Inshore racing at The Atlantic Cup - Sailors for the Sea

Inshore racing at The Atlantic Cup

 May 27, 2014  | By: Oceana

This weekend at The Atlantic Cup Presented by 11th Hour Racing, sailors traded hundreds of miles of open-ocean racecourse for short, fast-paced races, and switched out the autopilots for many more crewmembers!

The transition from an offshore racecourse to an inshore, land-based regatta makes a big difference in what your need to focus for going green. For the Atlantic Cup this has involved:

  • Not altering Rule 55 to allow for wool bands on spinnakers
  • Boats coming back to the dock everyday and to be scrubbed down
  • The use of non-toxic cleaning products to reduce runoff in sensitive coastal areas
  • Working with local purveyors such as Jamestown FiSH for local and sustainably caught seafood at events
  • Encouraging public transportation in a town where cars are the main form of transportation. The Atlantic Cup is doing this by partnering with Bike Newport to provide bike valet parking and bike tune-ups!
  • Engaging the local community in education, the Atlantic Cup will partner with Newport-organizations Clean Ocean Access to do a course wide beach cleanup and host Adventure & Eco documentaries with newportFILM.
  • Lifeline banners and flags (instead of bow stickers, which have a tendency to fall off) used for sponsor placement aboard boats
  • Sharing the racecourse! Organizers combined the starting line with the 11th Hour Cup Moth Regatta and will also allow the Open 60s to use their start line as they head down to New York. This is a great way to reduce the amount of motorboats on the water and save large amounts of fuel!

With sustainability at the center of the Atlantic Cup’s planning, regatta organizers are able to address many different points of sustainability in their quest to earn Platinum level Clean Regattas certification. Many of these best practices can be adapted to your regatta – check out our case study on the Atlantic Cup for more information.