I never had any interest in racing in the Vendée Globe. The course is around the world, singlehanded, non-stop. It’s too hard, too long, too dangerous, and the boats are often too far from land for help. Yet the unique symbolism of the Vendée Globe is that it actually circles the world, and thus offers a chance to create a global school programme. Without the sitesALIVE! school program I would not have competed in the Vendée Globe. It is difficult, impossible really, to truly describe how hard this race is. So I say to Timothy and Ethan in Indonesia, Alex and Rares in Romania, Arta in Latvia, Isabella and Mateo in Mexico, Ria in Thailand, Andrea in Brazil, and to all your classmates and teachers, thank you for learning with us during the Vendée Globe and for helping to bring me home
and inspiring there had to be a central theme and in his case the voyages were that theme. By Richie’s second Vendée Globe interest had spread to 55 countries. His sitesALIVE! program for the Vendée Globe in 2016/17 reached 750,000 stu- dents with daily updates in four languages (English, French and both simplified and traditional Chinese). It included a 65-page Teacher’s Guide with 15 weeks of class- room activities and eight Team Projects. Adding context was a team of 15 pro-
gramme ‘experts’ including ship captains, fisheries and climate experts, two best- selling authors, an emergency room doctor and an asthma doctor as well as a maritime art curator. These experts would write essays for the program and answer ques- tions received from students worldwide. There were also live webinars with
various experts and schools around the world participating, live and online with video. This was Richie’s primary objective in doing the Vendée Globe – especially the second one – both for the teaching and for himself, for as he said many times, ‘When things get difficult in the south it’s the kids that will help bring me home.’ I recently started to work with Tracy
Edwards on her project The Maiden Factor. Some will remember that Tracy skippered the first all-female team in the Whitbread Race. This was in 1989 and they were successful, coming second in their division. Their entry was very inspirational and had a lot of momentum while the race was on, but once Maiden crossed the finish line in Southampton that momentum quickly disappeared.
62 SEAHORSE The race was over and Tracy had to sell
the boat to pay the bills. Maiden fell into disrepair and Tracy moved on to other projects, but a few years ago she started a Go Fund Me to buy the boat back and refit it to its original state. Long story short Maiden is currently on a world tour ‘to raise awareness of the 130million+ girls worldwide who currently are not afforded an education and engage with organisa- tions facilitating that basic human right’. My role involves developing a comprehen- sive education programme to run in paral- lel with the restored yacht’s global tour. The next few years are exciting for
Tracy and her team and involve visiting Africa and India where education for girls is so often sadly lacking. Tracy likens their current tour in some ways to what hap- pened to Maiden at the end of the Whit- bread. ‘When the boat is in a port there is a lot of excitement,’ she told me. ‘Schoolkids come down to the boat and
they really love it but when the boat leaves the excitement leaves with it. Developing an education programme that will also involve some kind of grant programme means we can leave a legacy that lives on in that region long after the boat and team have departed. And furthermore there are only so many places that Maiden can phys- ically go to while there are thousands of other places on the globe that could benefit from the symbol that she has become. ‘I feel that a good education programme
will be the best way to potentially inspire a much larger and also a younger audience.’ Speaking of education programmes, there is already a great program that is
part of The Ocean Race and is available globally to any teacher that wants to par- ticipate. My wife, a schoolteacher, recently downloaded one of their programs and successfully used it in her third grade class. The Ocean Race education program
focuses heavily on the issue of plastic in the water but it also covers other subjects including arts and sciences. By having a global platform they have also attracted environmental organisations such as the Mirpuri Foundation which, their website explains, is ‘about a commitment to make the world a better place for future genera- tions. By fostering collaboration between global authorities, companies, communi- ties and individuals, it aims to positively impact the most pressing issues threatening our planet.’ How about that? I also read today, on my mindless scroll through Face- book, that the Mirpuri Foundation is backing another entry in the upcoming The Ocean Race, to be skippered by talented French soloist Yann Richomme. Sailors the world over are good people at
heart. We live close to the land, or in this case the sea, and feel the draw of nature in a very real and positive way. We want to do good in the world. We want to leave a positive legacy. We want to do something good while doing something great. Taking on a sailing challenge and hitching your wagon to a good cause is a great idea. If it can be done by Jon Sanders in his
little sloop circumnavigating with a purpose bigger than himself it can be done by any- one. Oh, did I mention that Jon is 80 years old? Or that Richie Wilson will be 70 when he starts his third Vendée in November? q
JEAN-MARIE LIOT/DPPI
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