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Hello and welcome aboard Seascapes your maritime programme on this weeks edition we’ll be hearing about next weekends Irish Sailing Association Awards Ball and their National Conference where the support team of the ISA Olympic programme- physio Mark McCabe ; and psychologist Kate Kirby will be sharing their secrets for physical and mental readiness for the season ahead for FREE for all ISA Members - and Olympic sailor Matt McGovern will talk about the highs and lows of London 2012 and how they have prepared him for his Rio 2016 campaign; we mark the passing of Eileen Cleary from Ventry who witnessed the rescue of Greek sailors aboard the DIAMANTIS by a German U Boat U 35 off the coast of Cornwall plus Hal Sisk with another gem on yachting history ...first this week to our Galway Studios where Features Editor Gery Flynn has all the gen on whats in the latest edition of Inshore Ireland magazine.....

Try not to miss the final episode in the current run of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s “Fish Fight – Save Our Seas “ on Channel 4 television – do you have a view on the state of our fisheries are the days of our entire fishing fleet around our coast numbered ........drop Seascapes a line to Seascapes , RTE Radio 1 , Fr Mathew Street, Cork or email seascapes@rte.ie

At the ISA Conference on Saturday next 2nd March, the support team of the ISA Olympic programme will be sharing their secrets for physical and mental readiness for the season ahead for FREE for all ISA Members.

ISA Olympic Team Physio Mark McCabe will deliver a no-nonsense workshop on Strength & Conditioning and ISA Team Psychologist Kate Kirby will discuss how mental factors can influence performance.

Also not to be missed Olympic 49er sailor Matt McGovern will talk about the highs and lows of London 2012 and how it prepared him for his Rio 2016 campaign.

Starting from 11.15 in the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire this seminar will prepare all competitive sailors for the season ahead. Reserve your place for free on www.sailing.ie

Where you can find out a lot more about the conference and sailing around and on this island ......

Galway Bay Sailing Club were in touch about a series of Spring Talks in their clubhouse over the coming weeks – the talks are free ......and start at 8.30pm

On next Wednesday 27th of February the crew of the Round Ireland campaign from NUI Galway will relate their story.... ....and on the 6th March -Nick Kats tells of his experience sailing from Clifden to Greenland & back. Those talks in Galway Bay Sailing Club start at 8.30 pm at the Clubhouse Directions to the club are generally to follow the signs for the Marine Institute near Oranmore outside the city.....

The European Union will co-finance a project to raise a series of bridges on the AlbertCanal in the Belgian region of Flanders to allow taller barges and ships access to this key waterway. The project, which will also enlarge a section of the Canal, benefits from a TEN-T Programme contribution of over €3 million and is part of a wider series of improvements on the AlbertCanal to allow for increased container traffic.

The AlbertCanal, the most important waterway in the Belgian region of Flanders, has a transport capacity of ±40 million tonnes (mostly in the form of container traffic), connecting the cities of Antwerp and Liège, and the Scheldt and Meuse rivers.

The project will be managed by the Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency and is set to be completed by the end of 2014. You can read more about this project on the Seascapes webpage……..

On the 3rd October in 1939 the German U Boat U 35 captained by Werner Lott sank the Greek merchant vessel the Diamantis off the coast of Cornwall – the U Boat Captain rescued all twenty eight from the wreck and made the voyage for neutral shores to Ventry – the story of this rescue made the front cover of LIFE Magazine ...we visit the Seascapes archive as just last week we learnt of the passing of Eileen Cleary who witnessed the arrival of the Greek sailors on the morning of the 4th October 1939 as a young girl... The Ventry Historical Society marked the event in October of 2009 with a special ceremony attended by the Mayor of Oinoussai Islands descendants of the crew of the Diamantis and the German Ambassador to Ireland at the time Dr Busso von Abensleden ...

The Nautical Institute has this week launched Numerical Weather Prediction – a practical guide for mariners aimed at explaining the benefits and limitations of numerical weather prediction (NWP) so that mariners can get the most out of it and confidently rely on it for safe operations.

NWP has significantly improved the accuracy of weather forecasts and enabled the development of services specifically for mariners, including routeing advice and forecasts as ECDIS overlays. However, statistics from the International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) indicate that the leading cause of total loss of shipping between 1996 and 2010 was weather. Between 2006 and 2010, weather accounted for 45% of total losses.

Effective use of weather forecasting offers the possibility of improving both safety and commercial efficiency. The publication of this guide is in line with The Nautical Institute’s Strategic Plan for 2011-2015, which identified the needs of the seafarer as key to the development of eNavigation.

Next
Friday night on Seascapes - Where the
Land Meets the Sea – with author Anna
Ryan from the School of Architecture at the University of Limerick ; Dick
Robinson and the tale of a close call at
Baginbun Head off Dunmore East ; Irish Seabirds and the
latest edition of Wings from Bird Watch Ireland ; all
this and much more so until next Friday night here on Seascapes tight lines and
fair sailing