Mission Ocean says, Hello Sail-World!
by John Curnow on 14 Nov 2016
The port of La Ciotat, with the shipyard cranes in the background Mission Océan
The Managing Editor and the entire staff are delighted to announce that Mission Ocean will be delivering regular updates on their quest to make a real difference to the oceans we all enjoy. So before we hear directly from them, we need to give you some context as to who they are, what they are going to do for three years from 2017 on, and where they are up to right now.
Laura Beard and Henrique Agostinho are a young, dynamic couple who will sail around the world in a catamaran with a joint goal to share their love and respect for the ocean with others. This will be through education, scientific research, along with blogs and articles that will promote our association, Mission Ocean.
They are passionate about the fight against marine pollution, and aim to become actively involved in this throughout our journey. They are no strangers to the water, either, albeit that they took interesting ways to get there. Henrique holds Captain and Chief Engineer qualifications, speaks five languages and is across both power and sail, having completed one circumnavigation already on a motor yacht. You would not know it, but he actually started out in the automotive sector.
Laura was born by the sea and says that salt water has always run through her veins. She began her professional life in a water sports centre, teaching children from disadvantaged backgrounds to love, understand and respect the sea. Her own path to now is quite unique too. After reading French and Linguistics at Oxford University, she dropped anchor in Marseille and taught English in impoverished districts of the town, then fell upon a position as a Technical Assistant on a shipyard specializing in luxury yachts. I quickly progressed to Project Manager, leading multi-million euro maintenance and transformation projects on some of the world’s largest yachts. She is now working as Fleet Manager for Camper and Nicholsons International in Antibes.
They are ambitious, but without a goal you are just standing on the travellator of life. Mission Ocean will collect data using probes installed on the hull. Observations and recording of cetaceans in the different oceans that we cross is the aim and signalling incidents and pollution back to the relevant authorities will be the outcome. Part of this will be preparing detailed reports on marine pollution, both on the surface and below the water.
Mission Ocean also has a strong children focus, including working with children in schools in their town and region to raise their environmental awareness, and to teach them about the different career opportunities in the maritime sector. This will also extend to helping local populations along their route, and teaching them to better protect their environment.
They intend to provide isolated populations with equipment and materials that will improve their survival and living conditions, through low tech solutions inspired by existing projects, such as Corentin de Chatelperron’s innovative water maker, or simply by distributing masks and snorkels to improve their access to the ocean’s natural resources. Mission Ocean is also currently working on the possibility of providing school supplies and women’s hygiene products by sea, using local associations and organisations.
Now by reducing the environmental impact of their own yacht, they aim to inspire other, professional crews to do the same. They also aim to provide real time intel to organisations already involved in the battle to secure a future for our seas. This includes welcoming scientists and researchers on board, or collecting data for them, which will enable them to participate in existing projects, such as Tara Expeditions, who are currently measuring the absorption of decomposed plastic by plankton across the world.
So yes, it is an exciting time and Sail-World will bring you all of it. We’ll start with who they are, how they found a boat, which scientists are coming on board and where, along with results. What a journey, and we have to say, thanks Laura and Henrique for making it happen. It must now well and truly be time to hear from them.
“Hello Sail-World!”
“We’re excited to be joining the Sail-World community, and we invite you to follow our adventures through our regular articles, which will be published here.”
“Whilst Laura is a world tour virgin, this will be Henrique’s second circumnavigation. He grew up sailing Hobie Cats in the bay of Cannes, passed his French sailing instructor’s qualification and, after a brief stint developing hybrid engines at Peugeot-Citroën, began working in after sales for French marine engineering company, Moteurs Baudouin.”
“A stroke of luck and a bit of good advice saw him land a job as sole engineer on a 108’ private motor yacht, and before he knew it, he was on a flight to Guadeloupe to join the boat. After 18-months on board, he was well and truly bitten by the ocean sailing bug, and has never shaken it off. Ten years later, he now holds Captain 200 and Y3 engineer tickets, and has been working and sailing on 40-55m yachts ever since. Speaking five languages fluently has enabled him to work with shipyards and crew all over the world.”
“Laura is no stranger to the maritime world either, having grown up on the south coast of England. After graduating with a first class degree in French and Linguistics from the University of Oxford, she dropped anchor in Marseille, where she came across a job as an assistant on a shipyard specializing in luxury yachts. Outside of the yard, she sailed classic yachts in the famous Calanques National Park, and helped to refit a 12m Bermuda yawl from 1955 that had sunk in the Old Port. She quickly progressed to Project Manager at the shipyard, and was soon leading projects on some of the world’s largest yachts.”
“Our paths crossed in La Ciotat, a shipyard town on the Mediterranean between Marseille and Toulon. Built around a small fishing port and a gigantic 320m dry dock, La Ciotat is rich is naval and maritime history. The old construction yard is now a hub of superyacht refit facilities, but the town’s skyline is still dominated by the magnificent Krupp cranes that used to manoeuvre huge sections of ship from the hangars to the docks.”
“Laura had been working as a project manager at a refit facility there when Henrique came in to oversee some extensive maintenance on a 44m San Lorenzo motor yacht. We met at a shipyard social in a bar on the port, and the rest, as they say, is history.”
“We discovered our shared dream to sail the world somewhat by chance. After a long day of wine-tasting in Bandol one Saturday in December, we retired to a friend’s apartment, and all slumped down (rather sozzled) on the couch to watch a documentary channel, and let the wine go down. Philippe Poupon and his family sailing around the Marquesas filled the screen, and we were both transfixed.”
“Wouldn’t you just love to do that?” Laura asked.
“That’s my dream,” confessed Henrique.
“A few weeks later, once we’d established that we were both quite serious, plans were already being laid. We quickly settled on a catamaran, for comfort but also for volume and load-bearing possibilities (we will have a small laboratory on board, as well as dive equipment, and up to eight researchers at a time). Hours have been spent visiting dream destinations on Google Earth, weighing up the pros and cons of this boat, that watermaker, those solar panels…“
“Life is made up of happy coincidences, and whilst we both took different routes to get here, we are pretty thrilled to find ourselves trawling shipyards from Corsica to Brittany, hand-in-hand in search of our perfect catamaran. Laura has since given up refits in favour of a Fleet Manager position at Camper and Nicholsons, and joined Henrique in his native Cannes.“
“We hope that you’ll join us on the hunt for a boat in our next article; our search has taken us to some of France’s most famous sailing spots, and we are looking forward to sharing them with you.”
Mission Ocean is Henrique Agostinho and Laura Beard. Their three year plus mission is to share their love and respect for the ocean with others, through education, and scientific research. Neither is a stranger to the water, so they have combined all their skills and passions into this bold, courageous and inspiring project. Sail-Worldcruising.com is delighted to be with them for the journey of their lifetime.
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