Workers at Green VI in progress making the 2015 Awards
The 2015 BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival is all dressed up and ready to strut her stuff. Our application to Sailors for the Sea’s Clean Regattas program, the world’s only certification system for water based events, has awarded us their Gold Level certificate.
The BVI Spring Regatta was first awarded a Silver certificate in 2009. In 2010, the BVI Spring Regatta was the first Caribbean regatta to be awarded Gold Level Certification and has maintained it’s Gold level every year since then. Our pinnacle was in 2013 when the BVI Spring Regatta became the first Carbon Neutral regatta on the planet!
The BVI Spring Regatta has contracted with GreenVI to produce our awards in their gallery using glass that has been collected and recycled from past regatta beverage containers! GreenVI is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to demonstrating the principles and benefits of sustainable living in the beautiful BVI. Not only are they producing the awards using their reheating chamber that is fueled by used vegetable oil collected from area restaurants, but they are packaging the awards in repurposed Heineken boxes and recycled padding.
In an effort to eliminate plastic, our refillable water bottles are sponsored by the BVI Marine Association and Clearwater. The bottles are given to each skipper and then sold filled with water for $5, with proceeds going to Green VI for recycling efforts. Water is then free during the event. This initiative of the regatta has become the #1 criteria for the Clean Regatta program.
All of this “greenness” requires a community effort. Our event host Nanny Cay Resort and Marina is very environmentally conscious and the resort is run with sustainability in mind. Each year we provide our participants with skipper’s bag that are full of information and goodies from our sponsors. This year SOL is providing us with zippered Cool Bags, made for the first time for the event by Keep Cool Bags from California. These will be functional as well as beautiful. We will be giving biodegradable trash bags to each entrant. The bio bags will include a list of green initiatives supported by Nanny Cay and the Regatta along with a list of green cleaning products and will be hand-delivered to each participating boat by our Rotaracter/Green Ranger team. Last year, the BVI Spring Regatta awarded the first annual Green Boat award. This award was designed and made by Nutmeg Designs, the BVIs only sustainable goods shop. This year we are expanding the award and will be judged by Mark Davis, president of Sailors for the Sea along with local representatives from GreenVI, Nutmeg Designs and the Department of Waste Management on Tortola.
Sailors at this year’s Regatta are encouraged to participate in the Green Boat Award survey and those doing so will receive a FREE annie macphail™ spinnaker pouch, compliments of the BVI Spring Regatta Committee and qualify to win the first place prize: an annie macphail™ recycled sail cloth tote bag (value: $110).
Reusable Insulated Keep Cool Skipper Bags
“Even with our success in the past, supporting an eco-conscious lifestyle, the BVI Spring Regatta is hoping to achieve even more. We are the protectors of our beautiful water-playground and we constantly strive to further our vision of a “green, clean, healthy and prosperous BVI,” says Judy Petz, Director, BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival.
So join the 2015 BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival from March 30th-April 5th and help us enjoy life and celebrate the beauty of sailing as part of a sustainable lifestyle. Yes, green is the new black as we protect the resources that make the BVI such a perfect place to live and play.
All the latest news, images and video can be found on the BVI Spring Regatta web site.
Warm Water, Hot Racing, Cool Parties
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