This award acknowledges private vessels, their owners, and/or crew that have actively helped enhance the health of the ocean. This could be through allowing access for researchers, conservationists and scientists, or through raising awareness of ocean issues, or through hands-on initiatives of their own. This award is designed to celebrate the people behind the scenes who work to allow vital ocean-saving work to occur. The winner will demonstrate a commitment to ocean conservation throughout their vessel function, and the people who serve on her.
Nominees for this award must be able to demonstrate how their vessel and those onboard have provided services to enable work to occur that demonstrably enhances ocean health, either by adapting, or by equipping a vessel, which enables valuable conservation work. Nominees must also provide evidence of the kind of impact the research conducted has had, or could have, on ocean preservation.
The finalists are:
- Ragnar - Arcon Yachts
- Beluga - Ocean Alliance
1. Ragnar - Arcon Yachts
Ragnar is a superyacht explorer capable of automatically transmitting oceanographic and meteorological data of scientific quality. Ragnar is a large-scale conversion yacht, originally made as an icebreaker. After the refit and modernisation, it is now a 62.8m research yacht which is fully prepared for long autonomous trips in any latitude of the world, including the Arctic. It can still perform as an icebreaker and is certified as an Ice Class A1 yacht. Due to a draft of only 3.15m the yacht has access to the most remote corners of the world and shallow beaches.
The scientific instruments on Ragnar collect high quality oceanographic and atmospheric data to be used for climate and ocean research. The Ragnar automatically collects scientific data every six seconds (temperature, salinity, atmospheric pressure, air temperature, wind direction and strength). At two minutes, the OSC-Software transmits the median of the data as well as the geographical position to the vessel to Météo-France, which checks and validates the submitted data automatically. The data collected by the OSC system are available from the meteorological and oceanographic institutes for all 194 countries of the UN.
2. Beluga - Ocean Alliance
Australia-based yacht agency Ocean Alliance has teamed up with Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef, where individuals can charter MY Beluga while also contributing to marine research. The project aims to make scientific research accessible and easy, whilst utilising science communication in an engaging way. Hands-on interaction with citizen science is encouraged on board, enabling participants to follow the progress and results of their survey. The project also provides a sense of ownership, responsibility and care that will help spread the word about marine citizen science among the close-knit superyacht community.
In November 2020, Beluga was the first-ever superyacht to take part in the Great Reef Census. The Great Reef Census is a world-first for superyacht owners and charterers to participate in conservation efforts on the Australian Great Barrier Reef. It is an opportunity to encourage a culture of ‘yachting for purpose’ and offer charterers on board Beluga the ability to incorporate a meaningful contribution to the ecosystem they are experiencing.
Return to the finalist page here.