Seafarers know it well and they’ve always experienced it: sailing requires developing skills and knowledge that are rarely found in land-based activities. It requires interpreting the wind, reading the sea, anticipating changes, making quick decisions and assuming responsibility. Sailing is a school of life that combines technique, intuition, maritime culture and an intimate relationship with the environment. That is why sailing has been one of the most profound expressions of humanknd’s relationship with the sea for centuries.<\/p>\n
Like all human activity, sailing is part of the economy in its broadest sense: the science that studies how societies create value, manage resources and project the future. In the last decade, a specific concept that has broadened this perspective has emerged with a great deal of momentum: the blue economy.<\/p>\n
It is not a simple maritime spin-off of the green economy, although it shares the vision of sustainable development. The blue economy arises from the convergence of marine science, public policies and industrial innovation. It has become one of the keys to protecting and managing seas and coastal areas. The European Commission has placed it at the centre of its agenda while coastal governments are incorporating it into their strategic plans.<\/p>\n
Today the blue economy is understood as an interconnected ecosystem that features at least eight dimensions that feed back on each other: ports, fishing, marine renewable energies, oceanography, climatology, nautical tourism, the naval industry and ocean biotechnology.<\/p>\n
The blue economy is important across the globe. Earth’s oceans produce more than 50% of the planet’s oxygen, absorb nearly a quarter of the CO\u2082 we emit and regulate the global climate. They are the main source of protein for more than 3 billion people, host the largest reserve of biodiversity on the planet and concentrate energy, biotechnological and mineral resources essential for the ecological transition.<\/p>\n
In this sense, the blue economy is not just a development framework. According to the United Nations, it supports around 600 million people and generates 100 million direct jobs, mainly in fishing, aquaculture and coastal tourism. If formal maritime sectors are included \u2014transport, marine energy, tourism, industrial fishing\u2014 the figure rises to 133 million jobs and could grow to 184 million by 2050 with an appropriate sustainable transition. The value of the ocean’s assets exceeds 2.5 trillion dollars, making the blue economy the seventh largest economy in the world in terms of GDP. It is a planetary infrastructure that directly affects the future of the world.<\/p>\n
Understood in its broad sense in terms of sport and leisure, sailing forms the basis of a large part of the blue economy. It is a strategic, cross-the-board sector: sailing involves close relationships between athletes, race organisers, designers, builders and specialists who are intertwined in a context that reinforces maritime culture, environmental respect, scientific knowledge and human and humanitarian values.<\/p>\n
Race organisers, sponsors, technical teams and sailors have always internalised these values \u200b\u200band have helped them to evolve, which has succeeded in demonstrating how the natural capital of the sea can be transformed into well-being, knowledge and economic value for society.<\/p>\n
As a sport that relies on ancestral technology reinterpreted from a contemporary perspective, sailing fosters an emotional and cultural bond with the sea. Maritimity \u2014the set of knowledge, trades, practices and bonds that connect a community with the maritime environment\u2014 is, in itself, a cultural infrastructure. And sailing is one of its most effective vehicles: it teaches how to read the environment, demands cooperation, rewards resilience, forces respect for physical and meteorological laws and instills a long-term perspective.<\/p>\n
Knowledge of materials and the ability to transform this understanding into control and manoeuver offer a direct perspective on industrial processes. Against the backdrop of the climate emergency, all these attributes contribute to forming more keenly aware communities that are prepared and working for the required adaptation.<\/p>\n
Sailing has enormous potential across Europe: nearly 48 million citizens regularly participate in recreational nautical activities, 36 million of whom are sailors. Six million boats are in European waters while there are more than 10,000 marinas in operation, offering more than a million moorings. The everyday infrastructure of the blue economy in Europe explains the true breadth of the sector.<\/p>\n