Annapolis, MD – In celebration of Plastic-Free July, the Hospice Cup regatta—the nation’s largest charity yacht race—announced a renewed and ambitious commitment to sustainability for its 2025 event.
Following a landmark year in 2024 that saw the regatta earn its first-ever Platinum Clean Regatta certification from Sailors for the Sea, organizers are setting their sights even higher. The prestigious certification from sustainable boating’s recognized governing body capped a year of dramatic progress: zero-waste efforts, a volunteer-powered Green Team, locally sourced food and composting strategies, and the elimination of single-use plastics across both land and sea elements of the event. These efforts culminated in the publication of Hospice Cup’s inaugural Sustainability Report, a comprehensive roadmap of achievements and future goals.
“I don’t know of any other regattas publishing formal sustainability reports,” said Meredith Glacken, who is returning as Executive Director of 2025 Hospice Cup. “We believe in being transparent about both our progress and our opportunities for growth. It’s part of how we hold ourselves accountable and lead by example in the sailing community.”
Sustainability Milestones
In 2024, Hospice Cup implemented over two dozen sustainability best practices, including:
- Elimination of single-use water bottles and distribution of Helly Hansen Annapolis-donated reusable dry bags in the regatta’s skipper welcome bags.
- A water refill station accessible at both check-in and the shore party.
- Compost bins that diverted over 400 pounds of food waste from landfills and returned 68 pounds of oyster shells to the Chesapeake Bay.
- Biodegradable bamboo dinnerware and locally sourced, plastic-free food service.
- RFID-enabled wristbands made from bamboo and recycled PET for admission and purchases—significantly reducing paper waste.
- A post-event Mimosa Marina Cleanup that collected 40 pounds of trash from the local shoreline.
- Digital race documents and instructions that encouraged green boating practices, with one notable team, RP45 Katsu, retrieving a 30-gallon plastic drum from the Bay.
Chesapeake Bay Trust Grant Fuels 2025 Expansion
To help amplify its sustainability efforts in 2025, Hospice Cup was awarded a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust to support strategic initiatives including broader public outreach, the expansion of the volunteer Green Team, and the inclusion of a sustainability expert speaker at the Friday evening weather briefing—a new addition that aims to engage skippers directly with ideas and actions they can take on the water.
“The grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust is a huge boost,” said Molly Wilmer, who is Chair of the Hospice Cup regatta. “It allows us to bring expert voices directly to our participants and show that sustainability is integral, not incidental to competitive sailing.”
“It also allows us to dedicate more of what we raise to our charitable mission in support of our four non-profit Hospice partners,” she adds.
Looking Ahead: Stewardship as Competition
Building on its recent success, Hospice Cup is introducing several new initiatives in 2025 to deepen its impact including enhanced crew communication, education and programming for first timers to the regatta, and a perpetual sustainability award.
The race has plans to again partner with Bread & Butter Kitchen for locally sourced crew lunches and with local vendors like burgers. and waterman Ron Wolf for sustainably sourced and waste-free food at the shore party. Annapolis-based and military-vetaran run Veteran Compost will also return in support of the event’s responsible all-compost waste disposal.
“We view the Chesapeake Bay as more than our racecourse. It’s also as something we’re also racing to protect,” said Glacken.
You can learn more about Hospice Cup and its sustainability initiatives at www.HospiceCup.org and by following the regatta on Instagram and Facebook at @HospiceCup.
