2025-2028. A bold mission to protect our oceans, drive INNOVATION, contribute to SCIENCE and inspire CLIMATE ACTION NOW
Lisa aims to set a world-first record, as the first person in history to sail solo, non-stop, and unassisted around the Arctic, passing through both the Northwest Passage and the Northeast Passage, in one season. Sadly, this project is only possible due to the continued impacts of Climate Change.
Lisa has a bold vision to use this record as the 'narrative' or 'hook' to create a global platform of education on Climate Action Now through to schools and the general public. Building on the citizen science research that she undertook during her Antarctica record, Lisa also aims to complete an array of citizen science projects throughout the record, as well as develop and build the required vessel from Volcanic Fibre (otherwise known as Basalt rock). This is a currently available material that is 10 x stronger than fiberglass but only 15-20% more costly and holds much lower environmental impacts.
Lisa’s aim is to complete the required research to accelerate the shift from Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic (FRP) Recreational boats (aka Plastic boats) to a more long-term sustainable and attainable material. It is projected that the global recreational fiberglass boat market is set to reach US $9,538.5 million by 2024. The problem is that there is no long-term strategy for what to do with the waste of all these boats when they reach their end of life nor any real information regarding the abandoned vessels or the vessels lost at sea, microplastics, and ocean sustainability.
Between 2003 and 2012 alone, 1.5 million recreational boats were retired in the USA. Globally, over 35-40 million fibreglass boats are reaching their end of life now. With the increase in production and the delay of cause and effect. What will our fibreglass waste look like in 30 years?
Lisa’s vision is to coordinate a global collaboration between industry professionals, universities, researchers, and passionate professionals in this space and collectively tackle this issue through prevention. The idea is to provide a proven alternative to FRP vessels, including the end-of-life closed-loop options and environmental impact assessments, and then educate through storytelling via a TV series, documenting the developments and using the entertainment narrative of Lisa’s world record around the Arctic Circle. This will further educate the public on alternative options and in turn, create a consumer market for sustainable boats. The resulting data will be then shared with the boating industry globally before Lisa seeks commitments from manufacturers to transition their production to more sustainable solutions.
