the Race Village.

o More information from Joanna McInerney 087 2229459

o Email [email protected] website www.burrenoec.com

• Evening Sessions

o Fee €5 aged 10+ at the Race Village.

o More information from Jim Morryissey 087 7565578

o Email [email protected] website www.kayakmor.com

Puma Stand Up Paddle Boarding

You can now go padding standing up Puma are bringing their latest carbon fibre boards for you to try.

• All day sessions aged 12+ free.

• Off the prom at Palmers Rock Salthill.

• More information from Mark Paaluhi of Puma on 00- 310-927-1288

• Email [email protected] website www.puma.com

Corrib Water Polo and Swim Club Try Water Polo

I f you really want to play ball and get up to your neck in water have a go at the try water polo session.

• Wednesday 4th July 1730, aged 15 and under free.

• Must be able to swim a width.

• Kingfisher Club NUIG

• More information from Andy Flanagan

• Email [email protected]

#VOR – Volvo Ocean Race fan and Irish Fireball champion, Kenneth Rumball, has won a trip to Miami, USA, to sail with Abu Dhabi backed outfit Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing. The 24-year-old, from Dun Laoghaire County Dublin, says the chance to meet his heroes and sail on the team's Volvo Open 70 race yacht, Azzam (determination), in the gruelling round-the-world sailing event is a dream come true.

Hoping to follow in the footsteps of one of his heroes, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing's Irish bowman, Justin Slattery, a three-time Volvo Ocean Race veteran and event winner, Kenneth is relishing the chance to jump onboard and pick up some pointers from one of the sport's toughest professionals.

"I am a massive fan of the race and given the opportunity I would love to compete in it. I am very much looking forward to meeting Justin and all the crew of Azzam as well as the Abu Dhabi shore team; this is the pinnacle of the sport and I'm sure there is so much I can learn from them," said Kenneth, who runs and manages the Irish National Sailing, Powerboat School & Club, Eire's largest sailing school.

Kenny Rumball and Dad Alistair of the Irish National Sailing School are flying out to Miami

Kenneth entered a Facebook competition run by Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority , which manages the Volvo Ocean Race contesting outfit, to win an ultimate VIP trip to Miami for the global sailing event's seventh stopover from 18 until 20 May 2012.

Having started sailing aged four under the guidance of his father Alistair, who will join him on the Miami trip, Kenneth has gone on to represent the 'Emerald Isle' at top international level in various classes including the Optimist World Team, Corpus Christi Texas 2002, ISAF Youth Worlds Korea 2005 in the 420 Class and the 420 Junior Europeans in Lake Garda Italy in 2005, where he picked up the bronze.

A determined sailor and boat builder, Kenneth choose to hold off going into the Olympics to concentrate on his studies, but he is chomping at the bit to get some more offshore sailing under his belt so he can perhaps one day be a part of the Volvo Ocean Race, which ends in Galway, Ireland in July.

"I chose not to go down the Olympic route as I became too busy with studies in college. I have been competing at international level in the Fireball class since and have done some offshore classic races including the Rolex Fastnet Race and Rolex Middle Sea race this year as helmsman, bowman and trimmer in a semi-professional capacity. In the future I would like to gain more offshore experience and compete in the Volvo Ocean Race for sure, maybe this chance in Miami with Abu Dhabi might just be that springboard," said Kenneth.

No stranger to Azzam and the team's double Olympic medal winning skipper, Ian Walker, Kenneth was on the water when the Abu Dhabi team powered to victory in the 2011 Rolex Fastnet Race in the UK, where it smashed the monohull record on its first outing.

"I was in the same race as Azzam in the UK last year; she is a striking looking yacht. It'll be a totally different experience being onboard though, I can't wait," says Kenneth.

Having landed in Miami last weekend following the round-the-world race's sixth leg - a testing 4,800 nautical mile route from Itajai, Brazil, in which the team finished fifth - Walker and his crew now face the points-scoring In-Port Race on Saturday and the global sailing odyssey's Leg 7 start to Lisbon, Portugal, on Sunday.

Currently lying in fifth overall, the outfit – which boasts the first Gulf national to ever compete in the global sailing odyssey, Adil Khalid – is hoping to capitalise on its solid In-Port Race form, which has seen it win two of the stadium style races to date, in Alicante and at home in the United Arab Emirates capital last January.

#VOR GALWAY – Volvo Ocean Race chiefs were in Galway this week to discuss the race finale at the West coast port in six weeks time.  Director of Operations Heather Sherer and Tom Touber of Volvo Ocean Race Global met with the Lets do it Galway team including Chairman Enda O'Coineen to put the finishing touches to the Irish party.

The race will finish in Galway Bay on June 30th this year, and has a reported global audience of 2 billion people worldwide. It is expected the race will attract over 50,000 international visitors to the port this summer.

Galway previously hosted a stopover during the last race in 2009, and won the right to host the finish of this year's race over 81 competing cities around the world. This year's race is anticipated to yield about €65 million to the local and national economies.

#VOLVO OCEAN RACE – How long can City Fathers maintain their Welcoming Committee smiles for incoming race boats? It's a question which was uppermost in Miami earlier this week, as the great and the good awaited the arrival of the leaders in the Volvo Ocean Race.

In this case, the answer had to be three days. A week ago, Kenny Read and his team on Puma were hanging onto a slender lead from Chris Nicholson with Camper, after racing more than 4,000 miles from Itajai in Brazil. At usual Volvo 70 speeds, a Sunday finish in Miami was a possibility - just the job in a festive city with a large Hisapanic population ready to party.

But the Bahamas decided otherwise. They must be strict Calvinists down there. An ordinary high pressure area over the islands found even higher pressure within itself to become an extremely high pressure system, and an almost complete calm reigned over a wide area, right across the racers' track.

For sure it was sunny, and through the vividly moonlit nights there was no chill. But for shoreside crowds and frustrated crews, this was small consolation. Just to add to the pain, the boats far astern were still tearing along in the full trade winds, with Franck Cammas and Damian Foxall and their team on Groupama staging a real Lazarus job to get through overall points leader Telefonica and sail within nibbling distance of Puma and Camper.

But in conditions in which Puma is supposedly not at her best, Kenny Read kept his cool, and crawled along the last 200 miles with all the intensity of an Olympic race. Finally, they were shaping up to finish late Wednesday afternoon. But the weather hadn't finished. While things were serene at sea, a massive thunderstorm built up over Miami, and winds of 40 knots started to blow away bits of the tented Volvo Race Village. It had to be closed to the public for safety reasons. You couldn't make it up. But by the time Puma came sweeping into the harbour to clinch her win, the thunderstorm was moving inland, the village was re-opening, the bands played on, and the welcoming committee had grins from ear to ear for an American win.

Racing resumes in a week's time with the In Port event in Miami, and then they're on their way next day Transatlantic to Lisbon, thence to Lorient, and finally to the finish in Galway. Chinese-Irish entry Sanya rejoins the fleet in a week's time, meanwhile the leaderboard is: Telefonica 164 pts; Groupama 153; Camper 149; Puma 147; Abu Dhabi 68; Sanya 25.

When Wednesday May 9th was set as the day for the presentation of the Mitsubishi Motors/Irish Independent "Club of the Year 2012" award to the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire after they'd been adjudicated the winners back in January, everyone had visions of a perfect summer's evening garden party sort of celebration.

No way, as it turned out this week. There was much better weather in March. But the National's superb clubhouse maintains a very pleasant warmth, and the place was packed out with a convivial crowd, so it was summer in every other way as Commodore Paul Barrington accepted the veteran ship's wheel trophy from Billy Riordan of Mitsubishi Motors.

It's the fifth time the National have won the trophy in its 33 years, and Irish Sailing Association President Niamh McCutcheon praised the club and its members for their sailing enthusiasm and exemplary level of voluntary effort afloat and ashore.

Billy Riordan (left) of Mitsubishi Motors and National Yacht Club Commodore Paul Barrington with the Club of the Year Ship's Wheel Trophy on Wednesday. Photo: Michael Chester

As the National is already well represented in the forthcoming sailing Olympics with Annalise Murphy a top contender in the Women's Lasers and Jack Roy one of the 16-strong international racing administration team, everyone was delighted with the news that Ireland's sailing squad has been increased with the qualification of James Espey for the Men's Lasers, while Peter O'Leary and David Burrows finished fourth overall in the current Star Worlds.

#SAILING ON SATURDAY – The Volvo Ocean Racers were at last feeling the benefit of the northeast trade winds on Thursday on the final 1600 miles to Miami from Brazil as the three leaders recorded speeds above 20 knots, but as they were so close together when reaching the breeze, nobody had got significantly ahead. American Ken Read's Puma was 5 miles ahead of NZ's Chris Nicholson's Camper, with overall leader Telefonica (Iker Martinez, Spain) 18 miles astern again, but with breezy offwind sailing in prospect and three boat neck and neck for the remainder of Leg 6, gaps like that can disappear in hours.

Puma has led narrowly all the way from Itajai, but only by dint of finding some new and often untried sail combination or trim. The new Volvo rule that they couldn't do any pre-race training matched with another boat meant that these have been the first prolonged and intensive boat-for-boat sessions they've experienced. They're expected in Miami tomorrow.

The newly-launched defending 2011 Irish Sea Champion Raging Bull, Matt Davis of Skerries Sigma 400 Raging Bull, will miss the early races of the ISORA programme as she broke her moorings off Skerries in the recent severe northeasterly gales. Sounds unfortunate, yett the Bull was lucky. Other Skerries boats were smashed to smithereens. But the Davis winner came in on the only patch of sand in an otherwise totally rocky bit of foreshore, and can be repaired. Some day, some time, we'll see a proper harbour at Skerries.

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

See also Round the World Cruiser Stephen Hyde is April's Sailor of the Month

In what is being termed 'a major initiative' for young Irish sailors the Green Dragon Academy has been launched to use a second generation Volvo Open 70 and Ireland's entry in the 2009 Volvo Ocean Race as a platform to discover the next generation of Irish offshore sailors.

'Our mission focuses on the 18–30yr old Irish sailors who are looking to forge a career in this niche sector within sailing' says project director Cillian McGovern. 'The Green Dragon is an ideal platform from which to gain invaluable exposure to the level of seamanship required to sail at the highest level' he adds.

With only eight of this class in operation, six of which are currently competing in the Volvo Ocean Race, the opportunity presented, cannot be understated', says McGovern.

At present, the boat has been hauled out of the water in Alicante and is being serviced in advance of the upcoming sailing season.

Late in 2011, the Green Dragon left Galway, where it had been safely stored for two years, and was sailed to Rotterdam. From there, it was loaded onto 3 trucks and travelled 270+ miles through Germany to Frankfurt where it was Volvo's showpiece at the Frankfurt Motor Show. After the motor-show, it was sailed to Alicante via Southampton, Cascais and Cadiz.

The highlight of which was a 24-hr between Cowes and Finisterre at an average speed of 19knots, with a crew of 8 sailors, all of whom were under 30.

The Green Dragon was present in Alicante for the Legends Regatta, enjoying a healthy duel with Telefonica Black before the Spanish boat, crewed by Olympic sailors pulled away.

The Legends Regatta was of great benefit to the young Irish sailors on board who gained great knowledge from the Whitbread/Volvo Legends on board, notably: Joe English, Bouwe Bekking and Jerry Kirby, not to mention, leading Open 60 designer, Merf Owen from Owen Clarke Design.

The forthcoming sailing season will see the Green Dragon Academy sail to Lisbon for the Volvo Ocean Race stopover, sail to Dublin and train out of the Royal Saint George Yacht Club before sailing to Galway for the Grand Finale of the Volvo Ocean Race.

#SAILING – It will be coast-to-coast coverage for Galway sailing in late June, as global interest starts to focus on the western port city and the finish of the Volvo Ocean Race in early July, while the student sailors of Galway University are making a strong pitch for the Round Ireland Race starting from Wicklow on June 24th.

Their campaign is shaping up very well, as they've chartered Martin Breen's Reflex 38 which – as Galway Harbour – was overall winner of last year's main offshore event, the Dun Laoghaire-Dingle Race. The west coast sailing community have a good record in the biennial round Ireland, their most recent overall winner being Aodhan Fitzgerald skippering the First 40.7 Ireland West in 2008.

For this year's event, the status of the race has been up-graded – it now has the same standing in the RORC points championship as events of comparable length such as the Fastnet, and the Middle Sea Race. But in fact the 704-mile Round Ireland already has a special place among Europe's more discerning offshore sailors, and the current defending champion is Piet Vroon of the Netherlands with his Ker 46 Tonnere de Breskens.

Leading French offshore racing crews also like to record at least one bash at this classic circuit in their CVs, but as ever the bulk of the entries will come from Irish club sailors who see the Round Ireland as a rite of passage.

However, it is the west coast which has pioneered a new approach with this first university-based entry. The crew of 10, who represent many different areas of study and research in NUIG, will be skippered by Cathal Clarke, and already - despite the late arrival of some pleasant sailing weather - they have been actively training together on the boat.

Pat Morgan, Vice President of the Student Experience at NUI Galway, has voiced the University's active support for the challenge, which accords well with the college's approach to team-building skills and leadership development. The crew lineup is Cathal Clarke (skipper and trimmer), Ben Scallan & Eoghan McGregor (helmsmen), Joan Mulloy & Mark Armstrong (trimmers), Conor Kinsella & Ruaidhri de Faoite (mainsail trimmers), and Eoin Breen & Louis Mulloy (bowmen).

It's back into action for the Volvo Ocean Race boats this weekend at Itajai in Brazil, with the shore crews of damaged contenders working right down to the wire to be ready for today's in-port race. The International Jury have rejected a protest against the sails being carried by overall leader Telefonica, whose skipper Iker Martinez is keen to get on and get the programme completed, as he has recently confirmed that as soon as the Volvo is over in Galway, he is switching attention to becoming Spain's 49er helmsman in the Olympics just four weeks later – he won gold in 2004 and silver in 2008.

The narrowest window of repairs opportunity is being used by Ian Walker's Abu Dhabi, which has Ireland's Justin Slattery as bowman. Having been put aboard ship at Puerto Montt in Chile after sustaining structural damage in the murderous conditions racing across the Southern Ocean from New Zealand, the Walker boat Azzam was only offloaded in Brazil just two days ago. Amateur crews often use hair dryers to speed up the chemical curing of repairs to modern plastic construction, but even in sub-tropical Brazil, this job will have needed several industrial heaters.

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

After more then 7,500 nautical miles of racing from Auckland, starting with a first-night battering as bad as any in the race's history and on through brutal conditions in the Southern Ocean and around Cape Horn, PUMA's Mar Mostro crossed the Itajaí finish in brilliant sunshine at 16:09:51 local time (19:09:51 UTC) Friday April 6, to take their first victory of the 2011-12 edition.

Telefonica crossed at 16:22:29 local after their comeback came up just short.

It was clear by Friday morning that Telefonica were going to give PUMA a real run for their money. A deficit that had stood at hundreds of nautical miles came all the way down to 10, then two and at one stage just 0.7 -- a little over a kilometre -- as Telefonica consistently enjoyed better breeze.

But crucially, while the breeze was light, it remained relatively stable and PUMA were able to avoid the sort of wind hole that cost them so dearly on the first stage of leg 4 from Sanya to Auckland.

Over the final 20 nm, skipper Ken Read kept his rivals at bay over a match race up the coast, putting his boat between Telefonica and flawlessly completing a series of gybes to ensure there would be no final heroics.

It was an extraordinary finish to the battle for first place in a leg that saw five of the six boats forced to stop for repairs.

As of Mon, 09 Apr 2012, 22:05:39 UTC:

1. Puma, Finished

2. Telefonica, FInished

3. Groupama, 72 nm to finish

4. Camper, 2324 nm to finish

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, DNF

Sanya, DNF

More than 400 volunteers signed up at the launch of the Get on Board volunteer recruitment campaign to help out with the Volvo Ocean Race Festival in Galway running from June 30 to July 8 and set to attract a whopping 700,000 visitors according to organisers.

As official education and recruitment partners, NUI Galway and CPL respectively will manage the 1200 volunteer ambassadors needed for Ireland's largest sporting event which will be followed by 3 billion  worldwide.

The eight-day festival to celebrate the arrival of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet across the finish line will include a business showcase called Global Village.

Global Village is a business Expo initiative that will showcase the best of Irish industry under the categories of Innovation, Food, Green and the Marine to an international audience.

In 2009 the Volvo Ocean Race included a Galway stopover which attracted more than 650,000 visitors and generated €65million to the local economy.

That stopover party was managed by a team of 800 volunteers. This year the 1200 volunteer ambassadors will manage the Race Finale and an enlarged programme of cultural, arts, sport, business and entertainment events during the eight-day festival.

#VOLVO OCEAN RACE - Organisers of the Volvo Ocean Race finale in Galway are appealing for 2,000 volunteers to help make the stopover a rousing success.

The eight-day festival of the marine, sport, arts and culture, entertainment and food to celebrate the arrival of the Volvo Ocean Race competitors as they cross the finish line is expected to attract as many as 700,000 visitors to the City of the Tribes from 30 June to 8 July.

Let's Do It Galway are looking for students, retirees and "anyone in the Galway community" willing to commit from two to nine days during the week to take part in what they describe as "a great way to make new friends and boost career prospects while boosting Galway and Ireland in the eyes of the world".

All volunteers will be invited to a special 'wrap-up gala', and organisers also promise prizes and surprises along the way.

Information sessions will take place throughout April and May in and around Galway, and applicants will be matched to roles in early June.

The Galway Independent has more on the story HERE.