Racing with purpose: LandSeaLot teams up with The Ocean Race Europe
The Ocean Race Europe is one of the most challenging sporting events in the world. Across 4,500 nautical miles for six weeks straight, crews raced on cutting-edge yachts across the 2025 route. This year’s race began in Kiel (Germany), with stops in Portsmouth (UK), Matosinhos (Portugal) (fly-by), Cartagena (Spain), Nice (France), and Genoa (Italy) before finishing in Boka Bay (Montenegro).
Besides offering weeks of spectacle with inspiring insights showcasing competitors’ physical endurance, technical skill and teamwork, The Ocean Race drives ocean literacy and action among its international audience. One of their most notable acts has been to advocate for a Universal Declaration of Ocean Rights, and the organisation has long fostered curiosity about the impacts of human activity on marine life and the future of ocean sustainability. These commitments dovetail with LandSeaLot’s mission to improve how we observe and understand the areas of the world where the land meets the sea, and to involve wider communities – including sailors, surfers, fishers and beachgoers – in cohesive European efforts to study and protect the land-sea interface.
Engaging Communities at Stopovers
In summer 2025, LandSeaLot partners offered interactive learning opportunities at The Ocean Race Europe stopovers in Portsmouth, Cartagena, Nice, and Genoa. These events were an exciting chance to meet local race participants, attendees, and stakeholders involved in coastal management. Attendees were invited to discover LandSeaLot’s mission to make the study of the land-sea interface more accessible.
With hands-on opportunities to test small sensors and other devices that non-experts can use to measure local factors like water quality and temperature, the events sparked discussions on how citizen-collected data can fuel international knowledge and policy. With materials available for all ages, LandSeaLot partners were delighted to meet and engage with an extended community at The Ocean Race Europe.
A Successful Partnership
LandSeaLot extends its thanks to The Ocean Race Europe for facilitating these exciting opportunities for engagement and citizen science activation.
As Rebecca White, Senior Advisor for Learning at The Ocean Race, commented: “We were very pleased to have LandSeaLot join us. Their contribution provided a strong example of how Europe can be connected through inclusive and accessible approaches to marine citizen science. By actively engaging with a wide range of audiences, LandSeaLot demonstrated both the relevance and the reach of their work, fostering meaningful dialogue on the importance of ocean literacy and public participation in science.
One of the clear highlights of LandSeaLot’s involvement was the demonstration of sensors in Genoa during water lab sessions, which served as a tangible and inspiring example of citizen science in practice. This not only showcased technological innovation but also helped illustrate the practical ways in which communities can contribute to ocean monitoring and sustainability.
Overall, LandSeaLot’s participation added considerable value to The Ocean Race Europe, and we would be delighted to explore future collaborations with them over the life of their project,” White concluded.
Melanie Symes from TransEurope Marinas, a LandSeaLot partner and coordinator for stopover participation, expressed her thanks for the level of support and integration opportunities offered by the Race organisers. “This has been a marvellous opportunity to both connect with fascinating ocean science initiatives and gather useful feedback on how coastal community groups could deploy cost-effective sensors more productively. We look forward to working with The Ocean Race to extend this work.”
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