A thousand days to save the Mediterranean Sea

One is a former ocean racer, the other is a winemaker, and the third is an American media man, a renowned cameraman in the worlds of sports and documentaries. Apparently, nothing predestined Lionel Péan, Jean-François Ott, and Tom Woods to meet. Except for their shared passion for the sea. And especially the Mediterranean, where they live.

A sea mistreated by men, but which our three friends have decided to defend. Together. At 74 years old, Tom Woods, owner for forty years of Wiki , a Bermudian ketch more than a hundred years old, is preparing to sail Mare Nostrum for 1,000 days! The objective of this long-distance voyage: to give a voice to young people and children from the 24 countries that border the Big Blue so that they can tell their Mediterranean story, how they experience it, how they see it evolving and their solutions for protecting it.

The floor is given to young people

"The idea came to me while I was anchored off Villefranche-sur-Mer, under the ramparts of the citadel. Thinking about this sea of ​​plastic, which is warming up and being submerged by mass tourism, I asked myself: what kind of world am I going to leave to William Thomas, my 17-year-old son? In response, I came up with the Help Save the Med project," says Tom, excited at the idea of ​​setting sail for a journey of at least 22,000 miles!

Although the big departure is planned for mid-September, and the project continues to be refined until then, Tom Woods and his team are already hard at work. An enriching meeting with the students of the Institution François-d'Assise-Nicolas-Barré and the sports section of the Monaco Yacht Club convinced him that the future of the Mediterranean lies in the hands of the young people on its shores. "On the condition that we don't create eco-anxiety in them by telling them that the world is lost, but on the contrary that we give them a voice so that they can tell us how to improve things," insists Tom.

The return to grace of sailing

Wiki 's choice is not insignificant for this adventure, which aims to be ethical. More than a hundred years old, the sailboat is indeed a fine example of sustainable shipbuilding and soft mobility. Values ​​shared by Lionel Péan. While the latter raced in his time on modern sailboats made of composite materials, today, he sails exclusively at the helm of the Hermitage , a wooden yawl from 1965. "Sixty years after its construction, 70% of the planking is original! The sailboat is extremely durable and, if necessary, we could recycle it entirely," he confides.

It is with great interest that Lionel Péan observes the return of sailing as a mode of propulsion in maritime transport. "I am extremely in favor of it. It may be seen as a niche, but the Canopée, a ship equipped with four vertical wings that carries the Ariane 6 rocket, achieves significant fuel savings." This is one example among others of hybrid propulsion that the dashing sixty-year-old would like to see developed. Particularly on motorized pleasure boats, which represent 78% of pleasure boats built each year. "The fact that we consume large quantities of hydrocarbons for leisure purposes is an aberration!" says Lionel Péan.

Heritage preservation

His view, however, is less pessimistic about the state of the oceans. "I've been sailing for over sixty years, and I've noticed that the oceans are much cleaner today than they were thirty years ago. We've made enormous progress in water treatment, and ships, whether military or civilian, no longer throw their trash overboard like they used to. Closer to home, thanks to the Pelagos Sanctuary, we also see a lot more marine life: cetaceans, turtles, flying fish..."

Biodiversity is what prompted Jean-François Ott to take an interest in the Help Save the Med project. "For me, who runs the Ott estates, and in particular Clos Mireille, which stretches all the way to the Mediterranean Sea, defending biodiversity, in all its forms, is something that makes sense. And then, the fact that Tom Woods' project is embodied by his sailboat Wiki touches me a lot. I am at the head of three estates that were created 130 years ago, so the preservation and transmission of heritage obviously touches me," confides the Var winemaker, who has not ruled out the idea of ​​one day exporting his bottles of wine via... sailing cargo ships.