World Sailing launches new fund to protect marine environment

  • Adam Wentworth

World Sailing, the governing body for the sport, has launched a new trust to support sustainable development in the oceans.

The charity was announced last week at an ocean summit in The Netherlands and will focus on three areas of concern: marine health, youth development, and improving access to the sport.

Its marine health fund will seek to create more sustainable products within sailing and accelerate the use low-carbon technologies and behaviours. It will also actively improve the health of the ocean environment.

The trust will be chaired by leading British sailor Dee Caffari, who is currently captaining the Turn the Tide on Plastic team during this year’s Volvo Ocean Race.

Ms Caffari commented: "In the past, other sailing charities have been very local and regionalised. The World Sailing Trust has a global reach so we can cover all aspects, all areas and all regions. 

"For the first time, World Sailing can use its reach and connections to make things happen across youth, sustainability and participation sectors and have a bigger impact." 


World Sailing represents an estimated 70 million sailors in 145 countries and so is ideally place to promote and document sustainable practices in the most remote places. Many sailors have witnessed first-hand the devastating impacts of marine pollution and an increasingly volatile climate.

Andy Hunt, CEO of the association said the sailing community cared passionately about the marine environment as “our field of play”.

“We have a duty to enhance and protect the sport's future. Harnessing the energy of the sailing community and our global network, we can generate wide-spread change across the sport quickly and effectively”.

He added that the World Sailing Trust’s three funds will become an “amplification” of the body’s work to tackle environmental and sailing issues on a global level and among those who “share our collective passion for the sport." 

World Sailing has a strong reputation in taking on environmental issues. It was the first sporting federation to win an international sustainability standard. It has also created its own long-term agenda to change the way the sport is run.