Ocean Classrooms & Citizen Science

Learning and Education at Sea

There has never been a more important time to learn more about our ocean systems. It effects our climate and all the creatures that live on the planet, including humans.

The call to action is for all ages. Whether you can only spare a few days or a few months, you can make a valuable contribution.

Classic Sailing is involved with various projects lead by inspirational people. Projects that utilise our green sailing vessels as citizen science classrooms and research ships. It goes beyond just waking up the world to the importance of our oceans. Our latest partnerships promote sailing projects that involve ordinary people participating in environmental research & conservation.

If you want to justify your ocean wanderlust, then we urge you to do something useful whilst you see the world! Use your enthusiasm and new knowledge to be a passionate ambassador for the oceans.

Our recent big citizen science programme was Darwin200 on Oosterschelde, but we also have other pioneering sailing ships in our fleet that regularly explore remote corners of the world. They connect with conservation projects and help with scientific discovery. Sign up for our e-newsletter to be kept up to date with new expeditions, projects and vessels.

Tecla sails through the North West Passage every 2 year. She explores the world from North to South, looping Cape Horn, Antarctica as well as the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

Santa Maria Manuela has worked with National Geographic divers exploring the underwater world and helped to create Marine Nature Reserves.

Sunbeam regularly sails with local university and research groups. She provides a floating base for a wide variety of maritime environment monitoring projects.

Enhance Your CV – Stand Out From the Crowd

Are you interested in persewing a career in:

• climate change,
• conservation,
• marine biology,
• oceanography,
• coastal zone management,
• fisheries,
• offshore renewable energy,
• polar expedition planning
• or any work at sea?

If you’re looking for a career in an environmental field, then we encourage you to participate in a sailing expedition. It’s a great way to network with professionals it helps you stand out amongst the crowd at job interviews.

Darwin 200 – Round The World project

Three masted topsail schooner Oosterschelde sailed around the world as part of an incredible educational and activist project -DARWIN200. The project was a planetary conservation initiative that aimed to train and empower the next generation’s environmental leaders. It also aimed to engage millions of students worldwide in conservation projects. Between 2023-2025, Oosterschelde re-traced the route of Charles Darwin’s voyage aboard HMS Beagle.

During the global voyage, the DARWIN200 team:
• Trained elite young conservationists, one from each of two hundred countries and states around the world.
• Created the World’s Most Exciting Classroom by beaming activities, research projects, experiments, lectures, essay competitions and weekly ‘nature hour’ events to schools across the globe, engaging millions of students, teachers and member of the general public.
• Undertook citizen science research projects by partnering with key conservation organisations to engage global audiences in tackling many of the world’s most critical environmental problems.

Sailing Voyages with lecturers and experts

Classic Sailing has over 300 voyages a year, so it is not always easy to identify which voyages will have guest lecturers on board. It is more common on the bigger ships as they have more cabins for extra staff. If a smaller vessel is running a themed voyage we will usually state if the voyage theme is being run by a skipper with good expertise on the subject, or whether they have employed a specialist to join you.

For example Tecla skippers have good Arctic and Antarctic knowledge and are well versed in wildlife, ice navigation and historic polar exploration stories. Tallulah’s skipper has run many past voyages with wildlife experts, so had good knowledge of marine life and birds in Cornwall. Provident runs hill walking and wild swimming voyages – sometimes with expert guides.