Clean Sailors podcast

As sailors, the sea is our pleasure, our passion and our pastime and for many - profession. Who better, then, to help protect the health of our waters than sailors... In this episode, host, Holly, is joined by Theresa Zabell OLY; two-time Olympic gold winning sailor, with five world championship titles and one silver, three European titles, 14 International Olympic weeks and 13 National Championsh...

Our polar ice caps are probably the most referred to, as a proxy for the alarming temperature changes of our planet. These large sheets of ice, as preserved for millions of years, have been undergoing change, so much so that once impassable and certainly inhospitable areas of our globe are opening up. Host, Holly, is joined by Ella Hibbert, a sailor who and in just a few short weeks will slip line...

During the 1950s, glass fibre reinforced polyester (GRP/FRP/fibreglass) composites displaced wood as the material of choice for boats as it permitted easier manufacture, smoother hydrodynamic surfaces and significantly reduced the maintenance costs. Such materials revolutionised not just the production of vessels, leisure in particular, but also the accessibility of boating to a much wider audienc...

Sails, like many things, have a long history. From papyrus leaves or animal hide rigged to catch the wind to today's highly complex highly engineered sail cloth, designed to withstand some of the toughest environments on our planet. With no formal recycling for end-of-life sails, anywhere in the world, we speak with Dede De Luca, Co-founder and CEO of OneSails, on the evolution of sail technology,...

Did you know that each year, in the UK alone, we flush more than 22,000 tonnes of glue down our loos? Each time we flush toilet paper, we are potentially adding thousands of microplastics to our waters. Joining our host, Holly, is Dave Hamlet, Managing Director of Tanki, the glue-free toilet roll , to discuss the makings of toilet roll, the impact of our daily flushes on our waters and how a simpl...

It’s easy to think that all fish belong in the sea. But not all fish belong in all parts of the sea…. Threatening local ecosystems, disrupting and at times eradicating other species entirely and even disrupting economies, our boats, large and small, can transport different creatures around our waters, and at times, across whole oceans. In this episode, we’ll be looking how species spread across ou...

'Microplastics' - we've all heard of them and over the last two years alone, have become aware of just how pervasive these tiny pieces of plastic are within our environment, and our human bodies… In this episode, we speak with Dr. Christopher Pham and Dr. Roman Lehner, two eminent scientists who study the very topic of microplastics, to help us better understand the plastic soup upon which we sail...

For thousands of years, we've been building boats. We began, and indeed continued for centuries, with wood, but since the mass-commercialisation of plastic since the late 1940's, we've been making boats from glass or fibre-reinforced plastics. Building new boats this way is carbon-intensive plus there is little, if any, formal process in the world for these huge plastic hulls when they come to the...

Our emission of greenhouse gases, namely significant amounts of Co2 over several hundred years, is altering our climate. We often turn to trees and replanting vegetation, Green Carbon, as the opportunity to recapture carbon from our atmosphere, but coastal ecosystems are exceptionally apt at carbon capture and storage, too - almost more effective than the Green Carbon counterpart. In this episode...

With studies showing that traditional antifoul paint on the bottom of our boats is contributing extraordinary amounts of chemicals and microplastics to our waters, the case for biocide-free and paint-free solutions is high. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Rik Breur, winner of the European Inventor Award 2019, material scientist and founder of revolutionary antifoul product, Finsulate, about why...

Being on our boats we are living directly in one of THE MOST important ecosystems on our planet, alongside an array of habitats and hosts of species and marine fauna. It makes sense, then, that what we do on and around the water has a pretty immediate impact on the health of our oceans. In this episode we speak with Angus Johnston, Co-founder of Ecoworks, about ‘greywater’ and what it means when m...

There are few things more spectacular when out on the water than sighting dolphins and whales. These awesome creatures aren't just profoundly intelligent, they keep the balance of many of our global ecosystems in check. In this episode, host Holly is joined by Liz Sandeman of Marine Connection and Katie Dyke of WDC, to discuss the important of whales and dolphins - from their personalities to the...

With global shipping emissions equivalent to that of our aviation industries, it's clear that massive opportunities lie in cleaner, smarter innovations. In this first episode of the Clean Sailors podcast, host Holly is joined by Per Tunnell, COO of Wallenius Marine, to discuss the power of sails in modern-day shipping. They talk about harnessing wind for a cleaner planet, how globalisation has bee...