Young thirty-somethings, Yorick and Vanessa Maguin decided to leave everything behind to live with their 3 year old and 18 month old children on Carmina, their 12 meter sailboat (an Oceanis 390). It's been 1 year now that life on board is getting organized and that their association is being structured in parallel. These few months of harmony in their new home and with the marine environment have allowed them to realize that their way of life and consumption have changed. Small daily actions to inform, raise awareness and act are essential and the association they have created takes its full meaning sense.
Why "Sail & Share Horizons"?
The Horizons association existed at the time of the previous owner of Carmina. Our young couple decides to appropriate it to make a '' association which sees far and which makes good ''. Their new daily life becomes minimalist, because it is necessary to go to the essential when one lives all year long with 2 children on board. Less laundry and diapers of course, but what is the direct impact of soapy water in the sea?
On a larger scale, what is our influence on marine life? Life on a sailboat generates many questions and more responsible acts. "Horizons Sailing & Sharing" is therefore reinvested to develop actions against ocean pollution by raising the awareness of the new generation. Good habits are anchored from a very young age. The association represents an important commitment for the parents of Lou and Peyo. It's not every day that we have vacations on board, but what a great energy deployed.
How to act? The 2021 Tour de France Sailing Race
The realization of the ecological Tour de France à la Voile aims to '' raise awareness, understand and act for our oceans ''.
More concretely, in each stage city, the pace is set from the friday evening by bringing together local companies and associations working to reduce waste. This evening allows stakeholders to exchange ideas and carry out joint projects in a studious and relaxed atmosphere, in order to make them known to the general public. Local elected officials are systematically solicited, but their presence and involvement remain limited, despite the importance of the topics discussed.
The saturday morning the 5 R's forum takes place around the following pragmatic actions:
- Refuse plastic
- Reduce your waste
- Repair your objects
- Recycle
- Give back the dignity of the Earth.
The afternoon is dedicated to workshops with the discovery of the life on the boat and the meeting with the crew, escape game and reading of tales.
The sunday morning, the most motivated meet for a collective activity of collecting waste along the coastline, respecting the sanitary instructions. The afternoon allows walkers and the curious to meet local associations and to engage in lively and positive exchanges. Vanessa can then characterize the collected waste. It is necessary to define and quantify the nature of the waste collected from a very precise questionnaire. It is a big job, because each waste goes in a box.
The Ministry of Ecological Transition has funded the " Zero waste "The aim of the project is to centralize the work of the many associations that fight against pollution throughout the territory. Acting at the source and identifying waste allows us to seek alternative solutions for these pollutants. A list of 10 single-use plastic items has been banned from January 1, 2020.
Monday closes the stage with the intervention of the association Horizons in a school during 3 hours. The primary school pupils are curious and attentive to the presentation of the 5 R's, eco-actions, recycling of objects through "do-it-yourself" workshops and life on a sailing boat. An escape game in small groups raises pertinent questions about sorting and the subjects seen together at the beginning of the morning. The children always retain something from their meeting with the Maguin family and discuss it easily with their parents. It is not a question of giving lessons but of presenting new ways of consuming.
The first steps and the first findings
"Horizons" started its tour of France on March 12, 2021 with a first stop in Lorient, which is also the home port of Carmina. The second stopover in Vannes from March 19 to 22 was an opportunity to meet a local MP and to raise awareness among children and people from all walks of life about the fragility of the marine environment. The third stage in Pornic from March 26 to 29 was the result of an intervention in middle school and beautiful meetings with the public, in collaboration with several local associations.
Carmina is moored in Les Sables d'Olonne since April 3, 2021. Containment measures have delayed and modified the initial program. The association waited and was able to organize a morning of waste collection and sorting on Saturday, May 1: 20 people collected 25 kg.
Knowing how to federate...
In Covid time: not so simple! As the Tour de France progresses, the wish is to gather as many people as possible.
A taboo persists around waste and the notion of a dirty city. It is not well seen in some coastal cities to see waste spread out to be characterized. Sometimes its quantity surprises and brings thoughts to the passers-by. This is why the collaboration with the local elected officials is important.
To date, 240 kg of waste have been characterized and 480 people have been educated.
Financing and partners
"Horizons" is refining its partnership file, because new patrons and sponsors are needed to finance the future and new communication actions.
Responding to a call for projects launched by Explore (an endowment fund created by the explorer Roland Jourdain and located in Concarneau) is one of the avenues.
Among the faithful partners, we find the Fondation de la Mer with its program " A gesture for the sea "which lists all the actions of waste collection on the whole territory. The ZeroWaste and Surfrider Europe movements follow closely the actions led by Yorick and Vanessa's association. La Fresque Océane proposes and animates a playful and collaborative workshop during the stages of the Tour de France.
Discussions are underway with The Sea Cleaner and Oceano Vox, because participatory marine science is valuable and enriches our knowledge of this fragile ecosystem and the impacts of our daily actions. Finding a prestigious and emblematic sponsor would also allow the association to have more visibility. The idea of participatory financing is also being explored in 2022 to raise funds with a constructed project.
And tomorrow?
The stopovers were rescheduled to accommodate the 3rd containment in early April. We will meet Carmina around May 10 in the Old Port of La Rochelle, at the Bassin des Chalutiers. A waste collection action is scheduled.
The next part of the journey will lead them around May 22 to Cape Breton and then to Hendaye at the end of May. These last two stops on the Atlantic coast will be rich in meetings and events.
It will then be time to go back to Roscoff for mid-June and to extend the Tour de France on the Channel coast until Dunkirk on August 8.
The last part of the Tour de France 2021 will start again at the end of September on the Mediterranean coast, to find its climax in Cannes during the European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR) from 20 to 28 November 2021.
An on-board book made up of Vanessa's drawings and the testimonies collected should see the light of day within 2 years. Its ambition is to put forward the " local nuggets s" but also the failures. The avowed objective is to share real and moving stories, to break taboos and to give the strength and the desire to as many people as possible to get moving.
Call for volunteers and members
A dynamic team is starting to form around Yorick and Vanessa. Let's mention Sophie in Calais, Gwénola, Guillaume or Eugénie. They are eager to participate in this project by bringing their enthusiasm. The crew is delighted, but more volunteers are still needed to animate the stages all over France, to feed the activities, and to create communication supports (photos, videos,...).
Let's also remember that the association is fed by its members and that they must be numerous to contribute, imagine and vote for future projects related to our most precious environment, the sea.
It is about taking small steps and being in tune with our convictions. By creating a social link around a noble and ambitious project, we can answer the skeptics that our daily actions make sense at the local level. Without being elitist or fundamentalists of zero waste, let's take the bet to adopt barrier gestures towards the ocean.
