11th Hour Racing backs Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation's Sustainable National Regatta Model

11th Hour Racing backs Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation's Sustainable National Regatta Model © 11th Hour Racing

The Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation (PYSF), a Bay Area 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to youth sailing and maritime education, announced today 11th Hour Racing as the Sustainability Partner to support PYSF's Sustainable National Regatta Model — an initiative integrating waste management innovation, carbon footprint reduction, and environmental education into competitive sailing events.

The model will debut at three high-profile events on San Francisco Bay in 2026:

• June 29-July 2, 2026 Ida Lewis Women's Junior Doublehanded National Championship
  US Sailing-sanctioned national championship

• Sept. 12-13, 2026 California Waszp State Championships
  Waszp Regional Regatta reaching the future of the sport

• Oct. 10-11, 2026 Optimist Pacific Coast Championships Regional championship reaching the foundational layer of the competitive sailing pipeline

A model built on three pillars

The Sustainable National Regatta Model is structured around three integrated pillars designed to demonstrate how sustainability can be embedded across every dimension of a regatta, creating a practical and scalable model for sailing events nationwide.

Waste Management Innovation. Through composting, recycling, and reusable material systems developed in partnership with Recology and aligned with Sailors for the Sea's Platinum Clean Regatta certification, PYSF will turn each regatta into a hands-on sustainability platform.

Carbon Footprint Reduction. PYSF will deploy autonomous electric race marks (RoboMarks) capable of self-repositioning via mobile app, reducing the need for motorboats traditionally required to manage course marks. Two electric race official boats were chartered for the Ida Lewis event — reducing direct emissions and the risk of fuel and oil leaks.

Environmental Education. Ida Lewis athletes participated in a structured field experience at the San Francisco Bay Model Visitor Center, a working hydraulic model of the Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta used by scientists to study tidal movement and environmental impact. Athletes connected what they saw in the Bay Model directly to their time on the racecourse — transforming the Bay from a venue into a living laboratory.

Environmental education is not a one-time initiative — it is a core pillar of the PYSF curriculum and organizational culture. PYSF actively bridges the gap between learning and action, bringing sailors and the broader community together to put environmental values into practice.

In their own words

"Sailing is uniquely dependent on the natural world, and PYSF believes that gives this sport a special responsibility — and opportunity — to lead. We are not simply running a green event. We are building a national template, designed from the outset to be shared freely with the broader sailing community." — John Vandemoer, Executive Director, Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation

"Part of our mission is to support initiatives that are designed to be replicated at scale, not only for regattas, but across various large sporting events. We help enable programs that test practical solutions in real-world conditions so we can better understand what actually reduces environmental impact and which approaches are most effective. The goal is for those lessons learned to help inform more sustainable practices across future sporting events." — Michelle Carnevale, President, 11th Hour Racing