About Us
REBECCA SYKES
BSc MSc PhD CEng
Rebecca is currently an independent consultant and researcher in renewable energy and sustainability. She has a BEng in Aeronautical Engineering, an MSc in Renewable Energy Systems, a PhD in Wave Energy, and is a regular speaker at international renewable energy conferences and events. Rebecca is a Commercial Skipper and has a passion for the sea and environmental science.
NICK BECK
Before leaving the business world to commission and sail the Amelie Rose Nick was a successful IT Project/Programme Manager, working for companies including Barclays Capital, Cable & Wireless and COLT. In 2009 Nick left IT to run Amelie Rose and has since sailed her over 15,000 nm around the English Channel. Nick is a Commercial Skipper & RYA Yachtmaster Instructor and is passionate about helping people and protecting the environment.
Amelie Rose
The Amelie Rose is a replica of a 19th Century wooden Pilot Cutter and was launched in 2009. She is licensed by the UK Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) to carry up to 10 passengers / crew anywhere in the English Channel. Built in Cornwall using traditional methods she has worked as a successful holiday and training charter vessel and in 2012 starred in "The Hungry Sailors" on ITV.
Our Clean Seas Story
We love the sea. We love her different moods, how the same stretch of coast can be entirely changed in just a matter of hours. Over the last 10 years we’ve taken hundreds of people sailing around the English Channel, introducing them to our wonderful watery world. We've studied that world both from boats and at university. One of us has even sought to develop renewable energy from her incredible power.
"The amount plastic waste in our seas and along our coastlines is reaching crisis point"
Sailing means we get to see a lot of beaches. Many many beaches. We love beaches. Who doesn't? The views, the sounds, the feeling of sand between our toes, but there's a problem, and over the last few years we've seen it get worse and worse.
The amount plastic waste in our seas and along our coastlines is reaching crisis point. It’s affecting the health of the oceans and the creatures that live there. There is also emerging evidence that it may be affecting our health too.
"We can stem this plastic tide, but our best chance to do so is to do it together."
We believe that together we need to embark on a journey to understand the benefits of a circular economy, where, for non-biological materials, not only the packaging but also the contents are designed from first principles to be used, reclaimed, re-made and used again in a near infinite cycle.
We think that the resource constrained environment of a boat is the perfect analogy to help shape our thinking in this way. And so we invite you to accompany us on a voyage
We know that there will be no easy solutions. We must ensure that we don’t create a worse environmental problem as we try to fix this one. We are also aware that plastic pollution is only the tip of a deeper issue with our current resource-depleting linear economy. The mantra of reduce, reuse, recycle is something we all should aim to achieve but alone will not solve the problem which is that we are burning through the finite resources of our planet at an ever increasing pace.
around the English Channel. Either come along sail with us in person, share your ideas and research with us, meet up with us at one of our shoreside events or simply watch our videos, read our blogs and share our social media posts.
We can stem this plastic tide, but our best chance to do so is to do it together. We are determined to try - we hope that you are too.
Nick & Rebecca
We can’t bear to stand by, idly waiting for “someone” to do something about it and so have decided that we will do what we can to find out more about the problem and to spread the word about what we can all do to help solve it. We’ve set aside our normal jobs to do this and we hope that you will join us to find out what we can achieve together.