Giving Back to the Sea

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In a moment of exasperation last month, I chipped in a few bucks to a charity group that promised to blow 100 vuvuzelas for a full day outside BPs corporate office. Four-foot-long African trumpets that produce an ear-piercing moan, vuvuzelas were responsible for that annoying buzz you might of heard on ESPN during the World Cup soccer action last month.

 

Giving Back to the Sea

 

My donation didnt save the planet, but I slept a little better. The scheme, dubbed the Experimental Vuvuzela Exhalation Procedure in London and organized through www.kickstarter.com, ended up raising more than $7,000 for the Gulf Disaster Fund.

There are, of course, more conventional ways to support an environmental cause. Not surprisingly, sailors are at the forefront of many of these projects. In almost any port city in America, youll find sailors leading environmental education programs, estuary restoration projects, or coastal cleanup campaigns. Many of these programs take place on board a sailboat, often it is a historic sailing ship that also lends color to the local waterfront. Sailing-oriented nonprofits have become a fixture in just about every waterfront city today.

If we were to try to trace the origins of this eco-boat movement, one path would likely lead back to singer-songwriter Pete Seegers sloop Clearwater. Launched in the early 1970s in upstate New York, Clearwater was sailed up and down the Hudson River to raise awareness of pollution on the river.

Here, in our home port of Sarasota, Fla., Practical Sailor has formed a close connection with one of the offspring of Seegers project, Aquarian Quest, a nonprofit group that organizes educational sails for area schoolchildren. Supported primarily by member donations, the group is co-founded by Robert Killian, who worked with Seeger for two decades.

The Aquarian Quest group takes school children sailing on a 40-foot catamaran, using the boat as a floating laboratory. The students participate in water-quality experiments and learn about local coastal ecology. Since 2001, more the 10,000 children have gone through the program.

In the wake of school budget cuts, Aquarian Quest, like most of us, is learning to live lean. If you, like me, sleep better when you chip in for a good cause, you can join the group via the Web at www.aquarianquest.org.

We know it isn’t the only sailing nonprofit that could use some free PR these days, and wed like to help. If you have a favorite waterfront project that you think PS readers should know about, send me information and photos by e-mail to practicalsailor
@belvoirpubs.com, and well help spread the word via our website, blog, Facebook, Twitter . . . and, if need be, vuvuzela.

Darrell Nicholson
Practical Sailor has been independently testing and reporting on sailboats and sailing gear for more than 50 years. Supported entirely by subscribers, Practical Sailor accepts no advertising. Its independent tests are carried out by experienced sailors and marine industry professionals dedicated to providing objective evaluation and reporting about boats, gear, and the skills required to cross oceans. Practical Sailor is edited by Darrell Nicholson, a long-time liveaboard sailor and trans-Pacific cruiser who has been director of Belvoir Media Group's marine division since 2005. He holds a U.S. Coast Guard 100-ton Master license, has logged tens of thousands of miles in three oceans, and has skippered everything from pilot boats to day charter cats. His weekly blog Inside Practical Sailor offers an inside look at current research and gear tests at Practical Sailor, while his award-winning column,"Rhumb Lines," tracks boating trends and reflects upon the sailing life. He sails a Sparkman & Stephens-designed Yankee 30 out of St. Petersburg, Florida. You can reach him by email at practicalsailor@belvoir.com.