Reducing & Eliminating Single Use Water Bottles

Clean Regattas

Registration

Running a Clean Regatta

Regatta: New York Yacht Club Vanguard 15 Team Race

Challenge: How to have water available for sailors who stay on the water all day, and races are starting rapidly.

Solution: 5-gallon jugs are purchased from the local water company. Dolphin pumps on the jug allow for water to come out quickly filling a 20oz bottle in about 3 pumps. Ideally these water jugs can be placed on a spare boat or portable floating dock that is anchored out of the way of the racecourse, yet easily accessible for competitors. The self-service allows competitors to easily re-fill their bottles at their own convenience. When it is not possible to have a spare boat or dock, these jugs can be placed in coach boats, judge boats, or race committee boats.

Venue: This works well for regattas when sailors are on the water all day in boats that are small enough to pull up next to an inflatable. Filling up the water bottles takes only a few seconds more than having to pick up a disposable bottle from a chase boat.

Regatta: 2011 ICSA College Sailing National Championships

Challenge: Having a large amount of filtered water for competitors, coaches, race committees, judges and spectators at training, racing and social events.

Solution: Zip 2 Water Stations were developed by sailors to provide an unlimited supply of filtered water. It is a portable event system that can filter and purify local tap water. Each, self-serve, auto-shutoff tap can fill a water bottle in 3-4 seconds. A single unit can serve 500 people per hour. The stations are lightweight and easily set up and taken down by one person and can quickly be repositioned for use at the docks during the day and parties at night. Stations can be left securely in place for a weekend regatta or an entire season.

Zip 2 Water Stations connect to pressurized tap water sources such as a hose bib, fire hydrant or sprinkler system. Multistage filtering removes chlorine taste and harmful impurities such as lead and bacteria. ACTive Cooling Technology needs no ice or electric power to keep the water cool and refreshing even under a hot sun. Water station graphics can be customized for yacht clubs, regattas and schools. More information and online ordering at zip2water.com.

Venues: Fast and flexible system for yacht clubs and sailing centers with a direct water source that needs to be filtered. The unit can be used to fill up water jugs with filtered water that are taken out on race management or coach boats.

Regatta: Marblehead Junior Race Week

Challenge: Water access for hundreds of sailors, but no convenient hose attachments or water source.

Solution: This is an alternative solution to the Nantucket Race Week Water Boy Hydration System for regattas that do not have access to a convenient water source at the event site, or who do not have access to a Water Boy Hydration System. In lieu of a free-standing water dispenser, this relies more on volunteer Green Team support, though the concept is very simple.

This method requires several 5 gallon water coolers of the type many sailing organizations already possess. You can find these online for around $20-$50 each or at most sporting goods stores.

The coolers should be placed around the regatta site in locations such as the registration tent, on the docks and other high traffic areas where they can be easily accessed. As the coolers are emptied by racers refilling their bottles, Green Team members should monitor and refill the coolers from a suitable water source and replace them throughout the event. Green Teams should track the amount of water that gets used by tallying the number of times each cooler is refilled. This can be done by taping a note card to each cooler, which can be marked with a pen upon each 5 gallon refill. The total number of gallons used during an event can be converted into the number of water bottles that were conserved as a result of this effort.

Venues: Great for youth regattas, and regattas with multiple classes and races that don't have access to direct water sources.

Regatta: Nantucket Race Week

Challenge: Getting as many water bottles filled in the quickest amount of time possible.

Solution: Water Boy Hydration Systems were set up in multiple locations on the docks. The filling station easily attaches to a hose and allows 8 people to fill up their water bottles at a time. Water comes out quickly and it takes about 4 seconds to fill up a 20oz bottle.

Venues: Practical for regattas where sailors will coma a shore in between races such as Collegiate Sailing when A/B divisions rotate. Additionally this works well for large events such as Nantucket Race Week to allow multiple people to fill up their water bottles quickly. Nantucket Race Week used the hydration system on the docks and at after racing parties.

Regatta: NYYC Women's Match Racing Clinic

Challenge: Larger boats with more people on board, and competitors were responsible for bringing their own water.

Solution: With competitor's sailing in keelboats, and not rotating very often, they were able to bring their own 2.5-gallon jugs to fill up their water bottles. These jugs could easily be kept on the keelboat or on coach boats. While unfortunately these jugs are made out of disposable plastic it does still help with the reduction of marine debris and waste, while reducing cost. Since competitors were made aware ahead of time that they needed to bring their own water, they were able to be prepared. This can also be applied to Gatorade and other sports drinks which can be bought it bigger jugs, or in powdered form, both would reduce cost and plastic waste.

Venue: Great for large boat regattas where boats are capable of carrying their own water.