“It’s way worse than any of these people imagine,” said Ian Walker, the British skipper and former Olympic silver medalist who won the Volvo Ocean Race in June on Abu Dhabi. “People think the pollution in Rio’s in the harbor, and it’s fine out at Copacabana and on the open sea. But I remember sailing in from the ocean, and when you are about 50 miles out, you hit the stench and the changing color in the water. So even the people who go in the water swimming off Copacabana beach every day are basically swimming in filth, but they don’t realize it.” (source: NYTimes, infra)In Pollution Fight, Sailing World Has Just Scratched Surface - The New York Times: “We need a leader like Sailors for the Sea or other organizations to help get us all together,” he said as he prepared for his second Sydney-Hobart."
Environmental groups linked closely with the sport of sailing are already focused on ocean health. Those include two based in Newport: Sailors for the Sea, founded by David Rockefeller Jr., and 11th Hour Racing, co-founded by the philanthropist Wendy Schmidt and her husband, Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, via the Schmidt Family Foundation.
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Rocking the Boat and 11th Hour Racing -
Published on Dec 17, 2015 - Short video highlighting 11th Hour Racing's grantee Rocking the Boat.
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