Longtime sailor and software entrepreneur, Dr. Jim Clark, has owned many yachts over the years. But both his most recent builds have come from the venerable Royal Huisman yard in Holland. Hyperion was launched 10 years ago and Clark had configured the 155-foot German Frers-designed sloop so it could be run—at least on paper—entirely by computer. Two years ago Royal Huisman completed work on Clark’s latest project, the stunningly handsome 289-foot three-masted schooner Athena.

Clark, a founding member of the non-profit International Seakeepers Society, has now established another non-profit, the Ocean Preservation Society. The purpose of the society is to film and document the beauty and, unfortunately, the degradation of the world’s oceans, coral reefs and other fragile marine ecosystems. Using Athena as the operations base, photographer Louie Psihoyos has filmed humpback whales off the Dominican Republic and visited many of the remote atolls in the South Pacific. Early reports are that reefs healthy just 20 years ago now are bleached and dying.

Ocean Preservation plans to release these films to a worldwide audience later this year. Count on it being a rousing call to action delivered from the deck of one of the prettiest sailing yachts in the world.

Posted: April 21, 2008