An Q&A with Jeremy Pochman about 11th Hour Racing’s impressive efforts

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 15 May 2017 If you spend time sailing and have done so for some years, you’ve likely noticed a significant uptick in the amount plastic that’s regularly seen floating on the water’s surface. If you live near a big city, like I do, it’s easy to get lulled into thinking that this is just a localized concern, and that-once outside of sight of land-this will fade, much like light or noise pollution. While this is a nice fantasy, the naked truth is far different. Talk to Transpac sailors and they will describe a Great Pacific Garbage Patch that’s eagerly swelling in size, while Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) and Vendee Globe racers talk about seeing plastic in the windswept depths of the Southern Ocean. Far worse, plastic doesn’t biodegrade but rather breaks down into ever smaller bits that can work their way into the food chain.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s Clean Seas campaign, 99-percent of all seabirds will have ingested plastic by 2050, and this same source has estimated that there are currently 51 trillion microplastic particles currently littering our oceans. Left unchecked, these metrics will only continue to grow worse, likely at an increasing clip.

The situation isn’t good, but fortunately there are some fantastic environmental organizations that are working hard to help reverse these trends. One such marine-focused organization is 11th Hour Racing, which is based in Newport, Rhode Island, and which is rapidly making a name for themselves in circles that extend well past the sailing community’s traditional shorelines.

Some backstory. 11th Hour Racing is a program funded by The Schmidt Family Foundation (founded in 2006 by Wendy and Eric Schmidt; sadly, no relation to your humble scribe), which, according to their website, seeks to establish “strategic partnerships within sailing and marine communities to promote collaborative systemic change for the health of our marine environment.”

Since its inception, 11th Hour Racing has been forming the exact kind of strategic partnerships that are described in their mission statement, with their highest-profile partnership being their shared sponsorship of Vestas 11th Hour Racing in the upcoming 2017/2018 Volvo Ocean Race (VOR). Vestas 11th Hour Racing will be lead by Charlie Enright and Mark Towill, who are both veterans of the 2014/2015 VOR, and their goal will be to spread the gospel of proper environmental stewardship to a multi-national audience and demonstrate that sustainability can be successfully embedded into a top-level professional sports team, while hopefully also capturing some great podium finishes en route to lapping the planet.

While the dedicated people at 11th Hour Racing love to race sailboats as much as anyone, they clearly understand that there’s a lot more to being good marine ambassadors than winning races, so they have also created a wide range of other partnerships that tackle issues as varied as invasive species, microfibers and microbeads entering the food chain, garbage that’s floating on the water, and educating tomorrow’s leaders.

11th Hour Racing is involved with some exciting and promising projects and I wanted to learn more, so I reached out to Jeremy Pochman, 11th Hour Racing’s Strategic Director and Co-Founder, to ask a few questions. Pochman generously agreed to an email interview, and he was extremely giving with his words and his time.

As Pochman so astutely noted, we are in the 11th Hour when it comes to avoiding tipping points (sailor translation: vanishing stability) that cannot be reversed (sailor translation: blow the traveller!), and positive action is the only course that will get results or earn the respect of future generations.

All sailors are strongly encouraged to give this interview the time it deserves.

How did The Schmidt Family Foundation get interested in sailing? Are the Schmidts long-time sailors, or did they see an opportunity to help educate people about environmental stewardship through the sport?
In 2010, Wendy Schmidt took her passion about the connection between sailors and water beyond her individual sailing experience, and introduced it to The Schmidt Family Foundation model, which promotes a greater understanding of our interdisciplinary living systems.

A boat fits at the nexus-similar to the dynamic nature of a port community, connecting land and sea–of innovation, technology, history, competition, adventure and survival. It is a place of inspiration and motivation, and the fact that a sailboat is propelled by the wind speaks strongly to the potential of renewable resources.

Can you tell us about some of your new and exciting strategic partnerships (aside from the Volvo Ocean Race)?
We have recently expanded our portfolio of partnerships, entering uncharted territories for us, where we think we can maximize our impact and really ‘connect the dots’ with the interdisciplinary approach and vision mentioned above.

Vestas 11th Hour Racing is our newest partnership with a world-class sailing team, with the goal of leading on the international ocean racing stage both on the podium and in regards to sustainability. This new partnership is very interesting as it focuses on a collaboration that fits two organizations with very different objectives (Vestas, a commercial entity, and 11th Hour Racing, a non-commercial entity with a philanthropic mission), bringing them together with a joint sustainable goal for the near- and long-term future.

Land Rover BAR [Editor’s Note: one of five challengers that is competing for the 35th America’s Cup] has been a partner of 11th Hour Racing since 2014. The focus of the entire organization is to win on the field of play, the America’s Cup, and in sustainable operations. It is the only British sports team to be awarded the Olympic-inspired international ISO 20121 standard across all its activities, providing a management framework to guide the use of resources and the impact on the environment and its ecology. The team is committed to creating a lasting legacy with international impact upon the global marine industries around technology, design, engineering and innovation excellence.

Among [Land Rover BAR’s] many projects, some of the most innovative ones include researching a new, cleaner, more efficient process to recycle carbon fibre from its resin composite; pioneering fuel-efficient power boats made from recycled composites; reducing the use of fossil fuels through the development of a ‘Virtual Chase Boat’; collaborating with the automotive industry to ensure a reuse and recycling future for the team’s race and support boats.

[Land Rover BAR’s] high-tech projects go alongside ecological initiatives such as reviving the oyster population in the Solent, promoting biodiversity at the team base, fostering ocean health by reducing the overall carbon footprint of the team, adopting renewable energy sources and much more. Throughout their leadership, Land Rover BAR was instrumental in preparing the Team Sustainability Charter that was signed by all the competitors ahead of the 35th America’s Cup.

11th Hour Racing Exploration Zone – As part of our lasting legacy for Bermuda, we wanted to offer an educational experience to local students, tourists and visitors attending the 35th America’s Cup. We came up with the concept and developed a free public dedicated space, the 11th Hour Racing Exploration Zone, located at the Land Rover BAR team base. Here, we bring to life critical topics around ocean health, sustainability, innovation and technology, with a series of creative displays.

Visitors learn how to make a tangible and positive impact to reducing ocean plastics, about the power of the sun as a source of renewable energy, and understand the devastating effects of invasive species, particularly the lionfish that infests Bermudian waters, and is wreaking havoc on reefs throughout the Western Atlantic from Rhode Island to Venezuela. Some statistics to date:

-1869 visitors (achieved against a target set of 1500. Expect that we will see 2000 total, of which 1400 are school children, before the start of the Cup)

-Total of 45 school and community groups (target 40)

-Every middle school in Bermuda has visited the 11th Hour Racing Exploration Zone!

Eat Lionfish Chefs’ Throwdown, Bermuda When we came to Bermuda in October 2015 for the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series, we met with many local environmental organizations and quickly realized that lionfish [were] the most pressing threat to the island’s marine ecosystem. How could we raise awareness to the issue, promote local sustainable seafood and support an innovative technological solution to the issue in an engaging and creative way?

By bringing together to Bermuda six world-class chefs representing each America’s Cup team, local students, scientists, fishermen, robotics engineers, restaurateurs and sailors, and by putting lionfish on the menu!

A panel of seven representatives, including skippers/principals from each America’s Cup team and Wendy Schmidt, judged an exciting cook-off challenge where chefs competed to create the best dish with this delicious fish. By bringing together market (chefs), tools (Robot in Service of the Environment, creators of an underwater ROV that can safely stun and collect lionfish), consumers (those lucky enough to try the fish), and future generations (culinary students from Bermuda College), we can build on the island’s legacy of protecting their precious marine resources and generate a sustainable market demand for this invasive fish.

How do Charlie Enright and Mark Towill fit into 11th Hour Racing’s core mission? Or, in other words, what kind of return on investment (ROI) does 11th Hour Racing hope to realize by sponsoring a Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) team?
Charlie Enright and Mark Towill are not just 11th Hour Racing’s eyes and ears, they are the global storytellers. The sailors of Vestas 11th Hour Racing will be among the very few to ever set eyes on certain parts of the Southern Ocean. They will broadcast to the world stories of what they experience: weather patterns affected by climate change, ocean plastics found in the most remote corners of the earth, beautiful encounters with marine life–all told from the winning perspective of discussing solutions as leaders in the Volvo Ocean Race.

Their campaign will be supported by a comprehensive sustainability strategy across all the team’s operations: from refusing single-use plastics, to travel, accommodation, sustainable procurement including food, responsible waste management and use of resources (water, energy), with a strong educational and fan engagement program across their channels with activations at each race stopover.

This team, and the partnership that supports it, provide a wide platform to communicate the message of sustainability through the means of wind and water, the key elements that are behind Vestas and 11th Hour Racing. The ROI will come through the successes of the team as it shares its passion for the ocean, for sailing, and for doing things differently-leading the pack in terms of sustainability, as environmental stewards and role models who can inspire the next generation. Impact via social media, traditional media, activations and fan engagement will be tracked and reported on-and shared with stakeholders.

Can you tell us about the kind of work that 11th Hour Racing does with their grants? Can you give us some examples of these grants, as well as the ROI for the environment that 11th Hour Racing hopes to achieve with these programs?
11th Hour Racing’s grantee program focuses on local, on-the-ground doers, who provide solutions and perspective that guide the efforts and narrative of our professional partnerships. The results of our grantees’ work are immediate and direct. Here are some examples:

Clean Ocean Access Dave McLaughlin is pioneering solutions to protect the health of the waters and harbors around Narragansett Bay. Most recently, 11th Hour Racing has partnered with Clean Ocean Access to install Trash Skimmers in two locations in Newport Harbor, and have recognized the commitment of New England Boatworks to gain Clean Marina Certification by helping them install a Trash Skimmer in their marina as well.

Rozalia Project Rachel Miller and Rozalia Project have undertaken their latest project following a trip that 11th Hour Racing funded last year along the Hudson River examining microfiber pollution (the tiny plastic fibers that get shed from our synthetic clothing in the wash, go down our drains and make their way into our waterways where they can impact the food chain). Now, Rozalia Project has designed and is producing the Cora Ball, a fully operational (and cool-looking) ‘ball’ that you can put in your laundry machine to catch microfibers before they get washed into the water systems.

Landing School Created an Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool that can be used for boat builders and designers alike. The LCA being developed examines the carbon footprint of the materials that go into constructing wooden and composite boats (epoxy, fiberglass, finishes, etc.), aiding designers in selecting materials that have the smallest footprint, while still maintaining quality and performance criteria.

Rocking the Boat A long-time partner of 11th Hour Racing, Rocking the Boat offers continually greater support to under-privileged students from Hunt’s Point in the South Bronx. Their team is transformation the community as these ‘kids’ build and learn how to row/sail their boats: discovering the science behind boat building, the ecology of their environs, gaining job and life training–all of which leads to 1000-percent graduation rates from high school and onto continued education, an unprecedented success rate in this part of the Bronx.

Is there one particular issue (say, microbeads or pharmaceuticals getting into the oceans) that 11th Hour Racing sees as more pressing than other concerns when it comes to the long-term health and sustainability of our oceans?
One significant focus for 2017-2018 is Ocean Plastics (micro-beads and microfibers certainly fall into this category). We are focusing on this in several ways: by leveraging our international partners as they sail across and around the world, and learn and tell the story about the global challenge of plastic pollution; and by working on solutions through partners such as Rozalia Project and its Cora Ball, and Clean Ocean Access and its trash skimmers.

Every year at least eight million tons of plastics leak into the ocean-which is equivalent to dumping the contents of one garbage truck into the ocean every minute, and by 2050 there will be more plastics than fish by weight in the ocean. A massive pollution problem facing our ocean is microfiber: trillions of pieces of tiny fibers flowing into the ocean every time we use our washing machines-just one fleece jacket could shed up to 250,000 pieces per garment per wash. A recent paper estimates that Europeans could ingest up to 11,000 pieces of plastic per year–through shellfish consumption.

This simply means that we are at the 11th hour: we cannot continue down this path without facing serious repercussions… Now is the time to act.

Has 11th Hour Racing explored ways of making sailing more sustainable/greener by “recycling” materials such as fiberglass or carbon fiber (hulls and spars), aluminum (spars), stainless steel (keel fins) and lead (keel bulbs)? After all, while the wind is a sustainable and renewable resource, sailing’s dirty secret is that all of the epoxies, adhesives, composite materials and resins that go into building boats are a heck of a long way removed from the word “organic”, and I’m wondering if you guys have considered supporting ways of mitigating this aspect of sailing’s environmental footprint?

Yes, we are active in this field through many of the projects that we support, some are listed below:

As mentioned earlier, Land Rover BAR is developing a low-VOC, low-heat, low-impact method of recycling carbon fiber in partnership with their title sponsor Land Rover, who are funding a doctorate project to bring this process up to commercial standard with the University of Southampton in the UK.

11th Hour Racing Advisor and Director of Rhode Island Sea Grant, Dennis Nixon, is working with students from the University of Rhode Island to develop a process to break down end-of-life fiberglass boats into a useable product;

Low Carbon, a renewable-energy partner of Land Rover BAR, supports the power needs of the team base in Portsmouth, UK, (which achieved BREEAM Excellent certification) and Bermuda, and is contributing in perpetuity to the island’s energy needs by providing a 54.32kW solar installation at the National Museum of Bermuda; the project will not only contribute to the local economy but it will leave an important legacy to the island in the ongoing battle to mitigate the negative effects of climate change. An immediate aim of the project will be to help offset the carbon footprint generated by the Land Rover BAR sailing team whilst competing in Bermuda during the 35th America’s Cup.

The Landing School’s LCA modeling, mentioned earlier, is looking at how to design and build boats that have a smaller carbon footprint.

We are also in the process of working with innovators on how to develop an end of life solution for sail material so that it does not end up in the landfill.

Anything else that you’d like to add, for the record?
Environmental stewardship, and promoting the responsible management of our planet’s resources, is core to everything we do at 11th Hour Racing. It has always been part of our own DNA and runs through the entire The Schmidt Family Foundation.