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He clocked up over
500 volunteer hours for
Coastguard last year...ETNZ CLAIMS
TOP AWARD
I
t was a victory that captivated a nation, so it was little surprise
when Emirates Team New Zealand was named Executive
Travel Sailor of the Year at the recent Volvo Yachting
Excellence Awards.
ETNZ beat Oracle 7-1 in Bermuda in June to win the Auld
Mug, and received the Sir Bernard Fergusson trophy at a gala
dinner at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have won previous Sailor of
the Year awards and had a big hand in ETNZ’s America’s Cup
campaign as key sailing members.
Neither were able to attend the Volvo Yachting Excellence
Awards with both chasing a rare treble – the Volvo Ocean Race
to go with their Olympic gold medal and America’s Cup win.
Burling also picked up a performance award for finishing
second at this year’s MOTH world championships, something he
achieved against a high-quality field. This was despite very little
time in the single-handed foiling dinghy following an intense
period that included the Olympics and America’s Cup.
ETNZ was recognised throughout the night, with Murray
Jones and Ray Davies being named joint winners of Coach of the
Year, the board of directors collecting the President’s Award for
work done in promoting, supporting and developing the interests
of yachting, team principal Matteo de Nora winning a service
award and ETNZ picking up a performance award.
VOLVO YACHTING EXCELLENCE AWARDS
Executive Travel Sailor of the Year: Emirates Team New Zealand
Volvo Young Sailor of the Year: Kate & Greta Stewart
Aon Emerging Talent: Seb Menzies
Zhik Official of the Year: Doug Elder
Nespresso Coach of the Year: Murray Jones & Ray Davies
Lawson’s Dry Hills President’s Award:
Torbay Sailing Club & ETNZ board of directorsM
illions of tiny particles of plastic have been detected in
European waters in ground-breaking scientific research
conducted as part of the Volvo Ocean Race.
The research, using data collected by team ‘Turn the
Tide on Plastic’, identified over three million micro-plastic particles
per square kilometre of ocean. The samples were collected using a
state-of-the-art instrument on board the yacht.
The initial results, gathered during the Prologue stage and Leg 1 of
the Race, between Lisbon and Alicante, were presented by Dr Toste
Tanhua during the first morning of the two-day Volvo Ocean Race
Ocean Summit, held at the event’s Cape Town stopover. The samples
collected during Leg 2 are currently being analysed and results will be
revealed in due course.
“Our initial findings suggest that the levels of micro-plastic in the
ocean are significantly higher than we first expected,” says Tanhua,
who works at GEOMAR, an ocean research institute in Kiel, Germany.
“This is alarming as the micro-plastic not only harms a wide range
of marine life, but, through entering the food chain in species such as
tuna and mackerel, can cause harm to humans, too.”
Micro-plastic is often invisible to the naked eye – and can take
thousands of years to degrade.
“Existing scientific data,” Tanhua says, “only accounts for around
one percent of all plastic in the ocean – but thanks to the support
of Volvo Ocean Race and Volvo Cars, and the efforts of the Turn
the Tide on Plastic team in conducting this research, we’re building
a knowledge base which is essential to ocean science around the
globe.”
The research comprises three key pillars: meteorological data
collection; scientific drifter buoy deployment; and on-board analysis
of key metrics for ocean health including salinity, partial pressure of
CO2, dissolved CO2 and Chlorophyll-a.
The Science Programme aims to create a snapshot of the health
of the oceans to help scientists worldwide.
“This is a ground-breaking project, bringing sport and science
together,” says Dee Caffari, Turn the Tide on Plastic skipper. “As
round-the-world sailors, we have seen first-hand the growing
problem of marine debris and plastic pollution – and now we are
collecting reference data for scientists around the globe.”VOR’S
DAMNING
PLASTIC DATA
Dee Caffari – skipper of
Turn the Tide on Plastic.WORLDBOATWORLDBOATWORLDBOATWORLDBOATWORLD