As the new Commodore of Galway Bay Sailing Club, Paul has his priorities straight for the coming year. He wants to see a more family orientated club, with more room for younger members and fun activities, and less concentrated on competitive sailing.

The long-awaited improvement of Kilronan Harbour has been kicked off, with the signing of the contract between Galway County Council and Ascon Ltd for the harbour redevelopment.

GBSC member Kevin Heery and his crew have just completed the ARC transatlantic race on the 'Sabrina'. According to Club PRO Margaret Donohoe, Kevin is the first Galway sailor to complete this race.

A male striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba), live-stranded at Claddagh beach, near Galway city last Wednesday, 5 December. Galway Atlantaquaria received a call from a member of the public early on Wednesday morning and an aquarist from the centre, having communicated with the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group went to Claddagh Beach where there was a small crowd gathered.

Coming from the coastal village of An Cheathrú Rua, journalist and broadcaster Rónán Mac Con Iomaire says he has always been interested in the sea. "I was fortunate enough in that my father bought a 27ft Galway Hooker, or gleoiteog, in the mid-eighties called Maggie, and along with my brother, we used to spend much of the summer participating in the various regattas around Conamara and Kinvara." Rónán is currently one of the chief organisers of Féile an Dóín, Ireland's largest Galway Hooker festival.

A student of marine science and a lover of all things marine since he was a child, Paul Ruigrok has recently become auditor of the NUIG Marine Society and is determined to revitalise the flagging organisation.

The Galway Bay Sailing Club held its annual laying up supper last Saturday, 25 November, at the Ardilaun Hotel in Salthill.

A must-have for seafarers of all shapes and sizes and anyone who goes down to the sea, is the just-published, pocket-sized Tide Tables 2008 for the Republic of Ireland, the only one of its kind.

Diving for buried treasure and excavating shipwrecks sounds like the stuff of 'Treasure Island', but Eoghan Kieran does it for a living. While he hasn't yet found any treasure during his years as a marine archaeologist, it's clear that he gets a great kick out of his unusual career.