On March 11, skipper Charlie Enright and his 11th Hour Racing Team sailed a staggering 586.36 nautical miles in a 24-hour push aboard their IMOCA 60 Mālama. The team was in the wind-swept depths of the Southern Ocean, west of Australia’s Cape Leeuwin, en route from Cape Town, South Africa. It was headed to Itajaí, Brazil, on The Ocean Race’s mammoth 12,750-nautical-mile Leg Three, and conditions were perfect. In fact, the team temporarily owned the unofficial 24-hour world record for a crewed IMOCA 60, but its pace was bettered some 24 hours later by skipper Kevin Escoffier and his HOLCIM-PRB team (it’s now 595.26 nautical miles). Records aside, there’s a difference between these two monohulls that’s far more important: impact quantification. It will affect far more than speed across a few nautical miles. It has the potential to change the future of sailing, and that of humanity.

The 11th Hour Racing Team’s website summarizes the team’s goals for this year’s race: “The only thing more important than winning is leaving a positive impact.” Achieving that goal began with Mālama’s design and build process, the latter of which took place at CDK Technologies in Port La Forêt, France. The team worked alongside the global-sustainability firm Anthesis Group to optimize the MarineShift360 life-cycle assessment tool. It’s specific to the marine industry, and it can model carbon footprints, water-consumption requirements, and greenhouse-gas emissions for different design and build options. 

MarineShift360 is now publicly available online, giving owners, designers, naval architects, project managers, and production-boat builders a way to look at how materials, construction methods, energy sources, and more might lower the impact of a new build or a refit. As more people use MarineShift360, their data is imported into its growing database, making the tool even stronger.

“The MarineShift360 tool isn’t specific to the racing sector. It’s very much for the broader marine sector,” says Damian Foxall, 11th Hour Racing’s sustainability program manager (and a six-time Volvo Ocean Race veteran). “It’s based on a standard LCA inventory, which is used by multiple industries, and then it’s been improved through specific pilot-user input.” 

Users can choose among three subscriptions available for MarineShift360: free, professional and enterprise.

“Free users are limited to creating a single project and single assessment, so they could model a single component, like a hull, for instance, but they would not be able to model the complete boat or compare the impact of using different materials in the construction,” says Ollie Taylor, associate director at Anthesis Group. “If you wanted to understand the complete cradle-to-grave impact of your vessel, you would need to purchase one of the subscription options.”

All three versions are based around a deep list of information prompts—either drop-down menus or fields where metrics can be entered—that numerically describe the project. These information prompts vary, depending on the project’s size, type and construction methodology. They range from the specific materials and quantities to the sources and quantities of electricity, gas, and water required to produce the raw material and transform it into a finished product.

Impact quantification will affect far more than speed across a few ­nautical miles. It has the potential to change the future of sailing, and that of humanity.

While the hull material represents boatbuilding’s single biggest environmental impact, there are plenty of other important impact sources to consider, such as resins, metals, rare minerals, and coatings and paints.

“It is a simple enough process, collating the input data from the manufacturer, but it is an intensive undertaking,” Foxall says, adding that the tool can be used by everyday boaters as well as corporate sustainability officers who can likely realize added benefits (read: preparing your own taxes versus hiring an accountant). “The results are only going to be as good as the data that you put into it.”

Once these values are imported, the ­system calculates impacting factors, including greenhouse-gas emissions, ­electricity consumption, water use and waste percentages. Users can then adjust their input variables to identify the ­project’s environmental hotspots.

“Any single decision that you make will have a knock-on effect,” Foxall says. “This is where the LCA tool is really useful ­because it will take into account the ­overall process.”

While greenhouse-gas emissions drive much of the environmental conversation, MarineShift360 can also quantify other impacts. This includes the water that’s used directly in the manufacturing plant and—if the right data has been imported into the database—the water consumed to grow trees, flax and other organic ­materials, which are then shipped to a different area to be incorporated into a manufactured product.

It’s important to use multiple indicators. There’s no single perfect solution to this. It really depends on finding the right balance. We need to look at all of these issues through multiple lenses. 

For example, carbon fiber has one of the heaviest CO₂e and energy-consumption footprints of all contemporary ­boatbuilding materials; however, its ­consumed-water footprint is ­significantly less than that of flax or wood. So if someone looked at a proposed project only through the lens of water consumption, rather than studying the big-picture impacts, information would be missing.

“This is why it’s so important to use multiple indicators,” Foxall says. “There’s no single perfect solution to any of this, and it really depends on finding the right balance. We need to look at all of these issues through multiple lenses.”

Foxall also says that it’s essential to ­focus on the owner’s (or boatbuilder’s) goals and values for the project. Key criteria need to be defined.

“What do we think are important in the decision-making process?” he says, pointing as an example to the choice between plastic bottles and glass jars. The former may be made from oil, but the latter has a higher carbon footprint, given the amount of energy required for its production and transportation. “I think we all prefer to use glass bottles to plastic bottles, but if you were to purely look at it through a carbon-emissions lens, you wouldn’t come to that conclusion. So again, it’s about understanding what lens we’re using and why we are making the decisions.”

One of the most important decisions involves deciding whether to build something new or to reuse something. MarineShift360 uses a 100+0 model for this equation. The original owner effectively owns 100 percent of the project’s environmental impacts, while secondhand buyers enjoy an impact-free boat (excluding any refitting work). This can be a consideration for anyone who is debating building a new yacht versus refitting.

This is also where the words “quality” and “durability” enter the conversation. Few people will waste time or treasure refitting an old, cheaply built boat, but brokers typically don’t have to work too hard to sell an older, higher-quality build.

“The next lens to use is ‘better,’” Foxall says. “Better might mean a better ­manufacturing process, where we’re using fewer disposables.” It could also mean ­using recycled carbon fiber in molds, adding higher-quality materials, and leveraging as much renewable energy and recycled materials as possible.

Production-boat builders may have ­different goals and values than an ­individual building her dream cruising yacht, but larger-scale operations can often magnify impact reductions beyond what a single yacht could ever realize.

As an example, Foxall says, ­production lines can switch to reusable silicone bagging from single-use plastic-intensive vacuum bagging. Or they can build a high-quality mold for hundreds, possibly thousands, of use cycles.

“The LCA tool allows you to describe what you are building and the process associated with it, within the context of the manufacturing site, allowing you to make smart decisions,” Foxall says.

While the benefits associated with the MarineShift360 LCA tool are obvious, there are some inherent challenges. As Foxall mentioned, the results hinge on the quality of the data that’s entered and how granularly accurate the information is. For example, are generic numbers being used to describe a piece of equipment? Or has the equipment’s manufacturer supplied exact metrics?

“In an LCA process, you’re always going to have a certain amount of averaging and best-available data,” Foxall says. “What is important is to establish a consistent reference point.”

As more users supply MarineShift360 with accurate metrics, the tool should continue to become more accurate. So if you’re considering building a new boat or refitting an existing hull, start entering the data that describes your dream. Odds are excellent that you will improve your project and that your great-great-great grandchildren will thank you.

And, as evidenced by Mālama’simpressive run, you won’t have to sacrifice speed, performance or offshore capabilities.

“At the end of the day, the LCA is just a number,” Foxall says. “The question is: What do you do with that number?”

David Schmidt is a lifelong sailor and writer. He has worked with Cruising World since 2015, he regularly contributes to Yachting and Sailing World, he’s the North American editor of sail-world.com, and he’s a sailing contributor to The New York Times. He and his wife live in Bellingham, Washington. 

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Rain, sun, hot days, cold nights, freezing temperatures, even snow and hail—yikes the elements can be hard on wood that’s left outdoors for months or years at a time by design.

We sailors know all too well the toll that the elements can take on the exterior wood that adorns our boats, which is why for centuries those who could afford it have chosen teak for its durability in topsides applications and for its natural good looks, resistance to rot, and strength when used for furniture and structural panels belowdecks.

“Teak loves water,” says Mal Haddad, vice president of Westminster Teak, a high-end furniture design and manufacturing company based in Live Oak, Florida. Haddad notes that it’s those very qualities appreciated by sailors that make teak an ideal choice for outdoor furniture at home, no matter where you live. Left with its natural finish, oil rises to the surface of the wood, its high oil content and relatively low coefficient of thermal expansion means teak can withstand large swings in temperature. In other words, it can be left outdoors year-round, even in snow-covered regions, without the wood warping, shrinking or expanding.

Haddad, with a background in industrial and ocean engineering, grew up in Singapore, where as a boy he was surrounded by exotic woods—especially teak—at the shipyard where his father built oceangoing tugs. After attending college here in the States, Haddad worked as a consultant to telecommunications companies and traveled extensively, but as a hobby, he began to design and build teak furniture, eventually opening a studio and gallery in Florida that was tailored to interior designers and other furniture makers. It was at the studio that he met Jim TenBroeck, who founded Westminster Teak in 1997. It took some persuasion, Haddad said, but eventually, 16 years ago, he brought his design skills to the company full time as vice president. Today, many of the designs in Westminster’s catalog are his.

And on the subject of design, Haddad is passionate. Because of teak’s longevity, furniture built from it will last years longer than pieces made from metals such as aluminum, or even plastics, he says. So, Westminster favors timeless styles that won’t fall in and out of favor, depending on the trend of the day. Several of Westminster’s designs date back to the company’s early days, and new models are introduced only after a lot of thought has gone into them.

Besides having a large collection of teak furniture of his own, Haddad says that he also collects bowls—not only as art, but as utensils that he uses around the house. Comparing bowls to furniture, he says: “It is an object you live with … and love! That’s good design.”

In the marine industry, recently the trend in production-boat building has been to find teak alternatives for decks, trim and interiors. This is due in part to cost, but also because of concerns about the availability and sustainability of the wood itself.

Haddad, though, is equally passionate about the environmental benefits and sustainability of properly grown and harvested teak. From the outset, Westminster has had a strategic partnership with an Indonesian factory that was the first to join Nusa Hijau, the Indonesian chapter of the Global Forest Trade Network. All its teak comes from sustainably harvested plantations in Java, Indonesia. Those plantations are managed by the Ministry of Forestry, Perum Perhutani, and every process of the teakwood, from forest to retail floor, is monitored and certified by third party technical organizations. Sustainability, he adds, also means making sure workers both in the plantations and in the factories are treated fairly and paid a living wage.

When people think of teak, Haddad says, they often think of luxury yachts and the lustrous, rich look of high-gloss varnished teak furniture and trim. That, says Haddad, is fine for wealthy owners who can afford to hire crew to cover chairs and tables when they’re not being used, or to frequently sand and revarnish rails and whatnot.

But teak, he says, will do just fine on its own if left unfinished outdoors and allowed to weather over time and develop a handsome silvery gray patina—a look that he says he prefers as it complements beautifully with the landscape of the outdoors , and often what is found aboard yachts with teak decks.

Upkeep is minimal, he says. All you need to do is wash down the teak a couple of times a year with dish soap and water, using a soft-bristle scrub brush to remove airborne dirt and the like. Don’t, he says, oil the teak for outdoor use, because moisture can find its way under the surface and cause mold or mildew that will stain the wood and difficult to remove. 

His advice for a homeowner: Invest in good-quality, well-designed outdoor furniture. Sit in it and enjoy its look and feel because it will be with you for a good long time.

For more information about Westminster Teak, visit their website at westminsterteak.com.

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Over forty years ago, when my husband and I embarked on our five-year sailing adventure to circumnavigate the globe, the world was a different place. I was a different person. 

During ocean passages back then, we often saw swarms of flying fish and vast pods of dolphins that sometimes stretched from one horizon to the other. Coral reefs we explored were vibrant and home to a mind-boggling diversity of sea creatures. It was easy to find a good-sized fish to spear for dinner, and trolled lines usually scored a catch, even for fisher know-nothings like us. 

Weather forecasts were rarely available, so when it came time to cross an ocean, we departed on a nice day, oblivious of what the weather gods might be brewing along our route. Our primary source of weather guidance was the compilations of weather logs tallied by decades of roaming seafarers: the wind roses displayed on ocean routing charts.

When we began that voyage in 1980, I had completed three years of college toward a career in dentistry, relegating my love of all things weather to hobby status. A meteorological profession just seemed too impractical and unorthodox. But after spending five years cruising—thwarted, propelled, battered, and enthralled by daily weather conditions—I realized that the atmosphere was my calling. 

After the trip, I returned to school in 1985 to pursue a degree in meteorology with an emphasis on the Arctic. Why the inhospitable, cruising-unfriendly Arctic, you might ask? We had spent one summer exploring the high-latitudes north of Scandinavia: Norway, Svalbard, Jan Mayen Island and Iceland. Weather information was either non-existent or mostly useless, so I figured Arctic forecasting might be a worthwhile focus for my weather career. Plus, it’s an intriguing part of the globe that challenges scientific understanding with its complex interactions among winds, ice floes, ocean currents and harsh terrain.

While I was pursuing my meteorological studies at San Jose State University in the late 1980s, climate change was not yet widely recognized as a public crisis. That said, a few scientists had begun to ring warning bells about the effects of heat-trapping gases—the waste products from burning oil, coal and gas—on global temperatures and precipitation patterns. Even the fossil fuel companies acknowledged that burning their products would warm and disrupt the global climate. 

It wasn’t until late in my journey toward a PhD in atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington that the collective groundswell of scientists’ anxiety surged about the destructive impacts of the changing climate. The Arctic in particular was already showing signs of the long-predicted, wholesale transformation of that region. Sea ice was disappearing, high-latitude temperatures were soaring, the Arctic system as we knew it was coming apart at the seams. Change was happening much faster and sooner than elsewhere on the globe. This blatant evidence of human-caused climate change spurred me to set my research sights on understanding how and why it was happening, as well as its impacts on other aspects of the climate system. Whenever and wherever we cruised, my antennae were tuned to detect changes, both expected and unexpected. 

Fast forward to July 2009, we again set sail, but this time on a “family sabbatical year” of cruising with our two tweenagers. Saphira, an Atlantic 55 catamaran designed by Chris White, carried us on a circuit from New England to a summer in the Bras d’Or Lakes, then southward to Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Colombia and Panama, followed by a northward turn up the east coast of Central America via Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Yucatan, Key West, Bahamas and back home. Along the way I noticed many changes. 

During our offshore passages, I wondered what happened to the large pods of dolphins and fleets of flying fish? While diving in Bermuda, it seemed the reefs were much less vibrant with life and color. Maybe it was due to hurricane damage, or, were rising ocean temperatures and pollution to blame? Some beaches in the BVI didn’t look anything like photos in cruising guides: once idyllic white sand was replaced by rocky shores. Beach sand does come and go with bouts of big swells, but the pervasiveness suggested erosion caused by sea-level rise could be at least partly responsible.

As we cruised through the San Blas Islands of Panama, my antennae picked up incontrovertible evidence of climate change. In several locations, our two-year-old charts indicated the existence of a small island. We found instead that the island had disappeared, replaced by a sand shoal completely submerged below the surface. While sea levels had risen only about 7 inches on average around the globe, the low-lying, unstable sand islets that make up the San Blas can be easily eroded even with only small changes in water height. 

Elsewhere in the islands were obvious signs of substantial erosion, as roots of trees and shrubs were exposed along their shores, and many coconut palms had toppled into the sea. In the western islands at least, sea life seemed greatly depleted and many beaches were buried in plastic garbage transported by the trade winds from the east. The primitive homes of the indigenous Guna people perched inches above normal high water, and already they contended with regular flooding. Altogether, it was a disturbing scene. I wondered how many more years the Guna could inhabit these islands where they’ve lived for centuries. 

That was 2009. More than a decade has passed, and my husband and I recently returned to the cruising life. Eight months a year we live on our new catamaran, another Chris White design also named Saphira. The pandemic prevented us from cruising to as many of the Caribbean islands as we had planned, but we have been able to return to the Bahamas, Virgin Islands, Lesser Antilles, Bonaire and Curacao. 

The news, I’m afraid, is even more disturbing. Coral reefs in the Virgin Islands, Bahamas, and northeast Caribbean islands (St. Martin, Antigua, Barbuda) have further declined. Most upsetting was our return to Conception Island in the Bahamas, a national park with no inhabitants or development. Back in 2010 we delighted in snorkeling around magnificent mushroom-shaped coral structures over 100 feet in diameter, seemingly growing out of a sea of perfect white sand in water so clear it was invisible. An astonishing variety of fish and sea creatures lived in the coral’s knobs and crevasses. Ten years later, in 2020, we returned to the very same coral mushrooms, excited for another chance to see these hives of sea life. But what we found instead were corpses; lifeless mounds of dead coral covered in a thick layer of brown algae. Only a few sergeant majors and barred jacks patrolled the area. 

It was hard to hold back tears. I knew the earth’s coral reefs were struggling, but this blatant transformation from brimming life to utter death felt personal and terrifying. Because Conception Island had no development, it seemed unlikely that pollution could have destroyed these thriving colonies. According to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch program, the main culprits are rising ocean temperatures and disease, aided and abetted by overfishing.  

The news is not all bad. Our southward heading brought us to Bonaire and Curacao, where the corals are still healthy and teaming with life. Cruising friends report healthy reefs in parts of the Windward Islands, as well. These relatively healthy reef systems, along with local efforts to grow new coral colonies, can help restore this vital ecosystem, but only if we give them a chance. Further warming caused by emissions of heat-trapping gases produced mainly by burning fossil fuels must decline dramatically and rapidly, or else cruisers will encounter more and worsening impacts of these gases. 

Not only are oceans warming, but they are also becoming more acidic as they absorb carbon dioxide from the air, which is converted to carbonic acid in salt water. Higher acidity stresses marine creatures that form hard shells from dissolved calcium carbonate, such as corals and mollusks. Climate scientists like myself have known for many decades that increased greenhouse gases would have these impacts, and we’re now learning about the many ways that a warmer earth will cause stronger storms and more frequent extreme weather events of many kinds. Recent Atlantic hurricane seasons have shown us a glimpse of the future, with higher numbers of major tropical storms, more cases of rapid intensification, and heavier rainfall when they come ashore. 

We cruisers are acutely attuned to our surroundings, from weather and sea state to currents and marine life. We are also on the front lines of the impacts of a changing climate. As my husband and I continue to explore the planet by boat, I expect to see ever-clearer evidence of the monumental changes resulting from human activities to date. My research will continue to focus on uncovering details of why these changes occur and which regions will be affected.

Governments, businesses, and individuals can (and must) work together to reduce carbon emissions, curtail overfishing, prohibit harmful coastal development, and restore devastated marine life. The cruising community can help by getting the word out, volunteering in local efforts to repair and prevent damage, advocating for action, and minimizing our own impacts on the beautiful coasts we are so fortunate to visit. 

Jennifer Francis is acting deputy director and senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Mass.

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Sustainable Sailing: Teams in The Ocean Race Competing to Win, and to Save the Planet

11th Hour Racing’s MarineShift360 gives owners and builders a powerful new tool to create more-sustainable boats.

Sustainable Boating: Dive Into New Ways to Keep It Green

Check out electric motors, repurposed sails and reef-safe sunscreens, and reduce single-use plastics on board.

Be Part of The Sailing Museum

The Sailing Museum is offering a unique experience for sailors to be part of the exhibit experience.

Green Wakes: Upcycling Old Sailing Gear

When a pair of foul weather bibs were no longer waterproof, this crafty sailor turned them into provisioning totes.

Five Ways to Prevent Food Waste Aboard

Here are some simple things to keep in mind that can have an impact on your food budget, on board trash, and even the planet.

A Green Guide for the Sea of Cortez

While anchored in San Carlos, Mexico, this young sailor learned ways to protect the fragile environment of this beautiful and ecologically diverse body of water.

Sail Green Across the Atlantic

How one couple sailed across the Atlantic in comfort without using any fossil fuels.

Editor’s Log: Build to Trash It

What do you do with all the old boats to make way for new ones, and how do you design new models so they can be disposed of when no longer useful?

Cruising Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest

Wonders abound, at sea and onshore, on a wilderness cruise through coastal British Columbia.

Sail Green: Sustainable Escapes

What charter companies are doing to lessen their environmental impact at their base locations.

Green Wakes: Fiberglass Boat Recycling

A pilot project in Rhode Island is exploring ways to keep old fiberglass hulls out of landfills.

Green Wakes: 10 Ways to Reduce Waste Aboard

Here are some simple things you can do to lessen the amount of trash on your boat and ease your environmental burden.

Changes on the Gulf of Maine

The Gulf of Maine’s changing environment comes into perspective as a father, son and nephew reach across its wind-swept waters.

Journey Through the Northwest Passage: The Ice is in Charge

The crew of DogBark! makes the tough decision to turn around when the ice conditions prevent a transit of the Northwest Passage this season.

Journey Through the Northwest Passage: Cat and Mouse

The crew of DogBark! plays a waiting game with the ice and wind.

Journey Through the Northwest Passage: Arctic Circle Party

The journey continues as the crew of DogBark! reaches the arctic circle.

More Sail Green

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In Costa Rica, a wooden ship is being built. The keel foundation is laid, milled timbers are drying and a skilled team from around the world is gathering at SailCargo Inc.‘s so-called “jungle shipyard.” The ambitious undertaking, which has been watched by the international community for nearly two years, is finally bearing fruit.

Ceiba (pronounced “say-bah”) will be a three-masted square-topsail schooner designed to carry cargo. By drawing special attention to the business plan, initial skeptics have already been subdued: SailCargo has secured letters of intent from clients, ranging from several countries, who are eager to employ the ship’s services of emission-free cargo as soon as possible.

As one future client, Kent Goodwin, founder of Canadian bean-to-bar chocolate company Organic Fair, stated, “Ceiba is the missing link in my otherwise sustainable supply chain.”

In three to four years, the 150-foot Ceiba will ply the Pacific waters of the Americas.

The ship will carry organic avocado oil, ethically sourced green coffee, raw cacao beans and Canadian barley, used for the craft-beer market. Ceiba will be able to carry approximately 250 tons and up to 350 cubic meters of freight, with more space available on deck.

This project is funded entirely by individuals investing in shares, which begin at just $100.

For more information, or to support the project or join the team, contact info@sailcargo.org.

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When we sailed into Savusavu, Fiji, on our 41-foot Tartan, Hotspur, I had no idea we’d soon be lending our hands (and fingers) to help replenish one of Earth’s most impressive ecosystems. But when our 15-year-old daughter, Carolyne, and I received an invitation to join some local middle school students in learning about the importance of mangroves and even planting some seedlings, I added the two-day function to her home-school lesson plan.

On the first day, we arrived at a small public school and took a seat in the dark classroom. The speaker, Cassie Gann, of Nawi Island’s Mangrove Rehabilitation Program, flipped a switch and the slide projector glowed. Gann explained how mangroves not only serve as living sea walls, acting as a barrier against wave action, but how they also remove large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air. “Coastal mangrove forests can store five times more carbon than tropical rainforests,” she told the class.

I was surprised to learn that mangrove wood is resistant to rot and insects, thereby providing excellent building material in tropical climates. I also learned that many cultures extract dyes and medicines from the bark and leaves.

The day following the ­lecture, buses rolled into Savusavu from surrounding villages, carrying 250 excited 13-year-old school­children. With their bright yellow PFDs snugged tight, they took a boat ride across Nakama Creek to Nawi Island. Carolyne and I joined the group, which gave us a warm welcome ashore in a bure, a cabin built of dogo, or black mangrove wood.

At low tide, the mass of giddy teens trekked to the backside of the island. Out of the tree line, a sandy shelf emerged as barren as the moon’s surface. Seawater flanked one side of the spit, and bushy mangrove shrubs the other. The salt breeze carried the boys and girls’ excited chatter as they scattered across the soggy sand.

The morning sun sparkled on the moist turf, and the children formed long lines across the spit of land. Down each row, volunteers passed green woven palm-leaf baskets containing red and black mangrove propagules (seedlings). The children plucked handfuls of daku, or mangrove pods, and pressed them upright in holes they poked in the silt with their fingers. When the students finished planting, 4,500 mangrove propagules emerged from the once-desolate sand.

This is the second year that local youngsters have gathered to help plant mangrove seedlings while learning about the tree’s significance in protecting bays, creating minerals and nutrients for marine life, and harboring homes for native species, like the megabat (Fiji’s large fruit bat). Having cruised for the past eight years, we’ve learned a lot about reducing our carbon footprint. And on Nawi Island, we helped to plant the seed.

— Meri Faulkner

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Once all the paperwork was done and the foundations were installed on the bottom of the ocean, it took only about a month for the first offshore wind turbines to become fully erected. And then, they were there: five of them, all in a line, standing watch over Rhode Island’s Block Island Sound like Don Quixote’s giants, spinning around and around with 240-foot-long blades to produce what will eventually become 90 percent of Block Island’s energy supply in the next few years.

And should all go well with these five wind turbines, there’s already a plan in place for the next chapter of offshore wind energy. Deepwater Wind, the company responsible for building the first five offshore wind turbines ever constructed in United States waters, has already announced that it intends to build another 200 turbines in Rhode Island waters over the next five years.

Deepwater Wind isn’t the only company in America aiming to capitalize on the rise of the offshore wind industry. The federal government recently awarded 11 leases off the coastlines of New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and Virginia for the purpose of companies building more wind turbines. In California, another company, called Trident Winds, has just started working on a project to create 100 “floating offshore wind systems” (FOWs, as they’re called).

What does all this mean for sailors traveling through these waters?

All Eyes on Britain

If there’s one country that the United States is paying attention to when it comes to offshore wind power, it’s the United Kingdom. As of 2015, at last count there were 1,650 wind turbines in U.K. waters — 175 of them alone in the London Array, the largest offshore wind farm in the world. In 2008, after the United Kingdom overtook Denmark to become the world leader in offshore wind power, it was estimated that it possessed over a third of Europe’s total offshore wind resources. With all that potential, it’s no wonder the country is building up its capacity as quickly as it can.

Helping in the process is the Royal Yachting Association, which for many years has facilitated the conversation between recreational sailors and the offshore wind industry.

“Our feedback to date from our members is that they haven’t had any problems sailing through wind farms,” said RYA cruising manager Stuart Carruthers in an interview with U.K. magazine Yachting Monthly in 2012. “But it should be stressed that the wind farms we’re talking about are limited to 10 square kilometers and a maximum of 30 turbines, so the experience from that isn’t a direct read across to some of the bigger projects that are being produced.”

In 2015, the RYA published a list of recommendations about how wind-farm developers can minimize collisions by maintaining a minimum height for where turbine blades can pass. The list also called for a standardized layout of rows and columns for all wind farms.

“The RYA is representing to the developers through the government the need to maintain proper marking, to make sure exclusion zones are not put in place around wind farms, and that they meet minimum design parameters for rotor height and charted depth so that should you choose to sail through them, you still can,” said Carruthers.

X Marks the Spot

For many sailors in New England, the Block Island Wind Project hearkens back to memories of the failed Cape Wind venture from the early 2000s. Controversy erupted when developers proposed the construction of 130 turbines off Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound. Opposition came from nearly every side: fishermen, American Indian groups, and property owners concerned that wind turbines would ruin their view.

A common billboard held up by protesters read, “Right Idea, Wrong Place!” That message spoke to the opinion that wind energy was the correct move, but Horseshoe Shoal was a terrible place to erect more than 100 turbines. But where does one place a wind farm so everyone is happy?

To answer this question, Rhode Island created the Ocean Special Area Management Plan and invited numerous user groups, including recreational sailors, to come forward and identify areas of the ocean they frequented. Because of their proximity to Block Island, officials from the local Storm Trysail Club were invited to share their expertise. Members of the community identified major routes used by the cruising community as well as areas where buoy races frequently occur.

Call it smart ocean planning or simply due diligence, but many feel that the Block Island Wind Project sailed through the federal permitting process because it worked so closely with the people who use the waters so frequently. Everyone from the Lobstermen’s Association to the United States Navy was brought into the process to give as much insight as possible about the prospective sites for the wind farm.

Impact on Cruisers

Offshore of Block Island, the United States Coast Guard established a 500-yard safety zone around each of the wind-­turbine foundations while they were being constructed. Now that the turbines have been completed, however, boats are free to transit as close to the wind turbines as they wish, provided no maintenance is ongoing.

“There is no safety zone or exclusion zone when the project is in operation,” says Meaghan Wims, from Deepwater Wind. “Now that the turbines are constructed, those restrictions are no longer intact. Boats are free to roam.”

If you do plan on sailing through the Block Island Wind Farm, or any other wind farm, be aware that depending on the height of your mast, you could run the risk of a collision with turbine blades. In the case of the Block Island Wind Farm, vessels with masts higher than 85 feet should take caution while navigating very close to turbines.

From a navigation standpoint, wind turbines can be considered a nuisance, but there are also some perceived benefits. The USCG considers the turbines to be aids to navigation, and they can serve as reference points for sailors; individual wind turbines and the perimeter of the wind farm will be represented on updated NOAA navigation charts. And although the USCG prohibits sailors from mooring on or climbing up wind-turbine platforms, mariners could tie up to them in the case of an emergency.

In a survey conducted by the RYA, over 80 percent of respondents who sailed through a wind farm had no trouble navigating, and nearly a third of the respondents rated the experience as a positive one.

Sailors who have transited through Block Island Sound are well aware of how much wind blows through the region, so the introduction of wind turbines should come as no surprise. For residents of Block Island, who currently rely on expensive diesel generators for their energy, the switch to offshore wind power will come as a welcome relief.

Freelance environmental writer Tyson Bottenus is passionate about the marine environment and has worked with Sailors for the Sea and NOAA Fisheries.

The post Wind Power on the Horizon appeared first on Cruising World.

Sailing is a great way to ­reduce your carbon footprint; however, that doesn’t necessarily mean that ­being a cruiser is living green. It’s important to consider our impact on the environment and how to make smart choices to help preserve the very places we love to sail. Here are 10 easy ways to be a greener cruiser:

1. Clean a Beach:
There is nothing more beautiful than a pristine beach and ­nothing more depressing than a shoreline littered with garbage. Next time you dinghy ashore, take a few minutes to pick up and properly ­dispose of refuse that has washed up where you land. Another great way to give back to the beautiful places you get to visit is to organize a beach cleanup day in your favorite anchorage. After all, when the ocean is our playground, it’s up to us to keep it clean.

2. BYO Bags:
Sadly, these days it’s not ­uncommon to find plastic bags floating in the ocean. When provisioning, refuse plastic ­shopping bags and bring your own reusable cloth bags instead. There are several on the market that fold small and flat and are easy to keep tucked in the pocket of a backpack or purse for unexpected purchases. If you do bring plastic bags home, ­reuse them as trash bags or recycle them instead of just tossing them in the garbage.

3. Choose Cloth Napkins and Cleaning Cloths:
To cut down on garbage and save storage space, use cloth napkins and microfiber cleaning cloths ­instead of disposable napkins and paper towels. To keep things ­hygienic, sew a small piece of colored thread to each napkin and assign everyone on board a color. To sanitize and to remove stubborn grease stains, boil napkins in clean water with a squirt of dish soap periodically.

4. Say No to Paper Plates:
Paper plates might seem like a quick and easy way to save on water — and dishes — but few brands are actually biodegradable. Never toss paper plates ­directly overboard. Instead buy stainless-steel, durable plastic or melamine bowls and plates; a small investment will last years.

5. Eat Local:
Most cruisers shop at local markets for fresh produce but might not stop to think where canned or dried goods and meat come from. Buying locally sourced and produced foodstuffs not only supports the area economy, but also cuts down on emissions produced when items are shipped internationally.

6. Unplug and Unwind:
We all rely on electronic ­devices on board, but how much is too much? Nothing sparks a conversation among cruisers like ­power consumption and production, and today’s electronics are power-hungry. Try making a resolution to unplug for a ­period of time each day. Not only will you be doing your house bank a favor, but you might find it recharges your batteries too.

7. Harness Nature’s Super­powers:
Passive power production has never been easier or more ­efficient. Over the last decade, solar panel manufacturers have found ways to boost power output while reducing size and cost. Installing solar panels is an easy and effective way to cut down on diesel consumption. In addition, fitting a wind or hydro generator will allow you to make power day and night, rain or shine.

8. Properly Dispose of Used Oil and Old Engine Filters:
Never dump old oil or ­filters overboard, no matter how far out at sea you are. ­After routine engine maintenance, take your used oil and filters ashore for proper ­disposal. If you’re in an area that doesn’t have dedicated waste-oil collection, try asking at a ­local gas station or car ­dealer for tips on where to dump it, or be prepared to carry it on board until you reach a ­facility in a larger port.

9. Try a Little R&R:
Reduce and recycle, that is. Making small changes on board can make a big ­impact, so try simple things like ­installing LED bulbs and foot- or hand-operated water pumps to cut power and water consumption. In the galley, switch out electric mixers and coffee makers for manual appliances. Sailing is hardly life in the fast lane, so instead of automatically turning on the engine and burning diesel when the wind dies, try drifting for a while, if conditions permit.

10.Use Environmentally Sensitive Cleaning Products:
Sometimes we forget that everything that goes down the drain goes overboard. To minimize pollution, use biodegradable body wash and shampoo, dish soap, laundry detergent, and cleaning products when possible. Or reach in your galley and clean with vinegar and baking ­soda; it gets rid of salt and stains without damaging surfaces or the environment.

— Heather Francis

The post 10 Quick Tips for Green Cruising appeared first on Cruising World.

In celebration of Earth Day, Sailors for the Sea is sharing their top 5 easy-to-do Green Boating Tips.

1. Save $$: Reduce your fuel usage.

Going green can be a win-win. By reducing extra weight on your boat (spring is a great time to clean out those mystery lockers) and doing routine maintenance on your engine you can ensure fuel efficiency, which can save you big bucks!

2. Protect your bottom & go copper-free.

Everything below your boat’s waterline is part of the marine ecosystem; the chemicals you choose matter! If you’re picking out bottom paint for the season, check out our handy list of the best products for your wallet and harbor.

3. Reduce, reuse, recycle!

Yep! It even applies on your boat, but notice the order – they make a big difference when it comes to helping keep plastic out of the ocean. So when you’re planning to go out on the boat, skip the disposable silverware, plates and cups, spring for a picnic basket to carry your reusable dishes and we guarantee you’ll save money over time.

4. Small spills add up.

85% of the petroleum that enters North American ocean waters each year is a result of regular human activities including land-based runoff, polluted rivers, airplanes, small boats and jet skis, while less than 8% comes from tanker or pipeline spills. Spring is the perfect time to do bilge maintenance to make sure your boat does not contribute.

5. Get Clean.

Spring is the best time to start fresh with your cleaning supplies and ensure they won’t harm your family when you use them, and it helps keep your waters swimmable! Choosing a cleaner can be overwhelming, but we have a few pointers on how to find the best product for your family and boat (and a list of our favorite ones)! View our tips for non-toxic products >>

Find out more about green boating at www.sailorsforthesea.org.

The post 5 Simple Green Boating Tips appeared first on Cruising World.

Getting sailors to be stewards for a healthier ocean is paramount to keeping the Caribbean vibrant for years to come. And what better way to impact sailors than to work collaboratively with the regattas they sail in year after year? Sailors for the Sea, an ocean conservation organization based in Newport, Rhode Island, is navigating the way toward a cleaner Caribbean by offering pragmatic solutions and support for sailors to reduce their environmental impact and heal the ocean. As the only environmental certification system for water-based events, the Clean Regatta program offers bronze, silver and gold status to regattas that comply with 25 best practices such as on-the-water recycling, composting and limiting carbon emissions.

“This is our playground,” says Judy Petz, director for the BVI Spring Regatta on Tortola (a gold-level Clean Regatta). “And for sailors, if we don’t keep this water as clean as possible, someday our playground won’t be as fun to play on anymore. It’s just our responsibility.”

Petz says education about ecologically conscious practices, such as recycling, is one of many challenges the Caribbean faces in its path to becoming more sustainable.

Every year, Caribbean regattas bring in thousands of tourists and have a sizable influence on small island economies. In 2014, studies estimated that the St. Thomas International Regatta (a bronze-level Clean Regatta) brought in over $1.1 million dollars of revenue to the island of St. Thomas in the USVI. But this growth means very little if it endangers the natural beauty that the Caribbean offers to so many.

“This year we’re going so far as to have volunteers stand next to the cans labeled Glass, Aluminum and Trash to make sure it all gets separated,” says Petz. “The island hasn’t embraced recycling and other practices that are commonly found in the United States. It’s very odd when people come and try to recycle but find that they simply can’t.”

In 2014, under Petz’s leadership, the BVI Spring Regatta required vendors to only use compostable materials, such as paper and cardboard. In addition, the regatta also supplied each sailor with a reusable water bottle and raised $3,000 to offset the event’s carbon footprint.

“When you’re looking for solutions to run a sustainable event in a place like the Caribbean,” says Hilary Kotoun, social impact director for Sailors for the Sea, “invention and ingenuity are very important traits to have.”

Tyson Bottenus is the sustainability director for Sailors for the Sea.

The post Keeping the Caribbean Blue: Sustainable Sailing appeared first on Cruising World.