The News, Culture and Practice of Sailing woodenboats
in Australia, New Zealand & The South Pacific.

ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Whales and (good news) Tales

There is a growing awareness that focusing on tragedy and despair in our daily news cycle is not only an empirically unbalanced representation of the truth, but it is also harmful to the prospects of solving the problems we do actually face by creating despondency and a sense of zero agency.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

‘Once it’s gone, it’s gone’: the last coracle fishers

But like his fellow netsmen, Len Walters remains gloomy about what the future holds. “If you take away the right to fish, you’ll no longer have people making coracles,” he says. “And it’s such an amazing way to fish. All feel. No engines, no noises, just the skill of two boys in a coracle. And it’s sad because once it’s gone, it’s gone. It’ll never come back.”

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

What’s Stopping Us?

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology has announced an El Niño event is "likely in the coming weeks", but has again held off declaring that it is underway, despite having satisfied its own criteria.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Very Precious Plastic

All these hands coming together to realise a vision, a common purpose, aspiring for a better world- this is what success looks like. This is what hope looks like. Not passive hope, but hope from action.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

The Weather Guru

I’ve worked with the best sailors in the world. Pretty much all of them have an absolute feeling and instinct about the wind and the nature of the wind they’re sailing in. But if you scratch the surface, they know bugger-all. And if you could put a bit of science into it, they could learn a lot more. 

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

New Ways to Use Trees

“It’s quite simple for me,” says French designer Thomas Tison, “Modernity does not neglect where we all come from – on the contrary it makes the best of it. In a way a boat is a heritage, so to ignore wood would be to ignore the essence of yacht design and building.”

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

20% Less Fuel?

Their research showed that the Seawing would have a pulling power of up to 100 tons meaning it can contribute to propulsion for a ship of over 200,000 tons and over 1,000 feet in length. They project fuel savings on average of 20 percent by deploying the kite sail.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

The Green Nimby’s dilemma

On the 19th December Energy Minister Chris Bowen to declare Gippsland as Australia's first offshore wind zone. Mr Bowen also confirmed new parameters to a zone previously proposed in the consultation period.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

‘It’s a little bit of utopia’

Olivier Barreau and his twin brother, Jacques, are part of a small but growing number of entrepreneurs who are grappling with the problem of how to transport goods across the globe at a scale that makes economic sense, without further damaging the planet.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Bass Strait Seal Mania

After rounding Cape Howe onto the southern coast, Bass discovered a big bay he named “Western Port” because of its position relative to Port Jackson. Bass reported the southern coast and islands were teeming with seals and predicted a colonial sealing industry.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Tsumanis in Sydney Harbour

This day was different. There was a current tsunami warning

as a result of the enormous volcanic explosion and eruption in Tonga.

People were advised to keep clear of the shoreline and be aware that

there could be strong currents and unexpected eddies.

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