Story Angles
From The Voices Collection

Ray Dalio

Founder, Bridgewater Associates · Co-founder, OceanX

Tech billionaires inheriting the deep-ocean baton from governments — OceanX as the working prototype.

“I believe that ocean exploration is more exciting and more important than space exploration.”

Eric Schmidt

Former CEO, Google · Co-founder, Schmidt Ocean Institute

Falkor (too) and Wind Voyage 110 are sister-class vessels — what private science platforms look like at 110 m.

“The ocean has always needed a moonshot.”

Marc Benioff

Founder & CEO, Salesforce · Founder, Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory

Why the Salesforce founder put $60M into ocean science when other tech CEOs were buying art.

“We're all deeply connected — not only to each other, but to the ocean and the planet as well.”

Wendy Schmidt

Co-founder, Schmidt Ocean Institute · Founder, 11th Hour Racing

11th Hour Racing won The Ocean Race 2022–23 carrying scientific sensors throughout — the new sailing playbook.

“The ocean gives us oxygen, food, climate stability — and we treat it like an afterthought. We can't.”

Paul Allen

Co-founder, Microsoft · Owner, M/Y Octopus

From Octopus to the Wind Voyage 110 — the lineage of the science-platform megayacht.

“It turns out if you go 1,000 feet down in the ocean, it's really dark, and the animals are really strange. But if you put on some Pink Floyd, it's fantastic.”

Larry Ellison

Founder, Oracle · Owner, Sayonara · 33rd & 34th America's Cup winner

Why the world's most successful America's Cup syndicate predicts the wind-powered explorer category.

“Sailing is the most beautiful way to look at the world.”

Victor Vescovo

Founder, Caladan Oceanic · First to reach the deepest point of all five oceans

The Five Deeps to the surface — what private ocean exploration looks like in the next decade.

“The oceans are 70 percent of our entire planet — and 95 percent of that is unexplored.”

Larry Connor

Founder, The Connor Group · Challenger Deep diver · ISS astronaut, Axiom-1

From Challenger Deep to the ISS — the multi-domain billionaire-adventurer archetype.

“I want to inspire the next generation of explorers — the kids who look at the ocean and think 'what's down there?'”

James Cameron

Filmmaker · Solo descent to Challenger Deep · Co-founder, OceanX

Cameron's deep-ocean cinema and the rise of yacht-as-research-vessel.

“Exploration is not really exploration if you're not bringing something back to share with the world.”

Don Walsh

U.S. Navy Captain · First descent to Challenger Deep, 1960

The 1960 Trieste dive and the 65-year arc to today's private deep-ocean programmes.

“The deep ocean is the last frontier on the planet we can still actually go to.”

Mike Horn

South African explorer · Owner, S/Y Pangaea · Solo Arctic & Equator circumnavigations

S/Y Pangaea at 35 m vs Wind Voyage 110 — the private expedition yacht, sized up.

“The only limits are the ones you accept.”

Bertrand Piccard

Founder, Solar Impulse · First non-stop round-the-world solar flight, 2016

Three generations of Piccards — and why pioneering spirit now means clean tech.

“Pioneering spirit should continue — not to conquer the planet or space, but rather to improve the quality of life.”

Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Captain, Calypso · Co-inventor of the aqualung · Marine documentary pioneer

Cousteau's forgotten wind experiment — R/V Alcyone, Turbosails, and what the Wind Voyage owes to it.

“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”

Sylvia Earle

Marine biologist · First female chief scientist, NOAA · National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence

Her Deepness on the next 20 years of private ocean exploration.

“No ocean, no life. No blue, no green. No ocean, no us.”

Doug Tompkins

Co-founder, The North Face & Esprit · Tompkins Conservation

From The North Face to 2.2M acres of Patagonia parkland — the largest private conservation transfer in history.

“Beauty is the salve that allows us to keep working for what we love.”

Yvon Chouinard

Founder, Patagonia · Gave the company to fund climate & ocean conservation, 2022

Patagonia's billion-dollar gift to the planet — and the licence it gives the next generation of expedition-yacht owners.

“Without a healthy environment there are no shareholders, no employees, no customers, and no business.”

Olivier de Kersauson

French sailor · Multiple round-the-world records · Author

The French sailing tradition that produced VPLP — and the wind-powered Wind Voyage 110.

“The sea is my memory. Memories fade, but it remains, unchanging.”

Jimmy Buffett

Singer-songwriter · Lifelong Caribbean sailor · Margaritaville founder

Margaritaville to Wind Voyage — the cultural lineage of Caribbean cruising.

“The ocean has always been a salve to my soul.”