Co-founder, Schmidt Ocean Institute · Founder, 11th Hour Racing
b. 1955 · SOI 2009 · 11th Hour Racing 2010
“The ocean gives us oxygen, food, climate stability — and we treat it like an afterthought. We can't.”
World Ocean Summit · 11th Hour Racing statements.
Mālama
Wendy Schmidt is the operating partner of the Schmidt ocean portfolio and, in many ways, the more sailing-fluent half of the household. In 2010 she founded 11th Hour Racing — a programme dedicated to using competitive sailing as a platform for ocean health. The flagship team, 11th Hour Racing Team, won The Ocean Race 2022–23 — the around-the-world stage race — sailing an IMOCA 60 that was built and operated with the lowest carbon footprint of any boat in the fleet. The team carried scientific sensors throughout the race, contributing data on plastics, plankton and ocean temperature from places no research vessel reaches.
Through 11th Hour Racing and the Schmidt Family Foundation, Wendy has funded clean-up programmes, post-cyclone Caribbean rebuilds (notably Tortola), sailmaker certification standards, and the Toxic-Free Boating initiative. She co-leads Schmidt Ocean Institute and serves on the boards of the Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups.
11th Hour Racing Team's IMOCA 60 Mālama (Hawaiian for "to care for") — winner of The Ocean Race 2022–23 — represents the cleanest competitive ocean sailing programme to date. The Schmidts also own and operate R/V Falkor (too).
Wendy Schmidt's whole thesis — that sailing technology and ocean philanthropy belong in the same conversation — is the Wind Voyage thesis stated in different words. Where 11th Hour Racing carries that idea around the world at 25 knots, Wind Voyage carries it at the pace of the expedition owner.
If ocean voyaging is something you’d like to pursue, we have developed a way to do it using wind and solar power out of our respect for the oceans.
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