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Displaying items by tag: Centre Pier

#GalwayPort - Galway Bay FM reports that the Galway Harbour Company has been given extra time by city councillors for the demolition of buildings in the docks area to make way for the upcoming port expansion.

Planning permission was granted five years ago for the removal of the Centre Pier building, which had been earmarked at the time as the location for a media centre for last summer's Volvo Ocean Race finale.

Now the Galway Harbour Company has three more years as it seeks further planning permission for the first phase of its expansion plans, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

Published in Galway Harbour

About Commander Bill King, Solo Circumnavigator

William Donald Aelian King was the last surviving submarine commander in the Second World War - in charge of the British Navy's T-class Telemachus that sank a Japanese sub in the Strait of Malacca, between Malaysia and Sumatra, in 1944.

Decorated many times for his service by the end of the war, King became a trailblazing solo sailor.

At the age of 58, he was the oldest participant in The Sunday Times Golden Globe Race sailing Galway Blazer II, a junk-rigged schooner he designed himself.

After a number of abortive attempts, including an incident with "a large sea creature", he finally completed his solo circumnavigation of the globe in 1973.

Beyond his aquatic escapades, King settled with his wife Anita (who died in 1984, aged 70) at Oranmore Castle outside Galway after the war, where he later developed a pioneering organic farm and garden to help tackle his wife's asthma.

The round-the-world sailor and Galway native Bill King died on Friday, 21 September, 2012, aged 102.