The News, Culture and Practice of Sailing woodenboats
in Australia, New Zealand & The South Pacific.

ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Echos of Assange

A court has ordered anti-whaling activist and environmentalist Paul Watson to remain in detention in Greenland, as authorities consider a request from Japan to extradite him on charges dating back more than a decade.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Dispatch from the Land of Throwaway Boats 

As responsible, environmentally aware marine professionals, we should be fostering the value of maintaining and rejuvenating more of the fine vessels that have already seen yeoman service rather than taking part in their ignoble demise in the rush to connect our customers with new models of dubious virtue or reliability.  

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Counter Catastro-phising

The agreement was groundbreaking in its ambition. It led to the near-total cessation of whaling activities, with a few notable exceptions , and has contributed to the resurgence of many whale species, including the largest animal on Earth, the blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Child’s Play

For four years now, orcas have been ramming and sinking yachts in European waters, and scientists have struggled to work out just why these smart, social animals had learnt this destructive new trick. But it's not due to some anticapitalist 'eat the rich' agenda, nor is it to do with territory and aggression. The truth is, well, it's child's play.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Going Green, Gone Wrong

Preliminary information from the Blue Schooner Company suggests the vessel was hit by a “sudden and violent” storm, causing it to capsize and sink. Survivors reported donning survival suits and boarding life rafts as the vessel began to sink.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Whales and (good news) Tales

There is a growing awareness that focusing on tragedy and despair in our daily news cycle is not only an empirically unbalanced representation of the truth, but it is also harmful to the prospects of solving the problems we do actually face by creating despondency and a sense of zero agency.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

‘Once it’s gone, it’s gone’: the last coracle fishers

But like his fellow netsmen, Len Walters remains gloomy about what the future holds. “If you take away the right to fish, you’ll no longer have people making coracles,” he says. “And it’s such an amazing way to fish. All feel. No engines, no noises, just the skill of two boys in a coracle. And it’s sad because once it’s gone, it’s gone. It’ll never come back.”

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

What’s Stopping Us?

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology has announced an El Niño event is "likely in the coming weeks", but has again held off declaring that it is underway, despite having satisfied its own criteria.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Very Precious Plastic

All these hands coming together to realise a vision, a common purpose, aspiring for a better world- this is what success looks like. This is what hope looks like. Not passive hope, but hope from action.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

The Weather Guru

I’ve worked with the best sailors in the world. Pretty much all of them have an absolute feeling and instinct about the wind and the nature of the wind they’re sailing in. But if you scratch the surface, they know bugger-all. And if you could put a bit of science into it, they could learn a lot more. 

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

New Ways to Use Trees

“It’s quite simple for me,” says French designer Thomas Tison, “Modernity does not neglect where we all come from – on the contrary it makes the best of it. In a way a boat is a heritage, so to ignore wood would be to ignore the essence of yacht design and building.”

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

20% Less Fuel?

Their research showed that the Seawing would have a pulling power of up to 100 tons meaning it can contribute to propulsion for a ship of over 200,000 tons and over 1,000 feet in length. They project fuel savings on average of 20 percent by deploying the kite sail.

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