Members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security last week visited Galway for detailed briefings on the Marine Institute's study on climate change and the Atlantic Ocean.

Sail Team Ireland West launched its bid for success in the 2000 Round Ireland Yacht Race on Monday night in the Discover Ireland Centre, Forster St.

Galway Bay Sailing Club's biggest-ever sailing event will be held over the week-end of Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 May at the clubhouse in Renville, Oranmore. The Volvo Connacht Optimist Sailing Championship is being sponsored by Kenny Galway, main Volvo agents and is also being supported by the Marine Institute. The event was launched last Thursday at a reception in the Kenny Showrooms, Tuam Road.

Originally from Salthill, Charlie Brehony qualified as an electrician and spent some years working in England after leaving school in the 1980s.

Upcoming marine events in the Galway area.

With all the recent bad news in relation to job cuts and redundancies, it is reassuring to learn that at least one industry is still crying out for good, qualified workers. Bow Waves, Galway's Sail and Powerboat School, is finding it difficult to locate instructors and this year it seems to be a nationwide problem.

The third joint Search and Rescue competition between the Irish Coast Guard and HM Coastguard Northern Ireland took place in Howth over the weekend.

Details of the coastal protection programme, 2008, were announced last week by Minister of State John Browne.

Docks-based sailing school Bow Waves is to hold a meeting of interested parties to discuss proposals to ban jetskis and other power craft from the county's waterways.

With preparations underway in Galway for the city's hosting of the Volvo Ocean Race next summer, the green team's boat is ready to go.