#TITANIC - Nine Galwegians who travelled on the ill-fated Titanic are being commemorated throughout August by a replica of the ocean liner, as the Galway Advertiser reports.

The 1:10 scale model is on display overlooking Galway Bay at the Atlantaquaria on Salthill promenade, on loan from the village of Addergoole in Mayo which lost 11 of the tragic 'Addergoole Fourteen' in the disaster a century ago.

Six of the nine Galway residents on the ship lost their lives. But among the survivors was a Eugene Patrick Daly, who provided key testimony that painted a fuller picture of what happened on the night of 15 April 1912, and led to the passing of stricter lifeboat laws for passenger vessels.

#MARINE WILDLIFE - An algal bloom off the west coast of Ireland is responsible for significant fish and shellfish kills from Galway to Donegal, according to the Marine Institute.

As The Irish Times reports, as much as 80% of stocks have been affected on Donegal oyster farms, and the bloom is also impacting negatively on angling tourism in the west and northwest.

The algae responsible, karenia mikimotai, occurs naturally in Ireland's coastal waters during the summer months and his harmless to humans, but contains a "toxic irritant" that damages the gills of fish, shellfish and other marine species.

Low-level samples were first detected in May but in the last two weeks it has grown into a dense bloom from Donegal to Mayo, with high levels now being recorded in Galway Bay, according to the Marine Institute's Joe Silke.

"In Donegal the bloom was so dense that there were many reports of discoloured red or brown water in some areas and several areas have reported dead marine life washing up on the shoreline, requiring local authorities to close certain beaches,” he said.

"The bloom affects species that live on or near the sea bed so we are seeing flatfish, lugworms and some shellfish getting washed up on the beaches."

The image evokes memories of the notorious 'red tide' that killed wild fish and shellfish along the west coast in 2005.

Meanwhile, the Marine Insitute said there are "some indications" that the bloom may be moving back out to sea, as observed in the latest satellite images and modelling data.

"However, cell counts of samples analysed in the Marine Institute... show that the bloom is still of the same density in the Donegal and Sligo regions as it was last week."

#VOLVO OCEAN RACE - Sailing runs in the blood of Dun Laoghaire native Pierce Purcell, following a family tradition that goes back for generations.

The new director of the Irish Sailing Association (ISA) has called Galway his home since leaving school in 1970, and has been involved with the Galway Bay Sailing Club (GBSC) since the beginning, as he told the Galway Independent recently.

Purcell is also the proprietor of Purcell Marine in Clarenbridge, a family-run business that began as a sailing school in 1973 before branching out into selling boats and sailing accessories.

“We supply all kinds of chandlery equipment; boats, trailers, and engines, whatever people need," he says.

More recently, Purcell established the Galway Afloat programme to organise rallies and events for owners of smaller boats in the region.

His efforts more than paid off in his organising of the Parade of Sail in Galway Bay ahead of the arrival of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet, which attracted more than 150 boats for the largest event of its kind in the City of the Tribes.

The Galway Independent has more on the story HERE.

#VOLVO OCEAN RACE - Galway will need a strong funding commitment from both the city and the Government if it is to host the Volvo Ocean Race for a third time, according to the organisers of this year's event.

As the Galway Independent reports, John Killeen - president of Let's Do It Global - said that a "different mechanism" of support for the event would be required in future.

"These things have to be underwritten by somebody or sme bigger entity than just a voluntary group," he said. "In terms of funding, that has to be better structured."

Killeen was making reference to the dearth of private sponsorship for the week-long festivities surrounding the arrival of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet that welcomed a "phenomenal number of visitors" to the city, but the cost of which is expected to reach a total of €7 million.

As reported last month on Afloat.ie, Fine Gael Senator Fidelma Healy-Eames called on the people of Galway to help make up the shorthall in support of arts and culture events in the city during the race finale.

As a host port in this year's event, Galway has received an automatic invitation for inclusion in the next race in 2014/2015, with the final decision on port selection to be made by race organisers in December.

Let’s Do It Global CEO Micheline McNamara said financial backing is crucial at the outset of this bid, while chairman Enda O'Coineen emphasised the significant boost to the local economy brought by the VOR stopovers both this year and in 2009.

“The benefit of this isn’t just the short term," said O'Coineen. "This will go on for the next ten years, because it has put Galway and the West of Ireland on the map globally, and it takes a long time for that to filter through."

The Galway Independent has more on the story HERE.

#vor – Thousands of people are expected to throng Salthill and the Galway coastline tomorrow (Saturday, July 7th) to watch some of the  world's fastest and most spectacular sailing boats in action  on Galway Bay – just 600 metres from the shore.

The final In-Port race of the 2011-2012 Volvo Ocean Race series will take place on a course between Salthill and Mutton Island and will according to Harbour Master Captain Brian Sheridan provide  "an

unrivalled opportunity to see the boats being sailed hard at extremely close quarters"

The "Discover Ireland" sponsored race will get under way at 1pm and will last just under an hour.

The start line will be just 900 metres off Salthill close to Palmer's Rock and the boats will get even closer to the shore when they round a race mark just 600 meters south of Mutton Island.

Galway Harbour Master Capt Brian Sheridan says "The view of the boats from Grattan Road all the way through to Salthill will be spectacular"

After the Volvo fleet returns to Galway Harbour, accompanied by a Parade of Sail, the festival atmosphere will continue in Salthill with an Aer Corp air display and an Irish Coastguard/ RNLI air-sea rescue demonstration at about 3pm.

The Aer Corp display will involve formation and solo flights by four Pilatus PC-9M aircraft and an Augusta Westland AW 139 helicopter which will  also take part in a winching operation in conjunction with the naval vessel L.E. Niamh.

A coastguard helicopter will stage another simulated rescue and winching operation in conjunction with the RNLI.

Back in the Race Village in the Harbour huge crowds are also expected to attend the overall prize giving ceremony for the 2011-2012 Volvo Ocean Race on the Main Stage at 6pm.

And the night will be rounded off by one of the highlights of the hugely successful  series of free open air concerts when Sharon Shannon and her 42 piece orchestra take to the stage.

#VOR – Galway's hurling royalty, the Connolly brothers, swapped their sticks for dock shoes today as they joined Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, the Abu Dhabi-backed team in the gruelling round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race, for a sail onboard its Azzam yacht, which means determination in Arabic.

The famous brothers, Joe, John, Padraic and Murth, who – with three other brothers - all won the 1980 All-Ireland Club Championship with Castlegar, also traded team tactics with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing's Irish bowman, Justin Slattery, a three time veteran of the race, and got up close to the outfit's mascot, the majestic Arabian falcon.

Sailing in the Pro-Am precursor to the final points scoring Galway In-Port Race tomorrow, the hurling legends were quick to praise the impressive team work onboard Azzam and wished the sailors luck.

"We know a lot about what it means to be a team, and how you rely on others to find that winning formula, and these guys have that. To sail these boats is incredibly tough and you need everyone at their best, it is great to see. Good luck to the guys tomorrow, we will be cheering Abu Dhabi on," said John Connolly, who led his brothers to a second place finish in the Pro-Am.

The Volvo Ocean Race is in Galway, Ireland for its final stopover after completing 39,000 nautical miles of sailing across five oceans in nine months. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, which hopes to clinch the In-Port Race series with a win tomorrow, is the first Arabian team to compete in the Everest of Sailing since it began in 1973.

Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi), which backs the team, is rolling out the red carpet to woo Irish visitors to the emirate.

Two traditional Arabian sailing dhows were flown into Galway to take part in the celebrations. Travelling with them were 10 Emirati sailors as part of the UAE-Ireland Maritime Heritage Cultural Exchange to highlight social and cultural ties between the destinations. The project was a joint venture by the Galway Hooker Association, which promotes the use of Ireland's traditional 'Hooker' fishing boat and the Emirates Heritage Club.

#VOLVO OCEAN RACE - In final dash of colour and excitement to mark the end of Volvo Ocean Race finale week, two high performance sailing dhows – the distinctive Arabian sailing boats often compared to the famous Galway hookers – will bring an exotic flavour to the City of the Tribes.

The dhows, which are being presented to Galway City by the United Arab Emirates, will race on Galway Bay tomorrow Saturday 7 and on Sunday 8 July, crewed by 10 Emirati sailors who have flown in for the occasion.

The boats were earlier air-freighted from the UAE to Shannon Airport and taken by road to Galway where they were assembled and prepared for their weekend racing display.

The gift of the dhows to Galway is part of a newly inaugurated maritime heritage cultural exchange programme between the Galway Hooker Association and the Emirates Heritage Club in Abu Dhabi that has already seen the famous Nora Bheag and her crew set sail in the Persian Gulf city, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

Padraic De Bhaldraithe, joint co-ordinator of the unusual exchange programme, said: “We were really delighted to take Nora Bheag and her crew to sail in Abu Dhabi and we were amazed by the amount of interest they attracted.

It was to be the first step in a partnership which has now seen two dhows make their way to Galway. Abu Dhabi and Galway have much in common when it comes to their maritime traditions.”

Enda O’Coineen - chairman of Let’s Do It Global, the organising committee of the nine-day festival built around the Volvo Ocean Race finale - says the arrival of the dhows is already creating huge excitement in the city, and the weekend racing should be spectacular.

“Dhows are built on lines similar to the traditional Galway hooker and are capable of very high speeds when raced in the hands of experienced sailors," he explained. “They are often fixed in the western imagination as a romantic Arabian seacraft of the past but they are still used for the transport of goods today and are also undergoing a dramatic revival among sailors in the UAE who don't want to lose their traditional past.”

Clifden-based Dr Peter Vine, who has been closely involved in the Irish-Abu Dhabi partnership, says the 'Dhows for Galway' project has huge potential and could add impetus to the move to revived and foster traditional boat-building skills that were on the verge of dying out.

The exchange programme has been co-ordinated with support of Let’s Do It Global; Emirates Heritage Club; Abu Dhabi Sailing and Yacht Club; Galway Hooker Association, Cóilín Hernon and family; Royal Galway Yacht Club; long-time Irish resident of Abu Dhabi, Noeleen Saeed; Etihad Airways; AlHosn University; Peter Vine; and Padraic De Bhaldraihe.

#VOLVO OCEAN RACE - Former Paralympic sailor and Irish National Helmsman’s Champion Feargal Kinsella will realise the dream of a lifetime when he sails on a round-the-world racing yacht in Galway as part of the Volvo Ocean Race festivities tomorrow Saturday 7 July.

The story of Feargal’s triumph over physical disability has touched the hearts of millions in recent radio and television interviews, and tomorrow morning he will finally get to fulfill one of the ten things he most wants to do in life.

"I just want to get my hands on the helm of one of the fastest and most powerful sailing boats in the world and I am absolutely thrilled that I may be able to do that on Saturday when I will join the crew of the Green Dragon on Galway Bay.”

The Green Dragon was the Chinese-Irish entry in the last Volvo Ocean Race and as part of the festival organised around the arrival of the VOR fleet in Galway, Feargal has been invited to sail it on the bay - fresh off its challenge in this year's Round Ireland Race.

A keen sailor who had sailed in many international sailing events including Fastnet and the Round Ireland Races, Feargal broke his neck in 1996. Looking back at that time. Fergal was convinced he would never sail again.

“After my first spinal injury, in 1996, my life and that of my family were thrown into turmoil. After nine months in hospital, I left in a wheelchair, paralysed from the chest down and convinced I would never sail again,” he said.

However, the Portmarnock man did take up sailing again, competing in the National Disabled Sailing Championship, the ISA Champion of Champions and representing Ireland in the 2004 Paralympics in Athens. He also won the Irish National Helmsman’s Championship in 2001 against able-bodied sailors.

A second spinal injury this Christmas saw Fergal break the fourth, fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae in his spine. Following an operation on Christmas Day, Feargal has spent the last few months at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoighaire recovering.

One of the many things Feargal learned from recovering from his last injury is the importance of having goals.

“They're not all achievable,” he said, “but a person should have something to strive for. In my case, I now have a short list, to which I'm adding as I go, of things that I should most definitely do now that I have been given something of a second chance.”

High on Feargal’s list is sailing on a fast yacht. As he said himself: “The idea of actually having a sail on one of those magnificent sailing machines is just so exciting."

Feargal’s dream will finally come true tomorrow when he takes to the water with the crew of the Green Dragon.

#VOLVO OCEAN RACE - Taoiseach Enda Kenny is currently at the VOR Global Village in Galway to open the International Sustainability Summit on ‘Enabling, Financing and Delivering Sustainable Growth’, ahead of the arrival of the Volvo Ocean Race trophy this afternoon.

The striking blue and silver prize, weighing 9kg and standing 70cm high, will drop from the skies during a spectacular parachute display to be staged by the Air Corps' Black Knights parachute team.
 
The five-member team, carrying the flags of the ten countries that have participated in the race, will parachute from an Augusta Westland AW 139 helicopter to a waterfront landing zone close to the Global Village in South Park at 5pm.
 
The national flags will be displayed in formation on the beach as the helicopter lands to deliver the trophy to Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knud Frostad and John Killeen, president of the local organisers Let’s Do It Global, in the presence of the Taoiseach.
  
The prize-giving ceremony for Leg 9 of the Volvo Ocean Race will take place on the main stage in the Race Village at 5pm.

Skipper Chris Nicholson and the crew of CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand, who crossed the finishing line seven minutes ahead of overall race winners Groupama, will be presented with their prize.

#VOLVO OCEAN RACE - The skies of Galway will explode with colour tonight with a spectacular 4th of July fireworks display to coincide with the Volvo Ocean Race finale.

The event only adds to the celebratory atmosphere in the City of the Tribes after Damian Foxall's Groupama team crossed the finish line with an unassailable lead in the overall points table - marking the first Volvo Ocean Race win for the Kerryman after four attempts.

The Independence Day event is being organised by the US Embassy in Dublin, and will include a parade through the city from Eyre Square to the Global Village at 7pm.

The eight-minute pyrotechnic and musical extravaganza will commence after dark at 10.45pm on Mutton Island, just south of The Claddagh, and will be visible throughout the city - though the prime viewing spits will be South Park, Grattan Road, Dr Colohan Road and anywhere in Salthill.