11th Hour Racing, an organisation seeking to improve the footprint of ocean racing teams like those in the Volvo Ocean Race, undertook an analysis of the sustainability and carbon footprint of Team Vestas. They recently published their final report. There is some interesting thinking that went into this report. The team's sustainability officer was Damian Foxall and we heard him speak at a cruising conference this past weekend. He's just been named sustainability ambassador for Ireland and his mission is to reduce the impact of sailing clubs around the country. A lot of what is being proposed has implications for circumnavigators of all kinds. The report can be downloaded here: http://11thhourracing.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/vs11-sustainability-report-final.pdf

The OCC is supporting Coastal Clean-Up started by member Steve Brown. The Suzie Too Rally and Down Under Rallies are testing and adopting the Coastal Clean-Up approach. We will soon report back to the membership of OCC with ideas about how to reduce, reuse, recycle, and otherwise improve the footprints we leave behind.

Vice Commodore, OCC