OOF and Denmark SailGP give used sails a second life

The Foundation and Danish athletes have developed an innovative product to sort waste when the team is on the water during SailGP races.

Denmark SailGP Team presented by ROCKWOOL athletes have developed a new on-water waste management solution made from recycled SailGP sails, which could set a new standard for recycling and waste reduction during the races.

The solution – which features used materials including Denmark’s SailGP jib – is a collaboration between the Danish athletes, One Ocean Foundation and SailGP’s official sailmaker, Doyle Sails.

The hard-wearing bag fixes securely into the chase boat to allow waste sorting at source – encouraging sailors and shore teams to think about their waste in a different way. The concept, which has already been trialled in SailGP events by the Danish team since last summer, and has since been adopted by Canada SailGP Team and Australia SailGP Team for testing in Christchurch, has already proved to be popular with teams.

Hans-Christian Rosendahl, Denmark SailGP Team athlete said:

"As part of the SailGP Impact League, we challenged our athletes to come with suggestions for ways in which we could reduce our impact and protect our ocean as we race in SailGP – and we all agreed that the chase boat was an area that needed a new, innovative solution, we are trying to build habits as a sailing team, with the guidance of ROCKWOOL and One Ocean Foundation. Being an athlete at SailGP, it’s inspiring to see that you can come with an idea and actually see it develop and share it with the other teams..

One Ocean Foundation has been partnered with Denmark SailGP Team and ROCKWOOL since the beginning of Season 3, and has recently launched the More Speed Less Plastic initiative with the team, to reward the athletes for racing fast, by converting the team’s top speed to divert ocean-bound waste.

In collaboration with other SailGP teams including New Zealand, Switzerland and Canada, Denmark SailGP Team has already diverted more than five tonnes of waste from coastal areas through the initiative, which kicked off in Singapore in January.

 “When it comes reducing ocean pollution, we know that waste sorting is extremely important, as it helps to mitigate the challenge at source,” explains One Ocean Foundation Secretary-General, Jan Pachner, “we are delighted to support this great initiative, which underlines just how passionate the Danish athletes are about our ocean, and, alongside other projects such as More Speed Less Plastic, helps us to raise awareness about ocean health through a world-class platform like SailGP.”