11th Hour Racing sponsors IMOCA to advance competitive sailing diversity, sustainability

The International Monohull Open Class Association (IMOCA) and offshore sailing racing team 11th Hour Racing are joining forces to drive sustainable innovation and support opportunities for female sailors within competitive sailing. The partnership will help promote and develop a series of seven programs that the IMOCA Class has been working on over the last 4 years targeting these main objectives.

These efforts focus on reducing the marine industry’s environmental impact by collaborating with boatbuilders and material experts to source alternative materials (such as flax or recycled carbon fiber), empowering the next generation of female leaders in sailing in partnership with The Magenta Project and developing solutions to mitigate collisions between racing yachts and marine mammals in offshore races. With 11th Hour Racing’s support, IMOCA’s ambition is to expand the dynamics of its collaborative projects, particularly within the maritime industry.

“I can’t think of a better organization than 11th Hour Racing for us to work with, given their established track record on environmental projects, on inclusion and on efforts to preserve the oceans and the creatures that live in it,” says Antoine Mermod, the president of the IMOCA Class. The two organizations have history working together during The Ocean Race from 2022-2023.

IMOCA is a class of skippers and teams, where each member votes to endorse new rules at the Annual General Meeting of the Class in Lorient, Brittany, France. For example, the Green Sail rule — defined as a sail crafted to reduce emissions by 30% per kilogram compared to standard sails — requires every participating IMOCA to carry at least one Green Sail in its onboard sail inventory. This year, the class introduced a new regulation for all new IMOCA boat builds between 2025 and 2028 to reduce harmful emissions by 15% — or approximately 60 metric tons of CO₂ (60tCO₂e).

As part of some of its other projects being supported by 11^th Hour Racing, the IMOCA Class is expanding its onboard science program, collaborating with scientific partners such as the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO since 2015. By the end of 2024, this program aims to equip at least half of the IMOCA fleet with scientific instruments to monitor oceanic CO₂ levels, microplastic pollution distribution and meteorological data that enhances weather models.

IMOCA will also oversee Lorient’s carbon fiber recycling pilot project, managing its expansion, diversification, and implementation, focused on boosting the yield of recycled materials year over year.